Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez gestures to supporters during a ceremony to open a new state food store in Caracas, April 22, 2003. Chavez has fired Planning Minister Felipe Perez after public disagreements over foreign exchange controls and other economic policies in the world's No. 5 oil exporter. REUTERS/Chico Sanchez
Terrorism's Western Ally***U.S. intelligence is still coming to grips with reports that Al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorist groups are setting up bases in Venezuela. A London newspaper reports Osama bin Laden has established a training camp on Venezuela's Margarita Island, a tourist destination that also has an Arab-Muslim community and a bad reputation as a hangout for smugglers and terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.
The more you know about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and his list of friends, the less surprising this all seems. Footage shows Hugo hugging Iranian President Khatami. More footage shows Hugo hugging Libya's Moammar Gaddafy. By the way, you won't find any video of Hugo meeting, much less, hugging George W. Bush.
But Chavez has met with Saddam Hussein. In fact, he was the first foreign leader to visit Baghdad after the first Gulf War, and he expressed his admiration for Saddam. He has offered support to convicted terrorist Carlos "The Jackal." He considers Fidel Castro his mentor. He gives sanctuary to Colombia's FARC rebels, a group that is trying to overthrow the Colombian government and has also killed Americans.
Hugo Chavez came to power by tapping into frustration over Venezuela's corrupt political system. He was elected in 1998 by a landslide. Since then, Chavez has been engaged in what has been called a "slow-motion constitutional coup." He has abolished the senate, brought in Cubans as strike-breakers against the oil industry, and organized gangs to beat up opponents.***
Cuban-style chokehold strangles Venezuela*** Outside the Cuban Embassy in Caracas, dozens of Venezuelans carried placards calling Fidel Castro an "assassin" and voicing their concern about the "Cubanization" of a nation once held up as one of Latin America's most long-lived democracies.
By Venezuelan standards, the protest Friday was small, but Castro's imprints on Venezuela continue to loom large. Clearly, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez prefers a Marxist dictatorship cloaked in a constitution that puts him in control of the economy, the courts, the news media and the legislative branch. "We voted for change, but we didn't vote for a revolution," Juan Fernandez told me recently. Fernandez was a key player in the nation's petroleum industry until Chavez fired him to put a political hack in charge. Fernandez's firing, and that of others, led to the failed coup against Chavez a year ago.
About 200 Venezuelans living in the Orlando area came out to hear Fernandez speak earlier this month about his blueprint for peaceful change. He is among those Venezuelans who are leading the charge for new, democratic elections, just recently meeting with Bush administration officials in Washington. But because Fernandez was among those who participated in the national strike against Chavez's government late last year, he's now a wanted man in Venezuela. Fernandez is among several prominent Venezuelans in the growing opposition movement whom Chavez wants to send to prison. His case remains pending. Fernandez's "crime" was simply to offer an opposing point of view. No guns, no secret plots, but a very public national strike seeking new presidential elections.
Since the strike ended, Chavez has moved aggressively to squeeze out businesses, big and small. Chavez has made it illegal, for instance, for Venezuelan businesses to pay in U.S. dollars for goods imported into the country or to get paid in dollars for exports even as the country's currency plunges downward. Venezuela watchers note that of the $1.3 billion that Venezuelans have sought in U.S. currency, the Chavez regime has released only about $30,000, mostly to cover living expenses for students studying abroad.
Chavez has used the failed strike as a pretext to clamp down -- not unlike Castro's move to nationalize foreign enterprises, seize all U.S. dollars and quash any dissent on the island in the early 1960s. Castro argued then that the revolution was under attack from Uncle Sam. Chavez, too, has tried to make that argument, even though polls continue to show that most Venezuelans want new presidential elections.***
. "I could never be friends with a counterrevolutionary."
Something GW should remember when courting liberal voters.