A Second Hand Conjecture

In solidarity with fellow Marxist anachronism Evo Morales in Bolivia, Hugo Chavez has ordered the US Ambassador out of Venezuela for being an agent of the “imperial aggressor, the genocidal U.S. empire.” He has also recalled the Venezuelan ambassador to Washington, in a complete break of formal diplomatic relations.

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A depressingly confused analogy from Medvedev on US aid to Georgia:

“I wonder how they would like it if we sent humanitarian assistance using our navy to countries of the Caribbean that have suffered from the recent hurricanes.”
(AFP)

We’d welcome that. It’s distressing that the Russian government hears only our resistance, without our reasons for it. And here again, there is a certain naiveté to Medvedev that always makes one think it might someday be possible to penetrate the reality distortion field of Putinism that imprisons his imagination.

(more…)

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I say it eventually ends in mass murder, but McQ has the latest intermediate step.

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McQ alerts us to this developing story in South America.

Colombia, apparently, struck at a narco-terrorist camp inside Ecuador after tracking FARC spokesman Paul Reyes and other leaders there. Reyes and 16 other terrorists were killed.

Chavez reacted by sending troops to the Venezuela/Colombia border:

Now you might ask why Chavez would involve himself in this conflict that essentially had nothing to do with him. Of course he could just be trying to take advantage of a situation to let him attack the rightist and US allied Colombian govt, or he could be trying to protect himself from what the raid would possibly find.

Evidence found in computers seized in a raid over the weekend suggests that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently gave the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia $300 million, Colombia’s national police chief said Monday.

Let’s also note Chavez’s past ties with Iran when this part shows up:

Naranjo said other evidence in the computers suggests FARC purchased 50 kilograms of uranium this month.

This could be an interesting story to watch unfold.

UPDATE: More on the story on the Ecuadorians. It seems they were in negotiations with FARC to post friendlier security forces on their border. Also, want to throw a link out there to the US Presidential Election? The files also stated

Americans have reached out to Correa’s government, saying Barack Obama is likely to be the next U.S. president. ”We responded we’re not interested in relationship with governments … and in the case of the United States, we require a public announcement expressing interest in talking with the FARC, given their eternal war against us,” the memo said.

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Joseph Kennedy II supports blood for oil.

In recent months, my TV has been bombarded with ads from Joe Kennedy promoting his Citizens Energy program, such as the following:

The heating oil distributed by Citizens Energy comes from Venezuela on a subsidized basis (which its been doing since 1979). Since Hugo Chavez took the reins of power in 1998, those donations, and the support of Kennedy’s charity, have had decidedly more political overtones. (more…)

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Michael Kraft takes a look back at candidate Hugo Chavez in 1998, being interviewed by Jorge Ramos for Univision. Jorge asks a series of what turned out to be extraordinarily prescient questions. In sequence Chavez denies he will shut down media companies, nationalize private industries, or criticize foreign leaders. He even pledges to facilitate and encourage foreign direct investment. As we now know, each of these statements is a lie.

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photo: Citizen Feathers

Feathers has an amusing photograph of Freddy Bernal, the MVR mayor of the Libertador Municipality in Caracas, doing his best George W. Bush impersonation in full cowboy getup. Bernal is one of Hugo Chavez’s most loyal henchmen in the city. He gained some infamy in his own right in 2002, when he was secretly taped ordering members of the Bolivarian Circles to attack civilians who were peacefully demonstrating against the Chavez regime. Several people were killed as a result.

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John Lilyea has the goods:

So I decided to add my voice to the millions worldwide from here in DC.

I was really surprised that an ad hoc organization put together such a large demonstration in such a short period of time.

More at Gateway Pundit.

UPDATE: Commenter logtar supplies a link to pictures of anti-FARC rallies from around the world. Protest babes abound (albeit some not exactly, um, real.)

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If Hugo inspires such love from the masses of South America, how do you explain this?

Colombia’s Uribe Approval Rating at Record 80%, Tiempo Reports

By Helen Murphy

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) — Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s approval rating rose to a record 80 percent in January from 74 percent in November, El Tiempo newspaper reported, citing a Gallup Colombia poll.

Uribe’s approval rating may have increased as Colombians rallied behind him amid verbal attacks from Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and over his management of the release of two hostages by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, El Tiempo reported Gallup director Jorge Londoño as saying.

Gallup Colombia interviewed 1,000 citizens in Colombia’s four main cities between Jan. 17 and Jan. 19. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points in Bogota, the daily newspaper said.

Feathers is certainly cheered. Meanwhile, Chavez’s ratings are heading toward George Bush’s.

