Hugo Chavez called it like he saw it

After class at the church annex last night, I mentioned to my husband that I always feel tense after spiritual discussions. "When you talk, there is tension in the room...you pause, and things become tense because we're not sure what you're going to say, but you say things that others are thinking but are afraid to voice themselves," he informed me.

Perhaps the late Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was just that kind of leader. Chavez caused tension with words even though he was stating the truth as he saw it. Terms linked to Chavez include tactless, offensive, insensitive, truthful, and honest to a fault. He was wired like that!

Chavez, 58, died yesterday and has gone to be judged by his Maker.

In a land where "free speech" is considered a right, Chavez was vilified by some Americans because of remarks he made in a 2006 speech before the United Nations which insinuated that President George W. Bush was a satanic, racist imperialist.

“Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world," Chavez said in his speech. "Truly. As the owner of the world...Wherever he looks, he sees extremists...He looks at your color, and he says, 'Oh, there’s an extremist.'" After his remarks about Bush smelling like sulfur, Chavez made the sign of the cross to ward off evil.

A man's words can sometimes create damnation. It has been proven, though, if you don't say what you think, disease can result. Maybe Chavez's cancer developed after he was attacked by politicians and the media. Because of his attacks on Bush individually and the U.S. collectively, he became a target himself. Because Chavez governed a country with the largest oil reserves in the world, some believe that he was killed by economic hit men.

Perhaps God only knows the facts behind the life and words of Hugo Chavez.

Photo credit: José Cruz/ABr. produced by Agência Brasil, a public Brazilian news agency. "Todo o conteúdo deste site está publicado sob a Licença Creative Commons Atribuição 3.0 Brasil " (The content of this website is published under the Creative Commons License Attribution 3.0 Brazil)