Venezuela and the Chavez Legacy

Got a feeling that if they seriously try to endorse and keep that prayer as serious business, then they just doomed themselves in the long run. Reason being is that the Catholic Church in Italy will eventually point out how Chavez is and never will be a Saint and twisting the meaning of the song around like that defeats it's purpose. And given that South America is predominantly Catholic or Christian... yeah, they're gonna end up looking like a bunch of weirdos.

Then again, the Church has let slip comedy and satire against itself in recent years so who knows? Maybe they'll just consider it as the Chavistas being a bunch of hooligans, scold them, and move on.

This appears to just be a one-off poem / prayer of praise to Chavez. I think the government and his supporters are just going to continue holding him as divine unofficially, rather than try for any official enshrinement that would anger a fairly powerful Catholic Church.

edited 8th Sep '14 5:57:40 AM by betaalpha

The last two sentences of the previously posted translation were a bit off. The prayer is titled "Prayer of the Delegate" and goes like

"Chávez nuestro que estás en el cielo, en la tierra, en el mar y en nosotros, los y las delegadas, santificado sea tu nombre, venga a nosotros tu legado para llevarlo a los pueblos de aquí y de allá. Danos hoy tu luz para que nos guíe cada día, no nos dejes caer en la tentación del capitalismo, mas líbranos de la maldad de la oligarquía, del delito del contrabando porque de nosotros y nosotras es la patria, la paz y la vida. Por los siglos de los siglos, amén. Viva Chávez"

"Our Chavez, who art in heaven, earth, the seas and within us, the delegates. Hallowed be thy name, thy legacy come to take it to people here and beyond. Gives us today your light to guide us every day, and deliver us from the evils of capitalism and the crime of contraband for ours is country, peace, and life. Forever and ever, amen. Long live Chavez."

edited 8th Sep '14 8:28:40 AM by Aszur

I despair for the South American left. Cuba's a shithole, Bolivarianism has descended into a sick joke, Ecuador and Bolivia have their own problems, Argentina's run by a nutcase, and Brazil's part of the whole "left but not really left" thing the rest of the "developed" world has got going.

'Course, these aren't specifically SA's problems, but still.

edited 8th Sep '14 8:52:12 AM by Achaemenid

It is very easy to point out an "enemy" and blame them for everything. Venezuela is not quite the only country to do this. Historically, however, there are a lot of reasons why their pride, and whatever, leads to a pseudo unification of the masses under banners that are easy to lead them around with.

In the case of South America, there is a peculiar thing...some countries want to be European. Chile and Argentina come to mind, where anything European related is praised up to eleven there, whereas the Bolivarian, and Venezuelan nationalism is more local. Centric. I am not saying neither is good, or better. I am just sayin' the style of "nationalism" is different. Argentina had a great wave of Italian immigrants, and Chile received plenty of influence from Germany.

Thing is there is so much blood mixed here. Literally. So what we have are a lot of people with european blood (from spaniards) and locals (natives) and black people (slaves brought from Africa by Spain), and no one can claim either the European blood (for they are not european), local blood (for they neither identify with them, nor much was left of those cultures), nor black blood (for they are a minority and often targets of racism as in other countries), so anything that provides an identity, even an antagonism to capitalism, is socially accepted...

There is a general lack of identity of Latin american countries. Breeding grounds for things like Chavez and Castro and Maduro and Daniel Ortega etc

I do not think this "prayer" will have much of a negative effect on the Venezuelan people. Whatever few I have managed to meet, which are all refugees running away from the Chavez regime, still are very spiritual...not religious. Spiritual. All that thing about tarot cards, asking witches, and stuff. Some sort of religious susceptibility, or belief. Not even the Catholic Church, not even Bergoglio's words could turn the people's opinions against that

edited 8th Sep '14 10:24:40 AM by Aszur

Cheers Aszur :)

At the risk of running offtopic a little, are there better examples, in folks opinions, of Leftist politics that they'd prefer places like Venezuela to go?

edited 8th Sep '14 9:17:14 AM by betaalpha

Pretty spot-on. Can confirm about Chile.

The Church has been against the reds since forever, they don't mind too much.

And yes, it's just an one-off thing, it's just another case of them being weirdos. The real/underlying issues are elsewhere.

They had it coming.

edited 8th Sep '14 5:51:18 PM by stormtroper

An unknow disease outbreak in the Hospital Central de Maracay, with 8 deaths at this moment (Rumors says is Meningococcal disease).

Is impressive the lenghts this goverment is going trying to hide this fact, even taking legal actions againts the director of said hospoyal and the media.

This goverment doesn't catch a break, and yet many of their followers doesn't even raisr a brow.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Madruo instructed the attorney general and public prosecutor to take actions against Harvard Professor Ricardo Hausmann who suggested the government default on its rapidly growing debt.

edited 13th Sep '14 7:33:29 AM by PotatoesRock

So, "mi cuerda de jodedores", can we all agree that when Chavez died, we went straight to hell?

I mean, at least with that guy we have some sort of control, but now, the red weirdos are controlling everything and appearantly have the Never My Fault trope Up To Eleven.

I don't think I can wait a few more years... This is getting out of control...

Diosdado said it best, the galactic corpse was the contention wall for their crazy ideas.

So Venezuela is Gotham City now, with Caracas being Arkham Asylum.

By that analogy, who would Maduro be?

Probably the comissioner who ran GCPD before Gordon came into the picture... I think his name was Loeb.

Maduro is a less attractive Harley Quinn.

Don't ask me who Cilia is.

edited 16th Sep '14 7:01:33 AM by Tomodachi

Diosdado is Rupert Thorne, Iris Varela is Zsasz, Aristobulo is Killer Moth.

Toilet paper is a bourgeois affectation anyway.

Maduro vs. Comics.

Even El Puma is against Maduro now.

"The military are the only ones who can save the country"

Geez Puma, because we aren't like this because of the military.

Historically, this has not really been the case in Latin America.

In addition, the effects of their economic policies are a large part of why folks like Chavez gain power.

Yeah, didn't work out so hot for Chile, all in all.

Not sure how they'd do without an army though

So SEBIN have a creepy fucking HQ...