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edward
 Posted:
Sun Feb 25, 2007 5:10 pm |
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Also this summery from june 2006..
Friday, June 16, 2006
Venezuela: Goodbye, free press; hello Hugo t-shirts
I opened the newspaper this morning and found Move over, Che: Chávez Is New Icon of Radical Chic. The article (by subscription) starts by saying "Venezuelan Populist Inspires Groups of U. S. Supporters; To Do: 'Boogie for Bolívar'"
To a slice of the American left, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has become a revolutionary hero, nearly on a par with Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
To me, he is that, too, but for different reasons: while the Left sees Hugo and Fidel as charismatic-leader-helping-the-poor-offering-free-health-care-education-adult-literacy-and-job-training-initiatives-that-help-millions-of-Venezuelans/CubansTM, I see Hugo as a wanna-be of murderous criminals.
Last year I predicted that Hugo would become the next t-shirt icon. What the WSJ didn't mention today that I mentioned last year is that The Miami Herald had found that
the Fort-Lauderdale based Venezuelan Information Office keeps track of what's mentioned against the Chavez administration in the American media and in Congress. According the the Department of Justice, the VIO keeps track of reporters writing on Venezuela for The Washington Post, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and The Miami Herald. In addition, the VIO has contacted some thirty senators and canvassed at least four Democrat representatives, among them Raúl Grijalva (Arizona), Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), Barbara Lee (California) y Jan Schakowsky (Illinois), for support against the referendum against Chavez, plus it counts on the support of Jack Kemp and former Attorney General Ramsey Clarke.
According to the article, the VIO has reached out to other areas, including Utah, Chicago (where the Armada Libertad - Armed Freedom - group's slogan is "Defendiendo a Venezuela desde las entrańas del monstruo", "Defending Venezuela from within the entrails of the monster"), and Canada.
While the American Left worships its new icon, Chavez Threatens to Shut Down Venezuelan TV Stations for criticizing the government. Hear him say it in his own words (in Spanish, via VCrisis).
Publius Pundit points out,
Amid all the Chavista propaganda reported here in the States, suggesting that Venezuela is not a dictatorship because of an existing free press, the fact today is that the media has been threatened with total destruction.
It's not just TV stations: it's also the NGOs
The latest pet project by the autocratic and dictatorial Government is a law to control NGO’s. Whether they are political, defenders of human rights, against AIDS or the environment, this new law would impose absolute government control over NGO’s, which would make them subject to Government inspection and supervision.
Sigmund, Carl and Alfred posts that
Even as they left celebrates Hugo Chavez, they do not extend any effort into helping impoverished Venezuelans. They, like the victims in Darfur, are only an impediment to achieving their agenda, a 'people's paradise.' That kind of irony is not lost on any of the psychosphere bloggers.
For good reason: the WSJ article quotes Jake Irwin, a Chavez supporter, saying, "My political belief is that the U.S. is a horrendous empire that needs to end". A shrink can have a field day analyzing the kind of self-loathing one finds among what Carlos Alberto Montaner's named the Chávez-'banana left' alliance.
Send Jake and London mayor Ken Livingstone a Hugo t-shirt.
While Jake and Ken and their friends indulge in their form of idolatry, others in South America aren't exactly doing the same. Hispalibertas reports today that Bachelet invita a García a Chile para fortalecer la democracia en la región [Chilean President Michelle] Bachelet invites [Peruvian President-elect Alan] García to Chile to strenghten the region's democracy. García's victory was a defeat to Chávez; Bachelet clearly has no interest in becoming a part of Chavez' unified socialist Latin American state.
The plain fact is that Hugo wouldn't amount to much without the oil money. Today Forbes has a report on how Venezuela's Oil Policy Has Risk Premium
A number of factors contribute to the high degree of uncertainty about the Venezuelan oil industry:
1. Oil production.
2. Reserves.
3. OPEC.
4. Contract and fiscal terms.
Despite the attractiveness of Venezuela's resource base, its oil industry faces a range of uncertainties. These include the obvious reluctance of international oil companies to invest further until the rules of the game are clearer and being followed, as well as the fact that available data may be insufficient to manage risk effectively. Uncertainty creates a risk premium, and Venezuela may eventually have to pay this cost.
