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Venezuela blames U.S. for destabilizing Iran www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-31 09:02:33 CARACAS, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela on Wednesday blamed the United States for destabilizing Iran by instigating violent protests in the Asian country. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Venezuela rejects the destabilization attempts "promoted by the government of the United States against the government and people of Iran." "Venezuela is surprised that a group of countries led by the North American Empire are echoing a campaign to divide and spread violence among Iranians, in contravention of the fundamental norms of peace, non-interference and respect for sovereignty," the...

In another attack on private enterprise in Venezuela, soon-to-be-President-for-life Hugo Chávez has given the Toyota Motor Corporation an ultimatum: give us your technological secrets and increase your local production of Land Cruiser 4×4 vehicles, or prepare to have your plants nationalized. Toyota had discontinued production of this particular “rustic” all-terrain model used for public transport in poor and rural areas, where the transportation infrastructure is nearly non-existent and 4×4 travel is the only way to get around. The Land Cruiser was not a big seller in Venezuela and Toyota made a business decision to import it on demand from elsewhere....

"I was close to Chavez, but now he wants me dead." The million dollars from Chavez to Al Qaeda is just the tip of the iceberg in a long series of connections between worldwide terrorist organizations and the Venezuelan strongman, according to one of those who knows most about Chavez and the inside of his presidential palace: His former personal pilot. Major Juan Diaz Castillo is the man who flew the equivalent of Air Force One. In this interview with Venezuela's weekly news-magazine Zeta, he reveals formerly unpublished details of the operations that Chavez had him organize. By Maria Angelica...

Speaking during his weekly television and radio program, Mr Chavez said the aircraft overflew a Venezuelan military base in the western state of Zulia after taking off from neighbouring Columbia. He did not elaborate, but suggested the plane was being used for espionage. "These are the Yankees. They are entering Venezuela," he said. "I've ordered them to be shot down," Mr Chavez said of the aircraft. "We cannot permit this."

Colombia has announced it will build a new military base near its border with Venezuela, in a move likely to further strain its tense ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Defense Minister Gabriel Silva said Friday that the base, located on the Guajira peninsula near the city of Nazaret, would have up to 1,000 troops. "It is a strategic point from a defense point of view," Silva said. Army Commander General Oscar Gonzalez meanwhile announced Saturday that six air battalions were being activated, including two on the border with Venezuela. Venezuela shares a ...1,250-mile border with Colombia . In November...

In September 2006 when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called George W. Bush the Devil at the United Nations, the Bush-hating press couldn't get enough of the comment. On Friday, Chavez spoke to the U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen after President Obama made his keynote address, and much as he did three years ago, the Venezuelan despot said, "It still smells of sulfur here," referring to the lectern. Given the attention Chavez's claim got three years ago when he made it about Bush, how will Obama-loving media report such a statement being made about their hero? (video embedded below the...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he "still" smelled sulfur after President Obama made a keynote speech at the Copenhagen climate conference Friday, accusing the American president of carrying same satanic Chavez believes followed Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush. Chavez, who was not included on the original list of speakers for the final day of the summit, ended the proceedings with bitter references to the Peace Prize-winning Obama as the "Nobel Prize of War." "The Nobel Prize of War just finished saying here that he is here to act. Well, show it sir. Don't leave by the back door," he...

Leadership: Alaska's ex-governor asks a question we'd like answered: Why is California's current governor pushing the same policies in Copenhagen that helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment? The movie series that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name involved cyborgs traveling through time to alternately try to destroy or save one John Connor, who would grow up to be the leader of the resistance against a race of machines that ruled the planet. Prominent in the series was his tough cookie of a mom, Sarah Connor. Another Sarah has taken the lead in another resistance against another group...

