Venezuela president Hugo Chavez has his share of headaches: In addition to battling life-threatening cancer, he has to face pesky complaints that his administration is little more than a dictatorship.
So Chavez’s camp is lashing out at the opposition like fifth-graders: They’re calling them gay.
A Queerty reader gave us a heads up on a tweet yesterday from Jacqueline Faria, a senior official in Chavez’s PSUV party, in which she claimed opposition candidate Henrique Capriles was in Manhattan because “it’s easier to come out of the closet in New York than in Los Teques,” the capital city of Miranda, where Capriles was governor.
Chavez’s vice president, Nicolas Maduro—who is running the country while Chavez is ill—called Capriles (left) a “decadent prince of the parasitical bourgeoisie” at a rally on Saturday. Maduro joked, “I don’t want to get involved in his personal life, but he’s in Manhattan with a [male] friend of confidence.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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Capriles, a 40-year-old center-right candidate aligned with the Justice First party, lost to Chavez in the most recent national “elections,” held in October.
Last April Maduro appeared at a rally in Caracas, where he called opponents of Chavez “fascist faggots.” The ministers and supporters present broke into riotous applause.
Even Venezuela’s official state television have gotten into the act: In 2012, state media commentator Mario Silva—who often targets Chavez’s foes on his talk show, The Razorblade, alleged police found Capriles (left) in a car having sex with another man.
Critics have claimed the MIA Chavez has actually been brain dead since New Year’s. Well, if he’s not, his henchmen certainly are.
UPDATE: The New York Times reports that Hugo Chavez passed away on March 5, the day after the posting of this article.
2eo
I wish his life threatening cancer was a bit more life threatening. As in completely.
MuscleModelBlog.com
I don’t really know what to say.
As far as I understand, Hugo Chavez has a history of being disrespectful to people he does not like. Hopefully someone will do like the kind of Spain did and tell him to shut up.
2eo
@MuscleModelBlog.com: Nah, guy runs a dictatorship. Critics have a knack of turning up with a serious case of gunshot to the skull.
Ronbo
Bad story … unless guilt by association is what you are pushing. Chavez did not say that. Did he? No. Are all men are pigs because one, once said something bad about women?
Finding Chavez guilty because of what someone else said is repugnant. Try to think for yourself, instead of following these nitwits.
2eo
@Ronbo: So nice free press you ha.. so err nice free internet you h.. err.. nice free spee.. err.. you have good human rig…
So how about that local sports team. They sure beat or lost to their rivals recently or before that.
Merv
I don’t understand the love for this guy by some on the left. He’s always seemed like a thug to me. He’s occasionally paid lip service to gay issues (not marriage), but has done little concrete since 1999.
2eo
@Merv: Same, his policies are literally no different to extreme right wing governments, and he personally shares every single megalomaniacal traits that Caecescu had before he was deservedly slaughtered for being a brutal tyrant for decades like Chavez.
For some ridiculously stupid reason it seems to be cool to like him, though a lot of those people are the same people who think Hamas are about the people so I don’t think reason and balance and opinions based on conclusions drawn from actual fact are in their grasp.
Sweet Boy
Well, Capriles graduated from J F Kennedy School of Government (Harvard), and he used to be a regular at Paradise, a gay bar in Cambridge, MA, near MIT…so regular that when he got elected mayor of a section of Caracas, some years ago, the owner of the bar framed a story from a newspaper in Spanish and was very proud to display it at the bar and tell everybody that the mayor of Caracas used to be his preferred customer.
viveutvivas
Well, to be fair, this was not Chavez who said it.
And while “f*scist fagg*t” is indeed a slur, the other remarks suggesting someone is gay are not slurs, unless being gay is a bad thing.
Chavez has been in favor of including protection of gay rights in the Venezuelan constitution (which no U.S. president has been), and we have to remember his opponents are from the Right, the type of people who see nothing wrong in trying to take power by military coups, and are likely to be as friendly to gays as the U.S. Republicans.
As for gay rights in Venezuela, from Wikipedia: “Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was outlawed in the 1999 Labour Organic Law (Ley Orgánica de Trabajo). In the process leading up to the adoption of the new 1999 Venezuelan Constitution, anti-discrimination provisions were proposed, however due to forceful opposition from the Catholic Church, they were dropped from the final draft. In 2001, there were renewed attempts to include them in the Constitution. In 2002, Current President Hugo Chávez voiced his regret for their exclusion, signaling that they may be included in future rounds of constitutional reform.”
balehead
What doe Sean Penn have to say about this???
viveutvivas
@2eo, you got your wish. I hope you are proud of yourself.
Ronbo
@viveutvivas: 2eo is the nitwit we suspected. He/she is no more than a misinformed hater… not that different from the Republicans (if at all).
HR
How apropos, this post. Now, you see, we could claim that your dubious deduction skills killed El Comandante but that would be an error on our part.
Also, to be completely fair, his government doesn’t hold up to scrutiny when considering LGBT issues but that’s something so different from what you wrote above. You’re welcome.
2eo
@viveutvivas: Well, I know I didn’t play a part in his death but I am glad for the people of Venezuela, the nutter was exactly as bad as Caecescu. With mass murder and secret police bullying the press and critics of the state.
2eo
@viveutvivas: Judging by the reaction from the Venezualans who use my TOR supernode the people are unbelievably happy and it’s the best thing that has happened to them in decades.
viveutvivas
@2eo, you should look up the definition of dictator because you obviously don’t know what it means. He was elected repeatedly with large majorities. The Right-wing and the rich are happy, the Left and the poor are not. I can guess which one you belong to. But I would not celebrate yet if I were you. Guess who are the majority? I suppose the poor of Venezuela will continue to elect people who actually give a sh*t about them.
2eo
@viveutvivas: You’ll have to message all the left wing people who use my TOR network from inside Venezuela, including a personal friend of mine whose actually left of Chavez, but doesn’t believe in stasi police and beatings and murders in the night.
Nice try though, it doesn’t work with me because I’m left wing, and smarter than you, and put it into practice, and believe in knowledge.
2eo
It’s sad you aren’t clever enough to know you are incorrect and just resort to throwing the right wing card at me of all people on this site, if it wasn’t for Cam i’d be the only actual left leaning person here.