For the time being, Hugo continues his shopping spree, and the rifles just arrived. Hugo's $3bn deal to buy more Russian weapons and 24 Su-30 jets is seen as 'waste of money' from either the military or financial points of view. The article says,
The official added that while the acquisition would raise concerns in neighbouring Colombia, a close US ally, the deal makes little military or financial sense. "Advanced fighters are more of a prestige item than a military necessity," the official said. "This system can give them an edge in air superiority, but against whom?"
It may not make sense if one only looks at Venezuela, but it might if one places China and Russia in the picture.
Having committed $500 million towards a Chinese-made Simón Bolívar satellite, will a $336million Russian floating nuclear power plant be next?
Or will the money and the oil run out?
(technorati tags Venezuela, Cubazuela, Hugo Chavez, Oil, China, Russia, Michele Bachelet, Alan Garcia, Caribbean)
http://badhairblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/venezuela-goodbye-free-press-hello.html
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| edward
Posted:
Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:30 pm |
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CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that he saw President Bush's upcoming tour to Latin America as a diplomatic offensive aimed at isolating his leftist government.
Chavez said that Bush's planned trip was "without a doubt" aimed at dividing the region and containing Venezuela's influence.
"But it's too late. I think the U.S. president now has nothing to find in Latin America. It is an offensive destined to the abyss of failure," Chavez said at a news conference.
Chavez said he respected the decision by other Latin American nations to "receive this little gentleman," but in Venezuela, "we will never receive him. Never. Because we know what he is. This is nothing personal."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070225/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_bush_1
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| edward
Posted:
Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:32 pm |
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BOGOTA, Colombia - It was like a macabre twist in a film noir: Confused hit men on the lookout for two men in a white sedan gun down the wrong people. Then they spot their intended targets, in the same traffic jam 20 yards away. And kill them, too. And it was all caught on a traffic camera.
It happened midday Thursday in the southwestern city of Cali.
The assassins struck as lunchtime traffic congealed.
Running up alongside the car, they blasted through the windows of the white Mazda. Trapped in traffic, trapped in their car, the passengers never had a chance.
Only after the shooting was over did the gunmen realize their intended targets were in another white sedan stuck in the same traffic jam.
Footage from a traffic camera shows them run forward and fire through the windows of the Honda. Darting away through the stationary cars, the hit men run to a waiting motorcycle and escape.
"The mode of killing has all the hallmarks of drug-related assassination and the fact that one of the victims in the second car had survived an assassination attempt three days earlier," said Gen. Luis Moore, commander of the Cali metropolitan police.
Moore said police caught one of the alleged assassins shortly after the shooting.
Colombia's third-largest city, Cali is in the midst of bloody clash between rival drug capos that has left hundreds dead.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070224/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombia_collateral_killings_2
Last edited by edward on Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:36 pm; edited 1 time in total
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| edward
Posted:
Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:36 pm |
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GUATEMALA CITY - Emergency crews on Saturday found a third body in a 330-foot-deep sinkhole that had swallowed a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood.
The body of Domingo Soyos, 53, was carried out of the enormous fissure and identified by family members, medical crews said.
Soyos was the father of teenagers Irma and David Soyos, whose bodies were found floating in a river of sewage soon after the sinkhole opened on Friday.
Residents said there were other people unaccounted for, but emergency crews could not confirm that.
Officials blamed recent rains and an underground sewage flow from a ruptured main for the tragedy. The pit emitted foul odors, loud noises and tremors, shaking the surrounding ground. A rush of water could be heard from its depths, and authorities feared it could widen or other sinkholes could open up.
