Powered by Max Banner Ads
Chavez Calls The Killing Of FARC Rebels By Columbia A ‘War Crime’
It looks like Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is off his meds again, because he’s talking crazy. Columbia was finally fortunate enough to kill some of the vicious FARC terrorists that they’ve been battling for years and Hugo Chavez thinks it was a “war crime.”
Although new information that Columbia has made public in the last couple of days may help to explain the bizarre reaction of Venezuela’s tyrant. Columbian authorities are claiming that a laptop plucked from the remains of one of the dead terrorists shows that Hugo Chavez has been a FARC “sugar daddy” for quite some time now.
The documents on the laptop reveal that Chavez has been a financial backer of the group for more than a decade, and at one point gave FARC a $300 million dollar gift. The documents also reveal an ongoing plan cooked up by Chavez and the leaders of the terror group to isolate and undermine Columbia’s President and U.S. ally, Alvaro Uribe.
President Uribe is the first leader of Columbia in decades that’s not up to his eyeballs in corruption and is actually angry that Columbia has the highest kidnapping rate in the world. With the help of the U.S., Uribe is hoping to wipe out FARC once and for all.
The recovered laptop reveals detailed communications between FARC leaders and Chavez, in which multiple scenarios are laid out to hopefully get rid of President Uribe.
Hopefully, someone will have Hugo Chavez killed so that we can be rid of this petty dictator. If he’s allowed to live he will destroy Venezuela and live to a ripe old age just like his best friend Fidel Castro.
-Chris Jones
Columbia Says Chavez Is Funding FARC Rebels
From the AP:
Venezuela and Ecuador sought Monday to make Colombia pay a high price for killing a leftist rebel leader in the Ecuadorean jungle—expelling its diplomats, ordering troops to the border and cracking down on trade across the border.
But Colombia quickly struck back, revealing what it said were incriminating documents seized from the rebel camp that suggest its neighbors have been secretly supporting the leftist rebels’ deadly insurgency.
And in a tit-for-tat move, Venezuela later displayed the laptop of a slain drug trafficker, which it said contained information implicating Colombia’s national police chief in the cocaine trade….READ THE REST
Chavez Threatens To Cut Off Oil To U.S.
President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an “economic war” if Exxon Mobil Corp. wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion dollar oil project by Chavez’s government.
A British court has issued an injunction “freezing” as much as $12 billion in assets.
It’s likely that the Bush administration will call his bluff, because the Venezuela’s oil only accounts for around 12% of U.S. oil imports, but U.S. is Venezuela’s biggest customer by far. The only thing that keeps the Chavez dictatorship going are the countries oil exports.
It would be financial suicide for Chavez to cutoff his biggest customer, so this sounds like nothing more than the usual reckless, empty rhetoric we usually here from this guy.
-Chris Jones
Naomi Campbell Calls Hugo Chavez a “Rebel Angel”
British supermodel Naomi Campbell has interviewed Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, describing him as a “rebel angel” who is unafraid to speak his mind but poses no threat to democracy.
Campbell was granted an audience with the outspoken left-wing leader as part of her new brief as contributing editor for British men’s lifestyle magazine GQ, interviewing leading figures from politics, sport and entertainment.
“I’d always heard Hugo Chavez was a people’s president and I wanted to see if that was true… I didn’t want to judge Chavez, or probe him for his political views, even though he gave them freely,” she wrote.
She said the Venezuelan people also seemed happier than her last visit 10 years ago for a Sports Illustrated magazine photo shoot.
The outspoken Chavez gave his views on a politics, human rights, as well as pop music, fashion, and the British royal family.
He said Cuba’s Fidel Castro is the most stylish leader in the world.
“His uniform is impeccable. His boots are polished. His beard is elegant”
For some reason celebrities have this obsession with visiting Hugo Chavez. I suspect Chavez didn’t realize he was being interviewed by the world’s most dangerous supermodel.
If he had been made aware of her tendency to use her cell phone as a deadly weapon, he probably would have thought the interview request was another attempt by the CIA to supposedly kill him.
I especially like the part about Fidel Castro being the most fashionable leader. I would call that scraggly beard he wears many things, but “elegant” is certainly not one of them.
-Chris Jones
Former Chavez Defense Minister Writes Op-Ed in NY Times
One of Hugo Chavez’s closest aids recently quit his post as Defense Minister and has become an outspoken critic of Chavez and his policies. He has written an interesting Op-Ed in the NY Times, called “Why I Parted Ways With Chavez.”
ON Dec. 17, 1982, three of my fellow officers in the Venezuelan Army and I swore our allegiance to the Bolivarian Revolutionary Army 2000. We considered ourselves to be at the birth of a movement that would turn a critical eye on Venezuela’s troubled social and political system — and formulate proposals to improve it. One of the officers with me was Hugo Chávez, the current president of Venezuela, whom I have known since I entered the military academy 35 years ago.
Hugo Chávez and I worked together for many years. I supported him through thick and thin, serving as his defense minister. But now, having recently retired, I find myself with the moral and ethical obligation as a citizen to express my opposition to the changes to the Constitution that President Chávez and the National Assembly have presented for approval by the voters tomorrow.
The proposal, which would abolish presidential term limits and expand presidential powers, is nothing less than an attempt to establish a socialist state in Venezuela. As our Catholic bishops have already made clear, a socialist state is contrary to the beliefs of Simón Bolívar, the South American liberation hero, and it is also contrary to human nature and the Christian view of society, because it grants the state absolute control over the people it governs.
Click HERE if you want to read the rest.
Chavez Loses Vote 51-49
President Hugo Chavez said Monday he may have been too ambitious in asking voters to let him stand indefinitely for re-election and endorse a huge leap to a socialist state.
