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On 3/17/11 8:25 PM, Joaquín Bustelo wrote:
It is absolutely ridiculous, total bullshit to say Fidel and Chavez have been backing Gaddafi in the internal political dispute within Libya. Both Chavez and Fidel have been totally explicit in REFUSING to take sides on the *internal* political affairs of Libya.
Well, it is understandable why Hugo Chavez would refuse to denounce a despot who rules through torture. His alliances are very much driven by the calculation that nationalist dictators, especially those in oil-producing countries, have the same enemy that he does.
But as should be obvious we are not faced with the need to conduct foreign policy. As socialists, we spoke out against the killing of Mexican students in 1968 even though Castro did not say a word.
So, unlike Mrs. Clinton and the pig press, Fidel and Chávez haven't been hyperventilating about Gaddafi's troops dragging wounded oppositionists out of hospitals or throwing babies out of incubators or hiding weapons of mass destruction in their underwear or --horror of horrors!!!-- refusing to give the imperialists Libya's gas and oil.
I see that you haven't been reading a newspaper lately. Until the Benghazi rebellion began, Libya was about as friendly to Western oil companies as Saudi Arabia.
The statements by Chavez that have been trotted about Gaddafi being Libya's Bolivar and so on are in essence a fabrication: they are old statements made in the context of bilateral diplomacy between the two countries and official visits by heads of state, not current statements about how Gaddafi should be regarded politically in the framework of this crisis.
This occurred in 2004 at the very time that Libya began participating in extraordinary renditions. Let me repeat this:
THIS OCCURRED IN 2004 AT THE VERY TIME THAT LIBYA BEGAN PARTICIPATING IN EXTRAORDINARY RENDITIONS.
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