Police evacuated nearby homes and cordoned off a 500-yard perimeter around the crater. Security officials were on guard for possible looters and curious onlookers.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070224/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guatemala_sinkhole_12
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| edward
Posted:
Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:38 pm |
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BOGOTA, Colombia - The rebels holding a former presidential candidate hostage said Friday they were still willing to strike a deal for her release, five years to the day after her capture.
In a statement, Ivan Marquez, a member of the supreme command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, of FARC, also dismissed recent speculation that Ingrid Betancourt was being held outside of Colombia.
"The liberation of Ingrid Betancourt and all the prisoners held by both sides could already have been part of history, if (President Alvaro Uribe) had agreed to demilitarize the municipalities of Florida and Pradera," Marquez said in the statement.
He referred to a long-standing demand by the rebels for the government to withdraw all security forces from two remote towns in southwest Colombia, a guerrilla stronghold.
The 15,000-strong FARC say the towns must be demilitarized for 45 days to allow an exchange of prisoners, something the government has so far rejected.
The FARC hold around 60 well known prisoners — including Betancourt, former ministers and three U.S. defense contractors who were kidnapped four years ago — which they will only release in return for the freeing of some 500 imprisoned rebels.
Betancourt — who has become a cause celebre because of her dual French-Colombian nationality — was kidnapped on Feb. 23, 2002, as she campaigned for president in southern Colombia.
Saying that the guerrillas are not interested in a deal, Uribe advocates military rescues of the hostages as the only hope of freeing them — something the hostages' families unanimously oppose, fearing their loved ones will be killed in the crossfire of a military operation or executed by their captors to prevent their escape.
"A military rescue is simply irresponsible," said Marquez, calling the escape of former minister Fernando Araujo six weeks ago from six years of captivity during an attack by the army on the camp where he was being held "the luck of one in a thousand."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070224/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombia_kidnapped_betancourt_1
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| edward
Posted:
Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:44 pm |
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Children swim next to their flooded house in the outskirts of Trinidad, Beni, some 400 km (248 miles) northeast of La Paz, February 25, 2007. The most devastating floods to hit Bolivia in 25 years have killed at least 35 people, destroyed thousands of homes, and mangled crops and roads throughout much of the South American nation. Most of the sparsely populated Beni province, which is roughly the size of the United Kingdom, is under water. ' REUTERS/David Mercado (BOLIVIA)
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| edward
Posted:
Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:53 pm |
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LIMA, Peru - The government wants to take some of the manana out of Peruvian life. Manana, meaning "tomorrow," is an age-old euphemism for the lateness and procrastination that are common in Latin America. Weddings, funerals, meals and business meetings rarely begin on time, and it's even considered rude to be punctual for a party.
But Peru's government says it's time for an attitude adjustment.
On a recent Friday — known affectionately as "sabado chico," or "little Saturday," because workers tend to have their minds on weekend parties — the government announced a campaign to combat lateness, saying it reflects a negative attitude toward work and hurts productivity.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070221/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/peru_punctuality;_ylt=AmjAWN43.ON1NMHZwq.hbKC4IxIF
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
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| edward
Posted:
Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:58 pm |
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EL TIGRE, Venezuela - Argentina's president pledged on Wednesday to deepen ties with Venezuela, snubbing a U.S. diplomatic effort to counter the influence of leftist President Hugo Chavez in South America.
President Nestor Kirchner offered wholehearted support to Chavez less than two weeks after meeting with top U.S. State Department officials who expressed concern that the Venezuelan leader was steering his country toward authoritarianism.
"It cannot be that it bothers anyone that our nations become integrated," Kirchner said during a one-day visit to Venezuela in which the two countries signed a series of economic cooperation agreements.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070222/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_argentina;_ylt=AjacIw_R2iCSbSgL732n0Z64IxIF
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| edward
Posted:
Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:51 pm |
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Here it is right off the press..
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez ordered by decree on Monday the takeover of oil projects run by foreign oil companies in Venezuela's Orinoco River region.
