Free Republic

The government of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is emerging as a rare supplier of diesel to Syria, potentially undermining Western sanctions and helping the Syrian government fuel its military in the middle of a bloody crackdown on civilian protests. A cargo of diesel, which can be used to fuel army tanks or as heating fuel, was expected to arrive at Syria's Mediterranean port of Banias this week, according to two traders and shipping data. The cargo could be worth up to $50 million. Chavez is a vociferous advocate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who face pressure...

enezuela's ailing strongman Hugo Chavez unleashed a crude anti-Semitic attack on a rising opposition figure, Henrique Capriles Radonski, the New York Sun reported Thursday. Capriles is a Catholic whose maternal grandparents were Jews from Poland. That makes him a Jew, by Jewish standards. He is emerging as a challenger to succeed Chavez, who suffers from cancer. According to the Sun, a broadcast titled “The Enemy Is Zionism” on the main and official government radio station in Caracas said that Capriles had worked for private firms “linked to the interests of the Zionist bourgeoisie.” It called him part of a “fascist...

Venezuelans lined up to vote on Sunday in the country's first-ever opposition presidential primary, choosing a single challenger they hope will have what it takes to finally defeat President Hugo Chavez after 13 years in office. Opposition supporters seemed less interested in the proposals put forth by the five candidates competing in Sunday's vote than their chances of defeating Chavez in October's looming presidential election. The outcome will set the stage for what many are billing as the most anticipated presidential vote since Chavez's first triumph in 1998, and Venezuelans on both sides of the nation's political gap are eager...

Building recent on efforts to strengthen political relationships between Tehran and South American nations, Iran has announced intentions to launch HispanTV to expand their influence in the region, and give their strategic influence a wider audience. A recent planned tour of leftist Latin Amarican states by Iranian leader Ahmadinejad was seen as a demonstration of solidarity by the leaders of those States as a way of uniting against Western powers. According to The Miami Herald, the channel has already begun running anti-Western programming suggesting US plots against Venezuela, and Syria. Ahmadinejad reportedly suggested that the purpose of the channel was...

(CNN) -- Cancer has spread in Hugo Chavez's colon, spine and bones, and the Venezuelan president could have only nine months to live, Spain's ABC newspaper reported Monday, citing medical records provided by unidentified intelligence sources. "His health appears to be deteriorating at a more rapid pace. Clearly there has been metastasis in the bones and the spine," the ABC report says, citing what it said were doctors' observations after medical tests December 30. The newspaper did not divulge its sources or detail how it checked the information's accuracy, and CNN was unable to verify the report. An official in...

The racism bluff By GUSTAVO D. PEREDNIK 12/21/2011 21:46 Judaism brought anti-racism to the world via the idea that all mankind was derived from Adam, the first man. Haitian anthropologist Antenor Firmin pioneered in 1885 the rebuttal of racist theories; since then there has been a constant endeavor to defeat racism through education and legislation. These efforts are undermined by those who deliberately exaggerate the problem of racism in present times in order to avoid criticisms of the many other evils in their societies. In a world in which Barack Obama was elected president of America, and that put a...

"In the coming weeks we're also going to unveil a new website, Business USA. And this site will be a one-stop shop for small businesses and exporters...with or without congress, I'm going to keep at it. But it would be a lot easier if Congress helped," President Obama said at the White House today.

Iran has begun enriching uranium deep inside a mountain and sentenced an American to death for spying, angering the West and undermining hopes that diplomacy could avert further sanctions or war. The start of enrichment at the Fordow bunker near the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Qom was confirmed on Monday by an Iranian official in Tehran and by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran says its nuclear program is purely non-military but the West believes it is designed to produce nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic's decision to carry out enrichment work deep underground could eventually make it much...

President Obama’s recent decision to drastically cut future military spending puts the United States in a weakened position vis-a-vis despot regimes and terrorist organizations who are always looking for gratuitous opportunities to attack U.S. interests, according to Congressman Allen West. West says that “there is a sense of weakness that we are conveying, and there is a window of opportunity that people like Iran are seeing.” According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, Obama’s proposed cuts to the military budget “could shrink by over 30%” in the next decade- The Administration projects outlays at 2.7% of GDP in 2021,...

