milestone

Cancer ran Hugo Chavez down. He was only 58, an egomaniac, a socialist dictator, and the most influential Latin Ameridan leader of his generation. The direction he led the region and continent in was basically away from the US and toward genuine independence, the first of its kind since the Spanish and Portuguese conquests. This is the only policy that makes sense internationally in dealing with declining American power.

Chavez is criticized for his socialism, but the fact is if you've got oil you can be anything you want and get away with it, even if it's that sour, dirty, but refinable Venezuelan crude. He was successful in his ambitions, which is one reason our high priests of foreign policy inside the beltway of Washington DC cultivated a fanatical, irrational, and intense fear and hatred of this guy, who took good care of his own and, like Simón Bolivár, was a patriot for his people and his region.