Aljazeera.net published an article on March 3 noting that Muammar Gaddafi, the current leader of the Libyan government, accepted an offer from Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan President, to mediate the current political turmoil occurring in Libya.
It’s almost sentimental, I think, to see two leaders with such awful human rights records sticking together when their totalitarian counterparts begin to find themselves in an awful mess. Last year, Human Rights Watch made several statements concerning Chavez’s absolute disregard for the freedom of expression, passing several laws censoring information available on the internet, radio, and television. In addition, Chavez prohibited human rights groups from received foreign aid or creating forums for discussion in Venezuela. This is definitely the man we want mediating talks in Libya.
The United States as a whole has no business in supporting or listening to any of the claims or demands of either of these two men, who do not take into account any regard for the rights of their citizens.
That is not to say that the U.S. or the rest of the world actually takes Chavez’s offer of mediation seriously, although we will see if anyone actually jumps on the mediation bandwagon in coming days. No doubt the U.S. views Chavez’s proposal as utterly worthless and will not respond the Chavez’s call, considering the fact that he called for “friendly nations,” which means you can count the U.S. out of Chavez’s invited nations.
Both Gaddafi and Chavez openly denounce the United States frequently for what they see as American oppression. Funny, considering that it is they who openly oppress their people despite world protest. While the United States is far from perfect in its respect to human rights, I am glad that we are not in the same boat as the downtrodden citizens of Libya and Venezuela.
Since we are better off than people elsewhere, it is easy to pull into an apathetic regard for the rights and livelihood of others. However, I would say we should never lose an open and active care for the rights of others, no matter what part of the world they reside in or what race or religion they find themselves a part of. It seems like a duty to have compassion for others, that much is clear.
The problem, however, is that the U.S. is dependent on many countries with questionable ties and respects for human rights. Based on an article published by the Council on Foreign Relations in 2009, Venezuela supplies the United States with “about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil and refined products” every day. Likewise, instability in the Middle East and Northern Africa is in no way good for the price of oil which clearly causes a strain on the United States and its citizens.
I hate looking at gas prices when I’m filling up, realizing that I’m paying much more than I used to because people are freeing themselves from oppression elsewhere. That is the price of freedom I suppose, it costs everyone a little bit in some way or another, but I’m willing to pay a little extra for the fall of governments run by men like Chavez and Gaddafi. After all, in the grand scheme of things, if the world is a more a just place, that’s something we should be happy about.
Michael Dearman is a first year majoring in the pursuit of truth and the overthrow of systems. He can be reached for comments or questions at