Hugo Chavez has a new theory: that the US has developed a secret technology and is using it to give cancer to left wing Latin American rulers that we don’t like. After all, Fidel Castro, the Hero of Venezuela himself, the president of Paraguay, the current and former presidents of Brazil and now Cristina Kirchner of Argentina have all come down with (quite different) cancers. Bringing the logical acuity and sure grasp of the laws of probability and of cause and effect that he brings to all his policy making, Chavez, the Times of India reports, has shared his reasoning...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In what has become an all too predictable pattern, former Massachusetts Congressman and Hugo Chavez sympathizer Joe Kennedy has once again launched television and radio advertisements praising Venezuela’s socialist dictator, Hugo Chavez. And once again, Congressman Connie Mack (FL-14), Chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee and Congress’ leading critic of Chavez’s dictatorship, has admonished Kennedy for continuing to publicly laud the Venezuelan strongman. Mack stated: “It’s beyond shameful that Joe Kennedy continues to line his pockets with a salary from CITGO and use our nation’s less fortunate as a PR mechanism for Hugo Chavez....

The US consulate in Caracas has declined to comment on the allegation, so I will in my usual rational, reasonable, and logical manner.This charge that the US has developed a means of infecting anyone - much less Latin American allies of Chavez - with cancer is loony tunes.Bloomberg:...

The U.S. government could be responsible for a recent spate of cancer among South American leaders, according to Venezuela's outspoken president Hugo Chavez. He suggested that the U.S. might have 'invented technology to spread cancer', and warned other left-wing heads of state that they could be targeted next. Mr Chavez, one of several Latin American leaders to have contracted the disease in the last year, said he had developed his theories after Fidel Castro described the CIA's repeated attempts to assassinate him. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079680/Chavez-says-U-S-giving-South-American-leaders-cancer-Argentine-president-Kirchner-fifth-contract-disease.html#ixzz1hxZdLJ9e

Caracas, Venezuela (CNN) -- A day after officials announced the cancer diagnosis of Argentina's president, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wondered Wednesday if the United States could be infecting the region's leaders with the illness. Five current or former Latin American presidents have battled cancer in the past few years, including Chavez himself, who claims to have beaten an unspecified cancer. Chavez prefaced his remarks at a military event in Caracas by saying, "I don't want to make any reckless accusations," but the Venezuelan president said he was concerned by something he finds "very, very, very strange." "Would it be strange...

Chávez: Obama is an irresponsible phony who shames the USA On Monday (19th), Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, heavily criticized the U.S. president, Barack Obama, in response to his warning of the alleged restrictions on the rights of Venezuelans. Chavez called Obama "irresponsible and fake": "Obama will get involved with his things. He dedicates himself to his country, where he has practiced a disaster. Now he comes seeking votes by attacking Venezuela. Do not be so irresponsible, boy," said Chavez in a Council of Ministers broadcast on state television. In an interview with Telesur, Chávez said that Obama is a "shame"...

<p>While waiting to collect her mother’s luggage at LAX, actress Maria Conchita Alonso confronted vocal Hugo Chavez supporter Sean Penn, calling him “a communist asshole,” WMAL reports.</p> <p>Conchita Alonso — known for her role in “The Running Man” and “Predator 2,” and who once acted in a 1988 film with Penn — had previously written an open letter criticizing him for his support for the Venezuelan dictator. Spotting the actor, who was also waiting for lost luggage, she approached him. When the “Milk” star recognized her, his smile disappeared: He told her he didn’t want to talk to her and accussed her brother of trying to assassinate Chavez.</p>

Cuban-born, Venezuelan-raised actress Maria Conchita Alonso and actor Sean Penn had a contentious exchange at Los Angeles International airport recently, in which Alonso called Penn a “communist a**hole“ and Penn called Alonso a ”pig.” Over a year and a half after Alonso penned an open letter to Penn asking him why he supports socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the two met up serendipitously (or not so) at LAX while both were waiting to claim lost luggage. Alonso, who starred alongside Penn in the 1988 film “Colors,” described the exchange to Steve Malzberg on WMAL. “I go ‘Hello,’ and he smiles...

