Harry Belafonte and Cindy Sheehan, two of America’s far-left wing cult hero’s praise him.  He is a dictator who is smothering out the voice of the opposition and oppressing millions.  He is Hugo Chavez.  Venezuela is ruled with an iron fist by the unapologetic suppressor of human rights and the American left loves him.

This kind of irony is so characteristic of the left in America.  In left-wing blogs and on left-wing radio and TV talk shows, you will hear those accusing George Bush of suppressing voices of opposition.  But these same leftists hold Hugo Chavez up as a role model and hero.  Hugo Chavez is the very model of an iron-fisted dictator who does not allow dissention in his country or freedom of speech.

When George Bush has been asked by the press what he thinks of those critical of him, he answers that opposing viewpoints and freedom of speech are what make America great.  Hugo Chavez does not seem to feel the same way, but gets a pass from America’s left.  The left claims to be the champion of the oppressed, but when it comes to those silenced in Venezuela,  American liberals are silent.

Recently, the operating license of the only media outlet not controled by strongman Chavez came up for renewal.  Chavez immediately rejected RCTV’s license and replaced it with another one of his leftist controlled puppet stations. 

When protestors in Caracas Venezuela marched and chanted ‘Freedom’, Chavez had the police fire tear gas and bullets into the crowd.  Nothing like this happens in the U.S., of course, because protestors with a permit may protest anything they want.  95% of protests in the U.S. are conducted by liberals and George Bush has never ordered police to intervene.  Interesting then, that the left holds Chavez in such high regard while showing visceral hatred for President Bush.  Hypocrisy as far as the eye can see.

Was there outrage in Europe, where the left frequently accuses the United States administration of a plethora of things?  Germany, the country that heads the European Union whimpered that Mr. Chavez should have held a competition for the station that would take over the operating license.  They said nothing of the strong-arm tactics and suppression of freedoms.  Likewise, a group in Paris that monitors such events internationally opinioned that this is the first time Hugo Chavez has done anything wrong.

Anyone who has been a regular reader of Live, Breathe and Die.com may remember the article I did last September, in which I detailed the horrific record of corruption in the Chavez government.   Starting in 1998 with illegal campaign funding, in 2000 when he changed the timing of the elections to win and in 2002. when he took control of all radio and television stations.  Chavez made clear, in a speech last September before the U.N., his allegiance to radical Islam.  

The far left in America is currently working to pass legislation that would silence conservative talk radio.  Like Hugo Chavez, the American left has no tolerance for free speech when the speech doesn’t suit them.  While Chavez puts a symbolic boot against the side of the face of democracy-loving Venezuelans and holds them to the ground like a storm-trooper, American liberals cheer him on.  After all, Chavez called President Bush the devil, so liberals give Chavez the green light to remove all human rights in Venezuela.