Chavez had previously announced the government's intention to take a majority stake by May 1 in four heavy oil-upgrading projects run by British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA.
He said Monday that has decreed a law to proceed with the nationalizations that will see state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, taking at least a 60 percent stake in the projects.
"The privatization of oil in Venezuela has come to an end," he said on his weekday radio show, "Hello, President." "This marks the true nationalization of oil in Venezuela."
By May 1, "we will occupy these fields" and have the national flag flying on them, he said.
The law is expected to be published shortly in the government's official gazette, and the companies will have four months from then to negotiate terms and conditions with PDVSA to decide whether they will take part in new joint ventures as minority partners, Chavez said.
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| edward
Posted:
Sat Mar 03, 2007 11:02 pm |
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They call it plan B 
Rich Venezuelans heading to Florida
As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez further tightens control of the South American country's economy, wealthy Venezuelans who once thought they could live with his socialist edicts are turning to their backup plan — flight to the United States, particularly Florida.
Venezuelans have long gobbled up condos and pre-construction deals in Florida as investments, but the latest buyers want homes where they can live and business properties that will help them earn a green card.
"First the people who come are the businessmen in the highest circles, then the losing politicians, then the military and then the professionals," said Miami-based immigration attorney Oscar Levin. "You're beginning to see the (Venezuelan) professionals."
This latest and largest potential group of emigrants say they fear the effect Chavez's socialist policies will have on the economy and on proposed educational reforms that could mirror the ideologically imbued education of Chavez ally and mentor, Cuba's Fidel Castro.
"There is so much insecurity, political insecurity, economic insecurity," said Venezuelan Miguel Medina, a business executive who moved to the Miami in August. "You don't know if a contract you signed today will be honored by the government in the future....This was definitely my plan B, but it was time to do the plan B."
Between 2000 — a year after Chavez took office — and 2005, the number of Venezuelans living in the U.S. doubled to about 160,000, according to the latest U.S. Census numbers. Nearly half live in Florida.
But those numbers are deceptive.
In 2005, 10,645 Venezuelans received their green cards allowing them to live in the United States, almost doubling the 6,222 who received them in 2004, according to the latest Department of Homeland Security statistics. And another 400,000 Venezuelans came to the United States in 2005 on business and tourism visas. It is unclear how many stayed.
Colombia, with nearly twice Venezuela's roughly 27 million residents, sent the same number that year.
Anecdotal evidence suggests even more are seeking to come here since Chavez's recent nationalization of Venezuela's largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector. The Venezuelan Congress also recently gave him special powers to decree laws for 18 months, and Chavez is threatening to expropriate supermarkets, stores and other businesses caught hoarding food or speculating on prices.
Medina said six family members visited him in the last two months seeking ways to relocate to the U.S. Unlike previous cycles, those seeking to leave and bring their money to the U.S. now are coming from around Venezuela, not just from Caracas, said Medina, an account executive for the credit group ExpoCredit.
Meanwhile Ralph Gomez, who heads the Miami area Tower Investments group and has long specialized in real estate for South American clients, said he's received more than two dozen calls since the year began from people interested in coming to the U.S. Other agents report a similar spike.
Upper-class Venezuelans and their money flowed out of the country after Chavez was elected in 1998 and again when he quashed an unsuccessful coup against his government in 2002, but many professionals still hoped the climate would remain friendly to business. Then came the latest nationalizations. Chavez still pledges to maintain a business-friendly climate, and analysts say the government has paid fair market prices to nationalize the electric and phone companies.
Yet, with 17 percent inflation pushing the Bolivar to more than 4,000 per dollar on the black market, compared to the official rate of 2,150 Bolivars per dollar, many Venezuelans are looking to move their businesses to the U.S. or to set up a new one here.
Those who can afford it often opt for business visas that require a minimum of a $500,000 investment in a company that creates jobs in an underdeveloped area in the U.S.
About 33,000 Venezuelans received some kind of work visa to come to the U.S. in 2005 — nearly a quarter of all such visas for South Americans — compared to about 17,000 in 1999.