Chavez told reporters at the presidential palace that the outcome of Sunday’s balloting had taught him that “Venezuelan democracy is maturing.” His respect for the verdict, he asserted, proves he is a true democratic leader.
“I understand and accept that the proposal I made was quite profound and intense,” he said after voters narrowly rejected the sweeping constitutional reforms by 51 percent to 49 percent.
The defeated reform package would have created new types of communal property, let Chavez handpick local leaders under a redrawn political map and suspended civil liberties during extended states of emergency. Without the overhaul, Chavez will be barred from running again in 2012.
“This reform was about democracy or totalitarian socialism, and democracy won,” said opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez said.
Chavez Vote To Close To Call
From VOA News:
Hours after polls closed in Venezuela’s constitutional referendum Sunday, both the government and its opponents say the vote is too close to call.
No official results have been released on the fate of the constitutional changes sought by President Hugo Chavez.
Late Sunday, Vice President Jorge Rodriguez said election workers were still counting ballots five hours after voting was to have ended.
No Mas Chavez?
President Hugo Chavez would take on expanded powers and have a shot at being president for life under constitutional changes being considered by Venezuelans Sunday in a vote that raised tensions in South America’s top oil exporter.
Chavez maintains that in order to turn Venezuela into a socialist state he needs indefinite rule. One can only hope that Venezuelans will take a look at Cuba before they decide that’s the really the direction they want to go.
The reforms would also grant Chavez control over the Central Bank, allow his government to detain citizens without charge during a state of emergency, and empower him to redraw the country’s political map and handpick provincial and municipal leaders.
However, I have a feeling that Chavez is going to rule Venezuela for as long as he wants to regardless of the outcome of today’s vote. Whether or not the outcome of the vote will be fair or honest is debatable, but one thing seems to be clear.
No matter how many times socialism proves to be a disaster, countries in Latin America always get suckered into another socialist revolution by another charismatic dictator.
Chavez has warned opponents he will not tolerate attempts to stir up violence, and threatened to cut off oil exports to the U.S. if Washington interferes. His country is a major supplier to the United States, which in turn is the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan oil.
Considering that the only thing keeping Chavez in power is the money from oil exports, it’s laughable to think he would refuse to sell to his biggest buyer.
Pollster Luis Vicente Leon said tracking polls by his firm Datanalisis in the past week show the vote is too close to predict. Which side wins will depend largely on turnout among Chavez’s supporters and opponents.
About 100 electoral observers from 39 countries in Latin America, Europe and the United States were are on hand, plus hundreds of Venezuelan observers.
-Chris Jones
Chavez Dillusional: “CNN may be instigating my murder”
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday CNN may have been instigating his murder when the U.S. TV network showed a photograph of him with a label underneath that read “Who killed him?”
The caption appeared to be a production mistake — confusing a Chavez news item with one on the death of a football star. The anchor said “take the image down” when he realized.
But Chavez called for a probe in an interview on state television, where he repeatedly reviewed a tape of the broadcast, questioning why the unconnected photograph and wording were left on screen for several seconds.
“I want the state prosecutor to look into bringing a suit against CNN for instigating murder in Venezuela,” he said. “… undoubtedly it is part of the psychological warfare.”
Dumb and Dumber: Chavez and Ahmadinejad Together Again
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made his fourth trip to Iran in two years, in an attempt to strengthen ties between the two countries and to discuss new ways of resisting U.S. policies.
Chavez arrived in Iran from Saudi Arabia where he attended the OPEC summit. He was accompanied by a string of top Venezuelan officials for the hours-long visit — among them the foreign, industry, oil and communication ministers, as well as the mayor of Caracas, the country’s capital.
Ahmadinejad also attended the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
During the gathering, the two dictators echoed one another, blaming President Bush’s policies for the decline of the dollar and its negative effect on other countries, and challenging Saudi Arabia’s reluctance to mention weak dollar concerns in the summit’s final declaration.
Ahmadinejad claimed OPEC’s member countries want to convert their cash reserves into a currency other than the depreciating U.S. dollar, which he called a “worthless piece of paper.”
Chavez said the dollar was in free-fall and that its “empire” must end, and proposed trading oil in a basket of currencies excluding the dollar.
King of Spain Tells Hugo Chavez to “Shut Up” At Summit
The king of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to “shut up” Saturday during a heated exchange at a summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.
Chavez triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a “fascist” in a speech at the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile.
Spain’s current socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, responded during his own allotted time by urging Chavez to be more diplomatic in his words and respect other leaders despite political differences.
Mr. Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt the Spanish leader, but his microphone was turned off. It was at that point that King Juan Carlos, seated a few meters away, leaned forward and said directly to Chavez, “Why do you not shut up?”
I think the King of Spain asked the question that many people around the world have been wanting to ask Hugo Chavez for years.
8 Injured in Anti-Chavez Protests in Venezuela
Gunmen opened fire on students returning from a march Wednesday in which 80,000 people denounced President Hugo Chavez’s attempts to expand his power.
The violence broke out after anti-Chavez demonstrators—led by university students—marched peacefully to the Supreme Court to protest constitutional changes that Venezuelans will consider in a December referendum.
The amendments would abolish presidential term limits, give the president control over the Central Bank and let him create new provinces governed by handpicked officials.
The protesters demand the referendum be suspended, saying the amendments would weaken civil liberties in one of South America’s oldest democracies and give Chavez unprecedented power to declare states of emergency.
It’s very comforting to see that at least some people can see that Chavez will be the ruin of Venezuela. He fully intends to make Venezuela an even bigger disaster than Cuba. Unfortunately for the Cuban people we were unsuccessful each time we tried to permanently “retire” Castro, but maybe the people of Venezuela will be more successful in “retiring” their dictator.
Posts