During a recent visit to Guaicaipuro, a traditional market in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, a fresh meat refrigerator sat empty at a grocery. Many consumers looking for beef, poultry or fish had to go home empty-handed. The produce section looked well stocked with plenty of fruits and vegetables. But consumers shopping at Guaicaipuro complained that prices, even for basic products, had skyrocketed. Alba Varela, a housewife and resident of Caracas, went to the market looking for cornmeal to prepare hallacas, a traditional Venezuelan dish, especially this time of the year. "It's fundamental, because other than pork it's the main dish...

In the Bible, shepherds and wise men paid homage to the newborn baby Jesus. In Venezuela, it seems Hugo Chavez turned up in the manger, too. A Nativity scene in Caracas showing the socialist president standing before the traditional crib-in-a-manger has stirred up a pre-Christmas controversy in the politically polarized country. "It has nothing to do with the real Nativity, with religion. I don't like it," said passerby Arnaldo Amundaray, tutting as he took a close look at the model. For Chavez supporters and the Nativity's creators, it is a legitimate and innocent tribute to their man. "The intention is...

The Senate wants the Navy to explain how it selects names for new ships in the wake of controversy over the naming of a ship in memory of labor leader Cesar Chavez. A little-noticed provision of a defense bill that passed the Senate last week would direct the Navy to submit a report to Congress on its naming of vessels. The provision was sought by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who told reporters in a conference call last week that in light of recent controversies over ship namings, the Navy should seek "more input and think more carefully about who we’re...

Jimbo Wales (the founder of wikipedia) criticized the Hugo Chavez article for not including criticism of Chavez's food policies. Some of the things that Jimbo criticized the article for including are the very same sources that I had added in the past, which the Chavez supporters then deleted. My original account was Grundle2600. I was banned by User Rd232. He was one of the Chavez supporters who kept deleting that information. Jimbo doesn't seem to know that this info has been repeatedly added and then deleted from the article. The person who banned me from wikipedia was Rd232, one of...

Much like his back-slappin' pal Vlad, Comrade Hugo's been (undeservedly) blessed with oil, minerals, mountains, dramatic ocean coastlines... and a whole bunch of these: ¡Ay caramba! If it was she who invited me to Caracas, perhaps I could get used to waiting in line 2 hrs for bread... as much as I detest socialism, it's important to maintain a balanced perspective and consider the situation as a whole! Video/links/more at Reaganite Republican Missology   glamcheck   Pageant.com

Venezuela has received its first shipment of gold bars, after President Hugo Chavez ordered the repatriation of 85% of the country's bullion reserves. President Chavez has explained the move as an act of sovereignty that will protect Venezuela's reserves from global economic turbulence. Some critics have suggested that Mr Chavez is acting out of fears Venezuela's overseas assets could one day be frozen by sanctions, as happened to his friend and ally, the late Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.

Update Nov. 16, 4:10 p.m.: The Benetton has dropped the image of the Pope kissing an Imam from the campaign after complaints. Benetton returns to its controversial marketing roots with a new campaign that features President Obama and other world leaders engaging in a kiss. In two separate ads, Obama is seen kissing Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

President Hugo Chávez’s cancer is spreading faster than expected and his doctors fear that he may have only a few months left to live, a former U.S. government official said Wednesday, citing sources inside the Venezuelan government. “The international team of doctors in charge of treating Hugo Chávez’s cancer does not expect him to live more than six months,” said Roger Noriega, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States. Noriega’s opinion came in a column titled “Hugo Chávez’s Big Lie and Washington’s Apathy,” published on the Internet portal of Inter-American Security Watch. “Sources who have given me privileged...

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla leader, looks likely to win re-election on Sunday after heavy social spending won him strong support among the country's poor. Ortega has overseen a period of economic progress in his five years in power, backed by financial aid from his socialist ally in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez.

Hugo Chávez announced earlier this month he'd like to expropriate much of Los Roques' private property for state tourism — including yachts like Alvarez's, which el Presidente says would be better used for ferrying visitors. "Expropriating a boat is completely absurd," says Alvarez, 39. "I don't see how they can take away something you've worked hard for and bought." Actually, Chávez has made it look pretty easy during his 12 years in power. His socialist Bolivarian Revolution has nationalized and expropriated everything from utilities to ranches to golf courses — and with his re-election bid approaching next year, seizing a...

VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez expressed anger over the death of Muammar Gaddafi, calling it an "outrage" and saying the ousted Libyan strongman was a "martyr". "Sadly the death of Gaddafi has been confirmed," said Chavez, who had just returned to Venezuela from cancer treatment in Cuba. "They assassinated him. It is another outrage," the Venezuelan leader told reporters in the town of La Grita. "We shall remember Gaddafi our whole lives as a great fighter, a revolutionary and a martyr," he said. Chavez had defended Gaddafi since the start of the uprising against the Libyan leader's regime in February, and...

Herman Cain says the Democrats he has supported in the past were “all moderate Democrats.” I was surprised to find my congressman, Rep. Jose Serrano, on that list. Is he a “moderate Democrat”? Let’s ask National Journal: Serrano has one of the most liberal voting records in the House. Egad. That does not sound like “moderate Democrat” to me. But let’s look at the details: In opposition to Cuban Hispanics in Congress, Serrano has been Fidel Castro’s greatest champion in the House. He has sought repeal of economic sanctions against Cuba. When questions arose about Castro’s future after major surgery...

HAVANA – Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez likely has less than two years to live, his former doctor said, as the ailing firebrand traveled to Cuba for a checkup following cancer treatment. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/17/report-venezuelas-chavez-only-has-two-years-to-live/#ixzz1b4cy3J27

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez likely has less than two years to live, his former doctor said, as the ailing firebrand traveled to Cuba for a checkup following cancer treatment. Chavez, 57, has been through four rounds of chemotherapy in Cuba since revealing he had a cancerous tumor removed in June. But Venezuela has provided few details about the exact nature of the cancer, aside from that it was in the pelvic area. Salvador Navarrete, his former personal surgeon, told Mexican newspaper Milenio Semanal on Sunday that the leader's condition likely was worse than publicly admitted. The doctor described the prognosis...

Murió Hugo Chavez

Chavez slams "horrible repression" of U.S. protests Photo 5:48pm EDT By Enrique Andres Pretel CARACAS (Reuters) - Socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez condemned on Saturday the "horrible repression" of anti-Wall Street protesters and termed a Republican presidential candidate "crazy" for his criticism of Cuba and Venezuela. Although still convalescing from cancer surgery in June followed by four rounds of chemotherapy, the 57-year-old Venezuelan president is quickly returning to the tough rhetoric and strong views that have made him famous worldwide. Not surprisingly, Chavez expressed solidarity with American activists who have been staging rallies and marches against what they view as corporate...

Hugo Chavez, who has been fighting cancer, was rushed to a military hospital for emergency care following kidney failure, according to reports.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been fighting cancer, was rushed to a military hospital for emergency care following kidney failure, according to El Nuevo Herald newspaper. The leftist, staunchly anti-US stalwart Chavez went into the Military Hospital in Caracas on Tuesday morning, the report on the newspaper's website said, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the case.

Here are some of the contrasting great leaps forward made or promised by these two astonishing leaders. This article by James Petras, a former professor of sociology at Binghamton University who claims “a 50-year membership in the class struggle,” appeared on September 17 in the Dissident Voice — a remarkable publication with which I had not previously been familiar. It chastises our beloved President Obama because he has failed to make the tremendous progress attributable to Venezuelan el Presidente Chávez. The author, in slamming President Obama, neglects at least one salient factor: unlike el Presidente Chávez, who has been...

Through a stench of urine infused with marijuana, inmates of Venezuela's La Planta prison brandish machine guns, rifles and grenades while enjoying music blaring from a 6-foot high stack of speakers. Guards are nowhere to be seen as other inmates sharpen knives and carry pistols..."If the guards mess with us, we shoot them," said one prisoner... The South American nation's prisons are notorious for ease of access to weapons and drugs as well as mobile phones and computers hooked up to the Internet, allowing inmates easy access to the outside world, often to run further crime enterprises. ... At La...

