Noam Chomsky and Hugo Chavez. No More BFF

Lefty anarchist intellectual Noam Chomsky used to be Venezuelan strongman president Hugo Chavez' most uncritically adoring fan. He cited the soldier-turned-politician as a driving force for improving equality and reducing poverty in Latin America. In return, Chavez plugged Chomsky's books at the United Nations.

But as the buffoonish politician's health declines, he finds his clever old friend is finally starting to notice and speak out about what most obververs of Latin American politics picked up on years ago.

An excerpt from the Guardian: Noam Chomsky on Venezuela – the transcript

RC: With Hugo Chávez in Cuba the last several weeks a lot of people are saying this shows there is too much reliance on one man because everything appears to have almost stopped in his absence, at least in the political sphere. What's your take? Is there too much reliance on one man and his charisma?

 

NC: Anywhere in Latin America there is a potential threat of the pathology of caudillismo and it has to be guarded against. Whether it's over too far in that direction in Venezuela I'm not sure but I think perhaps it is.

RC: What makes you say that? Is it a recent thing or a trend over the past few years?

 

NC: It's a trend which has developed towards the centralisation of power in the executive which I don't think is a healthy development.

...

RC: Finally professor, the concerns about the concentration of executive power in Venezuela: to what extent might that be undermining democracy in Venezuela?

 

NC: Concentration of executive power, unless it's very temporary and for specific circumstances, let's say fighting world war two, it's an assault on democracy.

RC: And so in the case of Venezuela is that what's happening or at risk of happening?

 

NC: As I said you can debate whether circumstances require it – both internal circumstances and the external threat of attack and so on, so that's a legitimate debate – but my own judgment in that debate is that it does not.

Jonathon Narvey is the Editor of The Propagandist