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Following through on what was reported yesterday, Hugo Chavez continues to step up the pressure on food producers:

Venezuela’s top food company has accused troops of illegally seizing more than 500 tonnes of food from its trucks as part of President Hugo Chavez’s campaign to stem shortages.

The leftist Chavez this week created a state food distributor and loosened some price controls, seeking to end months of shortages for staples like milk and eggs that have caused long lines and upset his supporters in the OPEC nation.

McQ chimes in.

More News from Venezuela pasted from Fausta’s Carnival Of Latin America and the Carribean (I suggest reading each week) follows:

The Dangerously High Price of Crossing Hugo Chavez

Judge Monica Fernandez, a Venezuelan human rights advocate, was shot on January 4 in what police ruled a botched car robbery. The night before the attack, she was branded an enemy of the state, a coup-plotter, and a fascist on a state television show which condemns those who dare to oppose the government’s actions. Coincidence? Thor Halvorssen doesn’t think so.

Via Siggy,
Venezuela’s Jews Find Their Voice as Chavez Ramps Up Harassment

Chavez to farmers: Sell within Venezuela or it’s ‘treason’; Chavez threatens to send in the army to seize farms at gunpoint unless farmers sell all their milk to the government. Udder stupidity. As Ed says,

Chavez has chosen the Mugabe way of state confiscation of farms, and will eventually get the Mugabe result — taking his nation into poverty and starvation on land that should produce enough for export.

Via Irish Spy
Exit Venezuela?

Chavez and the FARC-The Unveiling

Is Chavez seeking war with Colombia?

U.S. media treats Chavez better than he accords his opponents and Lucianne discussion thread

Chavez and the FARC

A Hollywood Yarn Unravels

Venezuelan government continues attack on independent media; Alberto Federico Ravell is “Caracas Nine” dissident #3

An article from last month I didn’t link to Election deception

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Venezuelans not fond of Hugo Chavez’s new found affinity for narcoterrorism, are planning street marches in Caracas and Maracaibo to explicitly reject FARC and their murderous barbarism. This is an enormously heartening sign of genuinely worthwhile international solidarity, unlike the vile and dictatorial version Hugo likes to promote. Details in English from Kate at A Colombo-Americana’s Perspective.

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The Navy is contemplating reviving the 4th Fleet, which was dissolved 60 years ago. The public rationale is rather vague, referring to the need to demonstrate interest in Latin America. Michael Goldfarb argues that Venezuelan plans to acquire Russian submarines are the real motive.

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For only six bucks the Revolutionary Lemonade Stand sells necklaces with glass bottle pendants containing soil samples from only the holiest totalitarian shrines. Select your choice of Palestine, Venezuela, Cuba, or East Los Angeles (in occupied Aztlán).

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JammieWearingFool hilariously points out that Hugo Chavez’s recent appeal to the world to refer to the FARC as “insurgents,” rather than terrorists, is off to a smashing start. It only took Reuters four paragraphs into the story before they began to comply.

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Hugo Chavez breaks his vow to not seek president-for-life powers again. According to Chavez the new referendum will ask: “two questions: ‘Do you agree that Hugo Chavez should continue as president?’ and concurrently ‘Do you agree to a small constitutional amendment to allow indefinite reelection?’”

On the more bizarre Chavismo front, El Universal is apparently claiming that Naomi Campbell is having an affair with the Caracas creep. Campbell recently interviewed Chavez for British GQ. GayandRight asks the obvious question of why GQ does puff piece features on dictators to begin with.

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McQ points us to a new, if all too familiar, turn the ugly situation in Venezuela is taking:

Venezuelan Jews, long uneasy with the Chávez government’s alliances with Iran and other Middle Eastern countries that espouse anti-Israel views, are concerned that the government is sponsoring anti-Semitism in this hemisphere, a prominent journalist said Tuesday.

”The situation we have now in Venezuela is that for the first time in modern history we have government-sponsored anti-Semitism in a Western country,” said Sammy Eppel. “That is why this is very dangerous, not just for the Jewish community in Venezuela but for the Jewish community as a whole.”

Among the examples offered by Eppel:

Venezuelan government intelligence services twice have raided the country’s most important Jewish center in a vague, ultimately unsuccessful search for weapons. Publications of the government’s cultural ministry run articles entitled ”the Jewish Question,” along with a Jewish star superimposed over a swastika.

McQ has more:

Think carefully about how totalitarians work. They have to have both an internal and external enemy in order to justify measures taken to expand powers. Jews have provided that internal enemy to so many dictators that this is like a bad rerun. But then, no one would claim that a dictator who is convinced he can make socialism work when no one else could, is worried about being particularly original.

Left or right, whether you call it fascism or socialism (and how does one really tell the difference?) the pattern has been the same, and as we have argued, so will eventually the results.

Other reactions: Fausta has much, much more.

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