There was the gift to President Obama from Venezuelan president-for-life Hugo Chavez (democracy, anybody?) of a book about the international (read U.S.) rape of Latin America penned by noted Uruguayan leftist intellectual Eduardo Galeano, which elicited this response from Mr. Obama: “It was a nice gesture to give me a book. I am a reader.” No state-run-Venezuelan-film-industry DVDs needed here. This is the same Eduardo Galeano, by the way, who appeared on “Democracy Now” a few years ago and told Amy Goodman:
Strange indeed. After all, we know that dictators never win elections. Of course there was also the handshake that rocked the world, a bleak moment no doubt for the Venezuelan opposition-in-hiding. And then there was the Ortega diatribe, followed by some Obama applause:
All in all, not a bad day for the forces of anti-democracy.