Those who come are received with open arms in Miami, where their money is welcome and the Cuban exile community views Chavez as the next Fidel Castro. As of 2004, Venezuelans tied with Germans and Canadians as the second biggest group of foreigners purchasing homes in Florida, according to the National Association of Realtors. Only the British bought more Florida homes.
But moving to the U.S., even for the wealthy, isn't simple. Medina moved his family to the Miami three years ago, but it took him until last summer to tie up financial ends, obtain a visa and a job in Florida.
"I would travel back and forth when I could," he said. "It was hard, but I know I am among the lucky ones."
And while Venezuelan emigrants cite the political and economic instability of the country as their main reasons for leaving, many also talk of rampant and random violence.
Marbelia Font, 47, and her husband landed in Miami in September from Caracas to close on a newly built investment property. They thought their two daughters would enjoy the brief vacation.
But when two friends were fatally shot back home in Venezuela, Marbelia and her 13- and 8-year-old daughters stayed. Her husband returned to Venezuela, hoping to earn a visa by moving his manufacturing and construction business to the U.S. Font said he has struggled to obtain necessary legal documents from the Chavez government.
She now lives in the half-furnished home they'd planned to rent in Doral, just west of Miami. It is decorated only with a picture of her husband and the girls. She and her daughters struggle with loneliness, and she is unable to work as she waits for the family's visas to come through.
"It is so hard because the girls were very close to their father, and now they only see him once every three months," she said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070303/ap_on_bi_ge/venezuelan_flight_1
Hugo wants da money..Whats in your pocket?
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| yankee-in-france
Posted:
Sun Mar 04, 2007 10:58 am |
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Thanks, Edward, for these updates.
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YIF
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 6598
Location: France
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| edward
Posted:
Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:36 am |
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Chavez calls envoy 'professional killer'
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez on Sunday said he believes enemies including the CIA are out to kill him, and called U.S. diplomat John Negroponte a "professional killer."
Chavez said Venezuelan officials have intelligence that associates of jailed Cuban anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles also are involved in plotting to assassinate him.
He said the death plot idea has "gained weight" due to various factors, including the recent appointment of Negroponte, the former director of national intelligence, as deputy to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"Who did they swear in ... there at the White House as deputy secretary of state? A professional killer: John Negroponte," Chavez said.
Chavez did not elaborate, but his government has previously accused Negroponte of playing a key role in the Contra war against the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua when he served as ambassador to Honduras — a haven for clandestine Contra bases — from 1981 to 1985.
U.S. Embassy officials could not immediately be reached for comment, but they have denied Chavez's repeated accusations that they are plotting to oust him.
Chavez was asked about reports of assassination plots during a televised interview.
"They have assigned special units of the CIA, true assassins, who go around not only here in Venezuela, in Central America, in South America," Chavez said, without elaborating.
He added that while Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative, remains jailed in the U.S. on immigration charges, "Posada Carriles' people are very active in Central America and searching for contacts in Venezuela ... They are going around searching for explosives in large quantities, thinking about a sort of car bombing or searching for ground-to-air missiles, thinking about the presidential plane."
Chavez did not give details. His government has demanded that the U.S. extradite Posada Carriles, a naturalized Venezuelan, to stand trial for allegedly masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Posada Carriles denies involvement in that incident
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070304/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_chavez_2
Is this guy hooked on drugs or what? 
Hugo is more fun to watch then a 3 ring circus..
Every other week it seems Hugo is accusing somebody important of trying to have him assassinated..
They always just happen to be American citizens..Like Bush ..lol
I wonder what is coming up in the center ring..
I am getting tired of the "Tame the Lions" act..
Apparently the plant is up and running on the manufacture of ak47 style weapons...
I know it for peaceful reasons..
Like target practice with the kids.. 
This is only the beginning...