The Obama administration on Tuesday announced plans to streamline hundreds of regulations across all government departments and said that the review will “likely” save at least $10 billion over five years. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), however, called the effort "underwhelming." The regulatory review does not address the kinds of major items the GOP would like to eliminate, such as those associated with the Dodd-Frank financial reform, the Obama healthcare reform or a raft of new environmental regulations, including the possible regulation of greenhouse gases. [snip] Cass Sunstein, the chief of regulations at the Office of Management and Budget...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Supporters of President Hugo Chavez shaved their heads in solidarity with their leader's struggle against cancer on Sunday as hundreds prayed and sang at a televised event. Barbers shaved off the hair of several men and at least one woman while the crowd swayed to a religious song.

Birds of a feather… S & P downgrades Obama’s and Chavez’s handling of economy NEW YORK - Standard & Poor's downgraded Venezuela's credit ratings as it implemented a new methodology more heavily focused on political risk -- a key weakness in the oil-producing country. S&P cut Venezuela's long-term sovereign rating to B-plus from BB-minus. The outlook on the new rating is stable.

An article about how Chavez is moving Venezuela's vast gold reserves out of places like London and Switzerland to places like Russia, China, and Brazil. Ahmadinejad's presence and his involvement in this happening isn't really gone into.

Hugo Chavez said here Sunday that he felt well after the second phase of chemotherapy for his cancer. "My examinations went very well and everything will end well,"... not sure whether he needs a third phase. Chavez returned from Havana Saturday after this round of chemotherapy...

If Cuba's Fidel Castro is America's favorite Latin American bête noire, then Venezuela's Hugo Chavez qualifies as Washington's reigning Prince of Darkness. In 1960, Fidel Castro nationalized US business interests without compensation, bringing down on impoverished benighted country 51 years of sanctions that continue to the present day. Similarly, four years ago Chavez completed the nationalization of foreign oil interests, transferring their shares to the state-owned petroleum company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., more commonly referred to by its acronym PDVSA. The screaming was heard echoing through the boardrooms and canyons of Wall Street. Now the picture appears to be shifting,...

The always outspoken Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen calls actor Sean Penn "a loser" for his comments after a trip to Venezuela. Guillen also says in the interview with Yahoo! Sports that he'll personally show parts of his native country the Oscar-winning actor may not have toured during a short trip to Venezuela. "This is Venezuela bro," Guillen says about rougher areas of the country he'd show Penn. "This is Venezuela. Not the one they show you."

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sang, danced and said he intends to stay in power for two more decades as he celebrated his 57th birthday looking ahead to months of cancer treatment. Chavez rallied a crowd of cheering supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace on Thursday, waving a large Venezuelan flag and briefly wrapping himself in it. He said he expects to lose his hair soon as a result of chemotherapy and that a long process of treatment lies ahead. "This is going to be various months all of this year, but I'm going to...

Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- The former US Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Roger Noriega, reports that Chavez' condition is terminal. citizen5408.com

Facundo Cabral, a wide-roving Argentine musician who had been one of Latin America’s most celebrated folk and protest singers, was shot to death July 9 in Guatemala City. He was 74. Mr. Cabral, who had given a concert two days earlier in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, was en route to the Guatemala City airport when his vehicle was hit by a hail of bullets in an orchestrated attack involving three carloads of gunmen, the Associated Press reported.

For the past decade, Hugo Chávez has been supporting the Castro regime by sending millions of barrels of cheap oil to Cuba. These energy subsidies have helped the Communist government maintain power amid a terrible economic crisis. In return for its petroleum shipments, Venezuela has received an influx of Cuban doctors. And last month, as the entire world is now aware, Chávez himself received cancer treatments in Havana before returning to Caracas earlier this week. But the strategic relationship between Cuba and Venezuela goes well beyond oil and health care. In addition to sending doctors, the Castros have also dispatched senior...

Of all idiots, none is so useful as he who can masquerade as a genius. MIT linguistics professor Noam Chomsky recently denounced Hugo Chavez, accusing the Venezuelan strongman of making an "assault" on his nation's democracy and of cruelty with respect to a female judge he imprisoned for issuing an unwelcome ruling. The criticism made headlines, as the "renowned scholar" had long given aid and comfort to Ego-and-Mouth Chavez. In fact, when the leader denounced President Bush in an infamous 2006 U.N. address, it was Chomsky's book Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance that he waved and used...