The Communist cat is out of the climate change bag Bookworm on Dec 17 2009 at 9:28 am |   Since the beginning, climate change skeptics have said that the hysteria of the man-made global warming movement, aside from being based on manifestly shoddy and often dishonest science, was in fact a Leftist political gambit.  The Communists, having failed to win the world over with a Cold War had regrouped and were seeking to win it over with a warm war.  By targeting Western (that is, capitalist) nations as the evildoers in the world’s imminent boiling destruction, and then...

Madman Hugo Chavez in Copenhagen goes after Capitalism calling it a ghost running thought the streets, and then says Obama won the Nobel Prize the same day as he sent 30k troops off to kill innocent people (Video)

Firebrand leaders Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Robert Mugabe turned up the heat at the UN climate talks, dumping the blame for global warming squarely at the feet of capitalism. Mr Chavez, the President of Venezuela, was one of the first world leaders to take the podium at the venue of the Copenhagen talks. He seized the occasion to characterise newly-minted Nobel Peace laureate US President Barack Obama as a warmonger. "I don't think Obama is here yet," said Mr Chavez. "He got the Nobel Peace Prize almost the same day as he sent 30,000 soldiers to kill innocent people...

THE Copenhagen climate summit was pretty much summed up in the high-level segment yesterday when Penny Wong's speech was interrupted by whistles and chanting and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez got a standing ovation. President Chavez brought the house down. When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause. When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was...

He campaigned against private sector economic mismanagement, and the “harsh realities” of global capitalism. He pledged during his campaign to end corruption in both the government, and the private sector. After he took office, he claimed that he had “inherited” the worst economic situation in his country’s recent history. And then, the new President sought to consolidate his power. Once privately-owned enterprises became government-owned and operated entities, and were “restructured” so as to become, essentially, “workers’ cooperatives.” Not surprisingly, unemployment remained persistently high, even as the new was implementing his much-celebrated “reform” measures. And while private citizens had to struggle...

COPENHAGEN –Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe plan to address negotiators at international climate talks in Copenhagen next week. The three leaders are listed in a line-up of more than 180 government officials published in a United Nations schedule of speakers. Each head of state will have up to three minutes to address roughly 700 delegates, reporter, observers and civil society groups. The assistant president of Sudan, Nafie Ali Nafie kicks off the speeches at noon on Wednesday. Nafie chairs the G-77 group, a block of developing nations pushing hard for more...

Americas: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez was all bluster last weekend, flashing his missiles, hurling insults and spoiling for a fight with Colombia. The big danger here isn't Chavez, but growing White House indifference to an ally. This fall, when U.S. officials agreed to expanded military-base access in Colombia to fight drug trafficking and terrorism, it never occurred to them how much Chavez would use the arrangement as a pretext for aggression. "They are preparing a war against us," Chavez said Monday. So from Russia, he said, "thousands of missiles are arriving," along with T-72 military tanks "to strengthen our armored divisions."...

SNIPPET: "Venezuela's Marxist leader, Hugo Chavez, is receiving "thousands" of reliable, accurate, and very portable Russian ground-to-air missiles as part of a military buildup supposedly in anticipation of an anticipated U.S. assault. Chavez knows that there is no chance that the Obama administration will launch an attack against his regime. The real reason for Chavez's missile purchase and his military buildup in general remains hidden and disturbing. Chavez states that he is enraged that neighboring Colombia is permitting the United States to use six bases on Colombian territory. The troops had been stationed in Ecuador, but were expelled that nation's...

Currency, Bonds Fall as Venezuelan President Eyes More Lenders. BY DAN MOLINSKI & DARCY CROWE CARACAS -- Worries grew Thursday that Venezuela is on the verge of a banking crisis, causing a run on smaller lenders, sinking the country's currency and bond prices, and stoking fears that president Hugo Chávez could nationalize the banking system. Venezuelans and investors are concerned about small banks' solvency following this week's seizure of four banks run by a billionaire close to the government of President Chávez. The populist leader may have fanned the fire when he assured Venezuelans twice this week that he stood...