MO
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| yankee-in-france
Posted:
Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:12 am |
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Just think, with his rantings about the Americans wanting to do him in, one of his own can do it and probably get away with it as everyone will think that Hugo was right about the CIA.
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YIF
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 6598
Location: France
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| edward
Posted:
Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:48 pm |
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SAO PAULO, Brazil - The beginning of President Bush's five-nation Latin American tour sparked protests across the region, with thousands of demonstrators and police clashing in Brazil and students in Colombia lobbing explosives at authorities.
More than 6,000 students, environmentalists and left-leaning Brazilians held a largely peaceful march through the heart of Sao Paulo before police fired tear gas at protesters and beat them with batons. Hundreds fled and ducked into businesses to avoid the chaos, some of them bloodied.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070309/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_bush_protests;_ylt=AvXrGCgyT6pqAxO_4z6.o0K4IxIF
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| edward
Posted:
Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:53 pm |
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Nearly 20,000 fans gathered at a stadium in Buenos Aires — not to watch soccer but to hear Hugo Chavez bash George W. Bush. And the Venezuelan leader didn't disappoint them.
For two hours Friday night, Chavez heaped scorn on the American president. He called him a "political cadaver" and said Bush was on his way to becoming "cosmic dust." At one point Bush was the "little gentleman from the North." At another, he was an "imperial boss" who had no business in the "heroic lands of our America."
Shouts of "Gringo go home!" erupted in the stands.
"We are here to show our support of Chavez and our repudiation of Bush and imperialism," said Claudio Hernandez, a Chilean in the crowd. "We are against Bush because of his oil wars and his other policies, which go against the people of the world."
As Chavez was railing against U.S. policy in Argentina, Bush arrived in neighboring Uruguay, the second stop on a five-nation swing that began earlier Friday in Brazil.
Here, too, anti-American sentiment was running high.
Bush demonstrators scuffled with bystanders and shattered windows at an American fast-food restaurant in Montevideo, the capital.
"Exterminate the Empire!" a masked woman spray-painted on a business facade.
But so far the biggest protest against Bush's visit has been in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where riot police fired tear gas and clubbed some protesters after some 6,000 people held a largely peaceful march Thursday. Brazil's streets were calmer Friday, though 150 protesters burned a Bush effigy with a swastika on its shirt and a Hitler mustache penciled on its face.
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| edward
Posted:
Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:56 pm |
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MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - President Bush claimed progress on trade with Uruguay's president on Saturday, courting another leftist leader on his Latin American tour. "We care about the human condition," Bush said, trying to co-opt the populism of one influential leftist rival he won't meet: Venezuela's firebrand, Hugo Chavez.
In a part of the world where the U.S. invasion of Iraq is particularly unpopular, Bush is not talking much about the global war on terror. And while he won't mention Chavez by name, his soft-sell pitch clearly is intended to counter the Venezuelan leader's rising stature and rants that blame Latin America's poverty on U.S.-style capitalism.
"I would call our diplomacy quiet and effective diplomacy — diplomacy all aimed at helping people, aimed at elevating the human condition, aimed at expressing the great compassion of the American people," Bush said at a joint news conference with Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez. As he has on other stops, he mentions increases in U.S. aid programs during his presidency.
The two met at the Uruguayan presidential retreat in Anchorena Park, a riverside ranch and national park about 120 miles west of here. Bush traveled by helicopter.
The Bush administration is trying to strike a freer-trade deal with Uruguay. But the efforts are complicated by the country's membership in a rival South American trading bloc.
Uruguay, a tiny coastal nation overshadowed by neighboring Brazil and Argentina, wants to sell more beef and textiles to the United States, its biggest trading partner.
The two discussed U.S. restrictions on Uruguayan imports. Vazquez also said he wanted to expand scientific, technical and cultural exchanges — all to establish "a better standard of living for our people."
Both agreed to talk more.
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| edward
Posted:
Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:57 pm |
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TRINIDAD, Bolivia - President Hugo Chavez visited flood-ravaged Bolivia on Saturday to show off the fact that Venezuela has pledged 10 times more aid than the Bush administration. But local leaders gave him a cool reception, accusing him of meddling in Bolivian politics.
