Free Republic

21st Century SocialismThe attempt to destroy democracy in Latin America.  The Obama administration started out on the wrong foot in world affairs. It used techniques better suited for domestic political campaigns — popularity contests — in its foreign policy. In our own hemisphere, the result was confusion for our allies and our enemies alike. The overriding objective of U.S. policy — in Latin America and elsewhere — should be to advance U.S. national interests, not to curry favor with foreign leaders. If we can be liked while advancing our interests, so much the better. But when we try to befriend...

Fox news alert that the House Democrats are calling to have all US refineries nationalized!!

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, loser in the recent Venezuelan national referendum which would grant him increasing dictatorial powers, has ended his brief benevolence and contrition (if it ever was there) it would seem. But he did so with a backdrop of Venezuela's top military, sending a strong, yet somewhat shaky, staged subliminal message to his opponents.The video (short, in Spanish) is at the link above and here: http://www.el-nacional.com/www/site/detalle_multimedia.php?q=med/5475 Just hit the white "arrow" to see.

The Embassy of Venezuela in Mexico has been shown, by very different sectors in that country and in Mexico, to be an instrument of the ideological propaganda and political expansion of the personal interests of Hugo Chávez. Observations of interventionism include giving electoral support to the PRD [Democratic Revolutionary Party of Mexico], even "espionage," as well as a presumed importation of high caliber weapons and contacts with the FARC, ETA and Al Qaeda. Mexico City | Tuesday, 15 November 2005 | Vladimir Villegas is a person of Euro-African heritage showing a good sense of humor and charisma. Tall, robust, sporting...

Media: As Telesur, Hugo Chavez's new South American TV network, goes on the air, it's billed as a pan-American alternative to CNN. Knowing Chavez, sensible minds fear a propaganda machine. It's much worse. Ahead of its first broadcast Sunday, Telesur released a ghastly news trailer featuring one of the hemisphere's grimmest narco terrorists, Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda. This professional killer leads the 13,000-strong FARC Marxist guerrillas who have terrorized Colombia for 40 years. As Sureshot preened before Telesur cameras, Telesur officials justified their free publicity for him as newsworthiness. "Do they think Sureshot doesn't exist?" said Director-General Aram Aharonian, a Uruguayan...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ignited new controversy with his plans for "units of popular defense" throughout the country to defend it from a possible attack from "imperialism." Chavez, who has referred on many occasions to a possible U.S. invasion, said, "If imperialism ever has the idea of challenging Venezuela it would have to deal with Bolivar's people, who is prepared to defend their sovereignty, their motherland."

Now for the bad news. Two weeks ago, the mainstream media were chasing after Secretary of State Condolleeza Rice on her whirlwind debutante tour of Europe, commenting on her elegant ensembles and disarming smile. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez was accusing the United States of trying to assassinate him. This week, the potentates of the press mused over President Bush's efforts to melt the iciest of "Old European" hearts. But within four hours of Florida, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega -- still the head of the communist-inspired Sandinista Party -- was endorsing Chavez' call for the creation of a...

Miami.- The ties between the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and the extremist Tupamaros goes back to 1980 when the president was still an army officer, according to Alberto Carías, the "ideological leader" of this organization [as published in the "The Miami Herald"] Carías – who admitted that his organization took the name of the Uruguayan guerrilla group that operated in the seventies, told the newspaper that he and his men fought in the coup d’etat of February 4, 1992 by Chavez against the democratic government of president Carlos Andrés Pérez. The "Herald" published today an extensive interview with Carías...