person:hugo chávez

Noam #Chomsky denounces old friend Hugo #Chávez for ’assault’ on democracy | World news | The Observer
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/03/noam-chomsky-hugo-chavez-democracy

Speaking to the Observer last week, Chomsky has accused the socialist leader of amassing too much power and of making an “assault” on Venezuela’s democracy.

“Concentration of executive power, unless it’s very temporary and for specific circumstances, such as fighting world war two, is an assault on democracy. You can debate whether [Venezuela’s] circumstances require it: internal circumstances and the external threat of attack, that’s a legitimate debate. But my own judgment in that debate is that it does not.”

#venezuela

Original // Hugo #Chavez: Capitalism Killed Life on Mars | Death and Taxes
►http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/66414/hugo-chavez-capitalism-killed-life-on-mars

“I have always said that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet,” he said in a speech yesterday, the implication being that capitalist societies, with their impetus for growing material wealth, consume resources at unsustainable rates. And we’re not talking about Earthling capitalism, here—we’re talking about capitalist Martians, who eventually eventually destroyed Mars like a planetary fall of Rome.