Bolivia was the latest stop on a Chavez tour intended to upstage President Bush's own trip through Latin America. While Bush visited Brazil on Friday, Chavez packed a soccer stadium in neighboring Argentina, telling a crowd of 20,000 leftist supporters that Bush's tour was a cynical attempt to divide the region.
Thousands of Bolivians, joined by Venezuelan aid workers, greeted Chavez at the airport in Trinidad, a city in Bolivia's eastern lowlands where a rainy season supercharged by El Nino has killed 51 people, driven thousands from their homes and triggered an outbreak of dengue fever.
Chavez, wearing an untucked red shirt in the blazing heat, kissed a Bolivian flag held by sailors in dress whites. He has pledged $15 million in aid for flood victims, including a squadron of helicopters to deliver food to remote villages, dwarfing the $1.5 million sent by the U.S.
A spokesman for Bolivian President Evo Morales told state television TVB that Morales' government espoused policies "against war, against violence, and these policies, without a doubt, are counter to what the U.S. government is imposing, no only in Iraq, but also in the continent."
However, not everyone welcomed Chavez. Bolivia's cattle-ranching state of Beni is a stronghold of opposition to Morales, a Chavez ally who has pledged to redistribute large tracts of land to the poor. Local leaders see Chavez's generosity as political opportunism and resent his influence in Bolivia.
The Beni governor and the mayor of Trinidad have refused to receive Chavez, complaining that Venezuelan aid workers have ignored their authority.
"We are grateful for the assistance of the Venezuelan people, but we're bothered by the intervention of Chavez in Bolivia," Mayor Moises Shiriqui told The Associated Press. "He's coming here for a political campaign."
Still, Chavez and Morales could capitalize on public complaints that the governor's office has been slow to distribute foreign aid to the city of 90,000 residents, surrounded for a month by miles of black waters.
One family living under a tarp — stamped with the logo of the U.S. Agency for International Development — said they had slept in the open for two weeks before marching on the governor's office to demand help.
"To go there every day, every day, makes you feel ashamed," said Santiago Jou. "And in the end, they don't even give you a soda."
Morales and Chavez were to give away shiny red tractors jointly made by Venezuela and Iran. Since Morales took office a year ago, Chavez has pledged more than $1 billion for Bolivian petroleum projects, community radio stations and a factory to make tea from coca leaves.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070311/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/chavez_vs__bush_4;_ylt=Al8l68WVrNRSlAB0Wsvz1qa9IxIF
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 928
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| edward
Posted:
Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:59 pm |
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BOGOTA, Colombia - On the eve of a visit by President Bush, the U.S. Embassy confirmed Saturday that American and Colombian soldiers had conducted a joint operation in the southern stronghold of leftist rebels who are holding three U.S. military contractors.
The rare confirmation followed a report by Colombia's largest newspaper, citing unidentified sources, that two local residents were interrogated about the contractors' whereabouts by the U.S. and Colombian soldiers following the operation in late January.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Marshall Louis said only that "U.S. personnel accompanied Colombian forces in the south and that's all I can say about it."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070311/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombia_us_hostages_2
We are going after them !! It is about time !
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 928
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| yankee-in-france
Posted:
Sun Mar 11, 2007 7:05 am |
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Thanks, Edward, for the articles. I appreciate your input into keeping us posted on Chavez and what is happening there.
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YIF
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 6598
Location: France
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| edward
Posted:
Sun Mar 11, 2007 4:06 pm |
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I read everything from mexico to argintina everyday..
I used to put all the interesting things that are happening everyday
Mexico is a whole story in itself..
So are many other countries..But it just becomes to much to post
So I post Hugo as he seems to be most of the problem..
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| sandraK
Posted:
Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:25 am |
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Thanks((Eddy)) I count on you for this SA news.and all you do everyday. you are a sweetheart.
