Monday, June 25, 2007
Chavez: The mouth that roared
That Hugo Chavez thinks this builds his popularity in Latin America says more about the sad state of that continent than it does about American ambitions:
President Hugo Chavez urged soldiers on Sunday to prepare for a guerrilla-style war against the United States, saying that Washington is using psychological and economic warfare as part of an unconventional campaign aimed at derailing his government.
Dressed in olive green fatigues and a red beret, Chavez spoke inside Tiuna Fort _ Venezuela's military nerve-center _ before hundreds of uniformed soldiers standing alongside armored vehicles and tanks decorated with banners reading: "Fatherland, Socialism, or Death! We will triumph!"
"We must continue developing the resistance war, that's the anti-imperialist weapon. We must think and prepare for the resistance war everyday," said Chavez, who has repeatedly warned that American soldiers could invade Venezuela to seize control of the South American nation's immense oil reserves.
You guys know me -- I think there are a lot of countries that at least warrant invasion, even if in almost every case it would be unwise. But Venezuela is way down even my list. At least 10th.
The disturbing thing about this is that Chavez obviously believes this sort of thing resonates in Latin America, and he is probably right. Someday, we are going to need a strategy in that part of the world that diminishes the value of anti-Americanism to the despots. Unfortunately, that will require the United States to care about Latin America enough to act with focus and subtlety, which we have not worked up the energy to do since the fall of the Soviet Union (and even then we were not very subtle). The next administration ought to pay attention, because with guys like Chavez running around Latin America is fertile ground for meddling by Middle Eastern and Asian powers. The Monroe Doctrine is not dead, but it will be if we do not get hip to the threat.
12 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Jun 25, 07:55:00 AM:
For readers who are interested in finding out more about Venezuela, Google "venezuelatoday." Venezuelatoday. net is a portal with links to many good blogs and news sources about Venezuela.
By 
D.E. Cloutier, at
Mon Jun 25, 12:46:00 PM:
"At least 10th"
Venezuela is starting to spend a lot of money on military hardware. A move by Chavez to allow his buddies in Iran to place nuclear weapons in Venezuela is not outside the realm of possibility within the next 10 years or so. Then you would have another "Cuban Missile Crisis."
By Christopher Chambers, at
Mon Jun 25, 02:12:00 PM:
The worst thing that could happen to this blowhard is for Dubya to disappear, the American media to do a moratorium on showing his face and for every right wing blogger out there to refrain from talking about him. I think he, Paris and Lindsay have weekly conference calls with their agents.
By Theo Spark, at
Mon Jun 25, 02:47:00 PM:
Nutty Chavez is asking for a good ole fashioned butt-kicking. If he thinks that the US can't smack him and Iran simutaneously he is in for a big surprise.
A Su 30 flown by some cokehead capesino versus F 22 flown by the Best of the Best. Fair fight? Nah
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Mon Jun 25, 02:57:00 PM:
"If he thinks that the US can't smack him and Iran simutaneously he is in for a big surprise."
How about proving you can smack down several thousand clowns in Iraq first.
By Christopher Chambers, at
Mon Jun 25, 03:46:00 PM:
"Theo Spark"'s thoughts are lovely. Perhaps he should stand on a corner in any street in any town in Latin America...including a "European"-flavored big burg like Buenos Aires, and ask folks if they'd love to see American troops in venezuela, and bombs crashing into venezuelean houses. I'm sure he cold convince them it is righteously for their own good. hahahaha
The new Bruce Willis movie comes out in a few days, Theo. Sate yourself on that, please...
By ScottJ, at
Mon Jun 25, 05:10:00 PM:
See, the Laser Microwave beam-from-space has worked. Chavez' brain has been fried. He, like his friend Cindy, are mediocre intellects at best, and require extrordinary means to keep the flashlight of pubic attention focused on them. The more attention his outlandish statements bring him, the more he will make outlandish statements.
By , at
Mon Jun 25, 05:12:00 PM:
Christopher Chambers, Do you mean satiate.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Mon Jun 25, 05:48:00 PM:
Sate is a synonym of satiate, Davod. (www.m-w.com)
By , at
Tue Jun 26, 12:59:00 AM:
Venuszualia is stuck with a maniac as crazy as FIDEL CASTRO i say SCREW HIM AND HIS OIL
By , at
Tue Jun 26, 06:47:00 AM:
For some reason- it is not unreasonable to suspect Chavista machinations- the Venezuela Today portal is shut down. Here are some of the blogs it linked to.
http://daniel-venezuela.blogspot.com/
the blog of Daniel Duquenal,
is a very good English language blog, and provides links to many other blogs.
Alex(Alejandra) Beech has an excellent put-down of the rationalizations for closing RCTV. Daniel links to her.
Most of Gustavo Coronel's articles are unfortunately only on the Venezuela Today portal, but a Google search will find others.
Here are two English language blogs on Venezuela that Daniel does not link to:
http://antipatrioticvenezuelan.blogspot.com/
http://chavezcrap.blogspot.com/
By , at
Sat Sep 06, 03:45:00 PM:
Having lived in Venezuela (VE) as an American and talking to a great number of the people (poor to upper middle class) right after the coup d’état of 2002, I feel you all have the right to know that you have been misinformed.
Chevas is highly respected by the people but hated by the corporate powers that he ousted. The last time I checked the price for regular grade gasoline was $ 0.12 per gallon.
Why, because Hugo Chevas decided that the oil in VE belongs to the people of VE and not the oil companies. The people own the country and thus the people own the oil. As the rightful owners, they must share the wealth created by the sale of this limited and precious resource.
Drill, drill, drill. Oil recovered from Federally controlled lands (they don't own the land, we do) will be sold to highest bidder if we allow the current corrupt practices to continue in the United States. Do you know what the oil companies pay in royalties to the American Taxpayer for the oil they harvest off of your land? No, not surprising. You aren't supposed to know, that's why it isn't on MSNB, CCN or Fox everyday.
Even worse is that you don't want to know.
