Hugo Chavez (President of Venezuela) has just completed a private visit to the UK, meeting Ken Livingston (Mayor of London) and speaking in London. The mainstream media went to town on him, as shown by the latest MediaLens alert:
"George Bush is simply "US president George Bush". Condoleeza Rice is "the American secretary of state Condoleeza Rice". Tony Blair is just "the British prime minister".
The leader of Venezuela, by contrast, is "controversial left-wing president Hugo Chavez" for the main BBC TV news. (12:00, May 14, 2006). He is as an "extreme left-winger," while Bolivian president Evo Morales is "a radical socialist", according to Jonathan Charles on BBC Radio 4. (6 O'Clock News, May 12, 2006)
Imagine the BBC introducing the US leader as "controversial right-wing president George Bush", or as an "extreme right-winger". Is Bush - the man who illegally invaded Iraq on utterly fraudulent pretexts - +less+ controversial than Chavez?"
To that we could add 'imagine the BBC introducing the UK leader as "controversial right-wing prime minister Tony Blair".
Transiting Saturn has just stationed on Hugo's Sun, simultaneously squaring his Saturn. George Bush visited London when Saturn conjoined his Sun too. It's a transit that reflects a frosty reception, isolation, and challenges to one's authority, coupled with an increase in ambition. The difference between the two presidents is that Hugo was popular with the public but not the establishment, whereas for George it was the opposite.
Beginning in 2005 transiting Pluto has been conjunct Chavez's Mars, and it's this transit that reflects the major increase in verbal conflict that he's been involved in. There is a sense of foreboding and threat in the air with this transit. It is a similar transit - Pluto opposite Mars - that the USA has had during its attack of Iraq. This doesn't mean that Hugo is about to launch a war; it does, however, reflect the danger he is in from the USA.
Pluto will be conjunct Hugo's Mars until 2008; it is a once-in-a-lifetime transit, which some people don't experience during their lives. It is an understatement to say that this is a tremendously testing time for Chavez.
For more on Hugo Chavez's birth chart, see the Astrology for the 21st Century website at: www.astrology21.co.uk
For more on the media's bias against Hugo Chavez, see the website of MediaLens: www.medialens.org
