[NYTr] Dealing with Chavez: Bolivia's Former Pres Offers US Some Advice
 
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:29:19 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Excerpted from VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - Sep 11, 2007

[Former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga offered advice to the U.S. in
its dealings with President Chavez yesterday while visiting Texas,
reports the Houston Chronicle. President Chavez, he said, has "the best
campaign team in the history of Latin America. It is mobile and goes
everywhere... This is focus groups and polls, and they move and they
come around. They are very pragmatic and it is about seizing power."
Aside from the usual allegations of Chavez being a dictator and
meddler, the former president urged the U.S. to "sit down, be quiet and
stay out of the way of Latin Americans fighting for democracy." -VIO]

Houston Chronicle - Sep 10, 2007
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5124209.html

Bolivian offers advice on dealing with Chavez

Ex-leader urges U.S. to be quiet until Venezuelan chief's power fades

By DANE SCHILLER

Despite Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez's reputation in some corners as a
wild man handing out fistfuls of cash to force revolution, he is
actually a methodical planner who prefers focus groups over violence to
manipulate the masses, a former president of Bolivia said Monday in
Houston.

"It is easy to call him a clown, that he is a buffoon and what have
you. He is not," said Jorge Quiroga, who left office in 2002 and
remains an opposition leader in Latin America.

Quiroga said during a speech before the World Affairs Council that he
is not a Chavez fan, but respects his brain power.

"He has a photographic memory. He is obsessive. He is compulsive,
extremely smart," Quiroga said.

Chavez has deep pockets and unlimited resources thanks greatly to
Venezuela's huge oil reserves. He's been able to take complete control
of Venezuela and meddle with other nations, Quiroga said.

"They have the best campaign team in the history of Latin America. It
is mobile and goes everywhere," Quiroga said of Chavez and his
administration. "This is not (Ernesto) 'Che' Guevara with a rifle
anymore," he said, referring to the Cuban revolutionary who was killed
in Bolivia in 1967. "This is focus groups and polls, and they move and
they come around. They are very pragmatic and it is about seizing
power."

Chavez has sought to exert greater influence in Latin American and
often casts himself as David taking on the Goliath United States. His
favorite target is President Bush, whom he has called the Devil and Mr.
Danger. Chavez never misses an opportunity to point a finger at the U.S.

"If Chavez gets a cold, now it will be the CIA's fault," Quiroga joked.

The best way to take on Chavez is for the United States to sit down, be
quiet and stay out of the way of Latin Americans fighting for
democracy, Quiroga said, predicting that Chavez's power will fade when
the price of oil drops.
 
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