Posted on 02/26/2002 12:07:45 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
F--k Chavez--- Clemenza's Venezuelan neighbor at work
Chavez denies he supports FARC but it just doesn't fly.
All the commies Chavez has been cozying up to around the world, will feel the sting too.
Venezuela couldn't last until 2007 when Chavez's term expires,
I hope Chavez falls now, because if he doesn't, he's going to be trouble in a couple of years. He is clearly Castro's annointed heir, not for Cuba, but for the Lat Am left. He's obviously encouraging every guerrilla movement that crosses his path; FARC has been very emboldened by their contacts with him. (I assume all Freepers know that FARC kidnapped one of the Colombian presidential candidates a couple of days ago, and have added her to their kidnapped stock of five members of the Colombian Congress and a growing number of police and military personnel.)
I hope the people opposed to Chavez strike now, while popular opinion is against him and before he can completely crush the opposition.
Besides the military, who is left? The homeless and the academics?
I'm sure having Otto Reich in place (A President Bush recess appointment-- Christopher Dodd was blocking his hearing and vote as Assistant Secretary of the Western Hemisphere under Colin Powell) has been instrumental.
When President Bush travels to South America in late March, he will find a region that, despite recent political and economic reforms, is still on shaky ground.
Nowhere has that been more evident the last few weeks than in Argentina and, especially, Venezuela.
In Argentina, massive street protests have become a way of life. Millions of people are fed up with the way the government has handled the nation's economy.
In Venezuela, an even worse crisis seems to be brewing. For three weeks, there has been growing pressure on President Hugo Chávez to resign. ...
Although Chávez won by a landslide -- 80 percent of the vote -- his popularity has sunk since he took office. And no wonder. He approved many populist policies for which his government cannot pay. ...
In the international arena, Chávez has alienated traditional allies, including the United States, while befriending totalitarian regimes, such as Cuba, Iraq and Libya, and embracing leftist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia.
If the Venezuelan leader does not change his authoritarian ways, he could throw his nation into the kind of turmoil not seen since the last dictator, Marcos Pérez Jiménez, was overthrown 44 years ago.
Even with that worsening situation, the United States, while monitoring events in Venezuela, should not become directly involved.
The last thing Washington needs is a nation of 24 million people who, despite being unhappy with Chávez, might resent U.S. meddling even more.
Bump!
Venezuela would be better off if it didn't have so much oil. Next to Argentina, it is the biggest nanny state in So. America. The people there think because they have oil, the government should be able to take care of them, so they don't work. It was that way before Chavis was elected, and will probably be that way after he is gone.
Oh, and the other problem besides Chavez, is not oil, its their attitude about oil.
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