In Costa Rica, actor Danny Glover compares Hugo Chavez to Nelson Mandela, says Chavez was his “brother”

Who saved the world from fascism during WWII, and then rebuilt Europe following it?

And we can only comment when given your permission. F off.

I see your point. I have also heard Mandela denounced as a terrorist many times (there is an argument there but, like the the American revolution, Irish Republican Army, French Resistance, etc.,, etc., one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter). Personally, I don’t think Chavez was perfect. My admiration of him is more to do with a mixture of his refreshingly unorthodox style and the way he was prepared to stand up to the US and global capitalism. Pragmatically, I also like Putin. In that case, I think the man seems to be a complete asshole dictator but he offers balance in the world. The US cannot go unchecked in its imperialistic desires because of Russia’s military might (I’m talking here, ultimately, of its huge nuclear arsenal). Likewise, Obama (for whom I once had a lot of respect and in whom I once placed a lot of hope for the world), puts a check on Putin’s excesses outside of his immediate sphere of influence. That contrast sort of shows why I like Chavez so much – he also helped other countries as a friend rather than as a bully who wanted to manipulate/exploit situations. Putin would defend Assad in doing horrid things but encourage him not to do them to save face for Russia. Obama seems intent on helping Al Qaeda in Syria for some reason (certainly not to ‘save lives’ as killing people in an inflammatory way whilst giving a military edge to assholes who want to slaughter random civilians like us is just about the most insane thing imaginable in a scenario in which you truly want to save lives in the long run). He wants to do this even after the lessons of helping them in Afghanistan and even though a NATO-commissioned opinion poll showed that the vast majority of Syrians, Sunnis included, support Assad and hate the Islamists Obama wants to help indirectly). Your huge military needs wars to give it a raison d’etre. Your arms manufacturers need wars to make a profit. The same is true, of course, of Russia. Ultimately, each stops the other messing things up too much. Chavez helped others because, in my opinion, he was a genuinely nice guy with good intentions. That stood him out among world leaders. He was not perfect by any means but, in global politics, everything is relative and he was relatively head and shoulders above everyone else in my honest opinion.