ONE of President Hugo Chavez's top collaborators will resign from his post following the arrest of his brother as part of a brewing banking scandal. Jesse Chacon, who currently serves as Science and Technology Minister, offered his resignation after his brother, Arne Chacon, turned himself in to the Venezuelan secret police on Saturday as part of a widening probe by prosecutors into the financial system. Chavez moved to distance himself from the scandal ... Chavez also said that he told the Venezuelan secret police to swiftly imprison Arne Chacon... "I'm very sorry that he is the brother of a minister,...

The Argentinean prosecutor who ferreted out Iranian links to Argentina's largest terror attack warned Wednesday of Teheran's growing terror network in Latin America. "The Iranians are moving fast," assessed Alberto Nisman, who has secured Interpol backing for the arrest of several Iranians, including former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, for ordering the July 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community offices in Buenos Aires. "We see a much greater penetration than we did in 1994." He said that Iran, particularly through Lebanese proxy Hizbullah, has a growing presence in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, using techniques it honed in Argentina before the...

The situation in neighboring Venezuela is going from strange to foreboding. President Hugo Chavez has been unsuccessful in getting the voters to make him president for life, but he has used his presidential powers to replace thousands of key officials with people selected mainly for their loyalty to Hugo Chavez. Since the government controls so much of the economy (mainly because of the oil industry), this has had disastrous results. There are increasing power blackouts, and an increasing number of state employees are not getting paid, or paid on time. There are increasing shortages of consumer goods. There is growing...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is inviting his mentor Fidel Castro to visit Venezuela during the coming months. Chavez read aloud a letter to the 83-year-old former Cuban leader during a televised speech Saturday night, saying "Venezuela awaits you." Chavez proposed that Castro visit at some point between now and April, during a congress of his socialist party. The 83-year-old Castro has not been seen in public since undergoing a series of emergency intestinal surgeries in July 2006.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Hugo Chavez is defending alleged terrorist mastermind Carlos the Jackal, saying the Venezuelan imprisoned in France was a "revolutionary fighter" rather than a terrorist. The Venezuelan president praised Carlos—whose real name is Ilich Sanchez Ramirez—during a speech Friday night saying: "I defend him. It doesn't matter to me what they say tomorrow in Europe." Ramirez gained international notoriety during the 1970s and 80s as the alleged mastermind of deadly bombings, killings and hostage dramas. He is serving a life sentence in France for the 1975 murders of two French secret agents and an alleged informant. "They...

Officials: Anita Dunn may be leaving with her little red book, but her husband enters as the next White House counsel, bringing experience in suppressing dissent, assaulting the First Amendment and limiting speech. Dunn, whose favorite philosophers include mass murderer Mao Zedong, was expected to leave after a short stint. She rose to fame as chief strategist for former Senate majority leader, now national health care guru, Tom Daschle. While serving as White House communications director, she was the commanding general of the administration "war" on Fox News. Like her philosophical mentor, Mao, and her colleague, FCC diversity czar Mark...

Battling with one of the world's highest murder rates, Venezuela on Wednesday crushed more than 30,000 guns seized from the streets during police raids this year. Policemen used blow-torches to chop up some of shotguns and pistols. They compacted weapons including home-made pistols into a 5 ton block... "This act forms part of the disarmament policies that we have been promoting." With 13,000 murders in 2007... Venezuela's murder rate is about 8 times that of the United States. Crime has risen under President Hugo Chavez...

Hugo Chavez is stirring trouble with Colombia to disguise domestic failures and Venezuela would be "mad" to enter a conflict with its neighbor. Perez said the Venezuelan leader's recent controversial exhortation to his army to "prepare for war" was a political smoke screen. "He is obviously trying to distract attention from the immense failure of his government after 10 years in power," Perez said at his home in San Cristobal, capital of Tachira. "In Venezuela today, there is neither electricity nor water on a permanent basis. The crime figures are battering us all. The country has gone backward enormously in...