Did you hear Chavez was talking of going"EURO"??
tea from coca leaves
 We got to try that !!!
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Boat Drink Room Hostess
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 6436
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| edward
Posted:
Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:40 am |
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OH This is Goooood
Barbra Walters interviews Hugo Chavez...The proof is in the pudding..
He is absolutely insane
Well that is just my opinion
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2954527&page=1
Barbra was not accurate on 3 items during the interview..But Hugo Shoot's himself in the foot..and blames it on Bush..lol 
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| yankee-in-france
Posted:
Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:17 pm |
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Yeah, Ed, but does it not sound like this guy is flexible? He admitted that calling Bush a donkey might be excessive and he might apologize. Seems that Barbara was able to get more out of him than our diplomats.
Again, thanks for keeping us informed on SA.
YIF
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YIF
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 6598
Location: France
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| Fu-Gee-La
Posted:
Sat May 26, 2007 11:12 pm |
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Chávez’s Move Against Critic Highlights Shift in Media
Chávez’s Move Against Critic Highlights Shift in Media
CARACAS, Venezuela, May 26 — Arturo Sarmiento speaks upper-crust English polished at Sandhurst, Britain’s aristocratic military school. He made fortunes trading oil and importing whiskey. Now Mr. Sarmiento, just 35 and a staunch supporter of President Hugo Chávez, owns an expanding television network here.
As tempers flare around Mr. Chávez’s decision not to renew the license of RCTV, the nation’s oldest broadcaster and a vocal critic, effectively shutting it down on Sunday, a new media elite is emerging. It is made up of ideological devotees to Mr. Chávez, senior government officials and tycoons like Mr. Sarmiento.
That is a marked contrast with the state of the news media when Mr. Chávez’s rule began in 1999. Then, the industry was largely privately owned by moneyed interests hostile to Mr. Chávez. His supporters say that old guard — as partisan as newspapers in the early United States — sought to derail his actions during much of his presidency.
“With the polarization that’s befallen Venezuela, media organizations have been used to cause political change,” Mr. Sarmiento said in a recent interview. He says his ambitions for TeleCaribe, a private broadcaster he bought last year, are different: to provide programming tailored to regional audiences in Venezuela. “Media vehicles should not be engaged in politics,” he said.
Mr. Chávez has dueled with opponents in the news media while fortifying news organizations loyal to him. For instance, newspapers favorable to the government have received nearly 12 times more government advertising, said Andrés Cańizález, a researcher at Andrés Bello University, citing a study of four leading dailies.
“Previous administrations in Venezuela also used advertising as a way to consolidate media support,” Mr. Cańizález said. “The difference now is that the government has made growing its own media operations and combating its opponents in the media central elements of its political strategy.”
In what may point to a rare example of widespread disagreement with the popular president, recent polls show that most Venezuelans oppose Mr. Chávez’s decision not to renew RCTV’s license.
Thousands of people marched through downtown here on Saturday to RCTV’s headquarters to show support for the network, following a protest by opposing groups late Friday in front of Globovisión, another dissident network, that left that its building and neighboring buildings painted with pro-Chávez slogans.
Some of the new ventures, like Telesur, a regional cable news network with a pan-Latin American agenda similar to the pan-Arabism of Al Jazeera, are taking over the operations of private broadcasters. Telesur, based in Caracas and backed largely by Venezuela’s government, recently acquired the broadcasting signal of CMT, a private broadcaster, allowing it to reach an audience beyond cable.
“There is a democratization of television under way in Venezuela,” Andrés Izarra, a former RCTV executive who is now president of Telesur, said in an interview on Saturday.
Supporters of Mr. Chávez’s decision to deny RCTV a new license point out that most news organizations in Venezuela remain in private hands. Influential newspapers like El Nacional and El Universal, two Caracas dailies, remain independent and their editorials are critical of Mr. Chávez.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/world/americas/27venez.html?ref=world
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***Deactivated: Pending Review***
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