Sir, – Surely only his most loyal supporters would have said Hugo Chávez’s legacy was anything better than mixed? I therefore find it extraordinary that our President should find it possible to commend his late departed counterpart in Venezuela on his achievements (Breaking News, March 6th).
The good things done in the areas of social development and poverty reduction have been achieved at the cost of consistent curtailment of democratic freedoms and the structural damage to the economy, a legacy that will eventually come home to roost at the doors of that country’s poorest. He has left Venezuela dependent on the proceeds of carbon resources, which he relied upon to buy popularity, and a press made biddable by constant encroachment and threats by the government.
Surely the condolences issued by Ireland’s office of President demanded a more sober note? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – It was with much sadness that I learnt of the death of the President of Venezuela, a man who put himself forward to the people 14 times in election processes that former president of the United States Jimmy Carter called “the best in the world”. He lifted the poor of Venezuela out of poverty and brought forward huge social programmes to help its people using the vast resources of oil for the benefits of its people – an unknown concept in that part of the world.
My abiding memory of Chávez was in his denouncing of another president of the US – George W Bush – at the United Nations in September 2006 as the “Devil”. Chávez’s anti-imperialism was to many of us on the left a guiding light. He will be missed. So long Il Presidente. – Yours, etc,