[Venezuela] may be an energy colossus, with the largest conventional oil reserves outside the Middle East and one of the world’s mightiest hydroelectric systems, but that has not prevented it from enduring serious electricity and water shortages that seem only to be getting worse. ... The country has huge reserves of oil and natural gas and sizable coal deposits. Its Guri dam complex, built with postwar oil riches in the 1960s, ranks as one of the world’s largest hydroelectric projects. Guri provides Venezuela with as much as three-quarters of its electricity and, just as crucial, allows Venezuela to export about...

Nicaragua's President on Monday urged Latin American peoples to unite in order to force the removal of airbases in Colombia that the U.S. military intend to use. President Daniel Orgeta, a main ally to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, announced that the greatest struggle for Latin American countries was to "make dissappear once and for all ... the military bases that threaten the sovereignty, integrity and peace of our people." Ortega denounced the recent Colombia - U.S. military agreement (which he believes to have been initiated by the George W Bush administration) as the greatest threat to Colombia and Latin American...

When Islamists made their roots south of the border... Venezuela's dictator: H. Chavez that "sees" only money, oil and Anti-Americanism-Power, does "serve" the Islamic Iranian Republic well, giving out passports to anyone. From that "port" it is quite easy for an Islamic Iranian AGENT to arrive into any other Latin American country as a... "Venezuelan". A "random" different case (of a Muslim trying to "blend" into Latin America), a year ago, a Jordanian Arab that "met" a Costa Rican (Tica) girl in Spain (she vouched for him in CR, asw this man came from the area in Jordan where a...

SNIPPET: "Lula and Chavez have established a "strategic relationship," and recently agreed upon a joint Brazilian-Venezuelan oil venture worth billions of dollars. Lula and Chavez have joined with Daniel Ortega, the returned Nicaraguan Marxist dictator, to form an anti-U.S. Latin American military alliance - all with Russian assistance - funded by the region's abundant oil reserves. Brazil is engaged in its own arms build-up and Lula is determined that Brazil will become at least a first-rate regional power. Unfortunately, Lula is establishing Brazil as an anti-American military power by aligning with nations hostile or potentially hostile to the U.S. Lula...

The de facto Honduran government has agreed to a deal that may allow ousted President Manuel Zelaya to return to power ahead of elections next month. U.S. diplomats have been in the country to mediate an end to the four-month-old crisis. De facto President Roberto Micheletti unveiled the plan late Thursday, nearly four months after he took over for ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Since then, Mr. Micheletti has rejected calls from Mr. Zelaya and many foreign governments to restore the ousted leader to power, saying the Supreme Court had stripped Mr. Zelaya of power for violating the Honduran constitution. Now...

Tyranny: In his latest absurdity, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is dictating three-minute showers and no singing. Claiming it's to save water, his act is nothing but a "green" fig leaf to cover his socialist mismanagement. 'Some people sing in the shower, in the shower half an hour," Chavez ranted on his Sunday TV show "Alo Presidente." "No, kids. Three minutes is more than enough. I've counted, three minutes and I don't stink." His words echo those of environmental extremists, blaming shopping malls, El Nino, tourists and sabotage. But the water and electricity shortages are his own doing, and the scope of...

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has called on his countrymen to stop singing in the shower to help save water and electricity. The left-wing leader said they should attempt to wash in less than three minutes and breaking into song distract them. "Some people sing in the shower, in the shower half an hour. No kids, three minutes is more than enough. I've counted, three minutes, and I don't stink," he said during a televised Cabinet meeting. Getting into his stride, he went on to label baths and jacuzzis anti-communist.

First Amendment: Diversity czar Mark Lloyd's FCC votes Thursday on the issue of net neutrality. Advertised as providing access to all, it will do to the information superhighway what Lloyd proposed for talk radio. Not much was said when $7.2 billion was included in the stimulus bill "to accelerate broadband deployment in unserved and underserved areas and to strategic institutions that are likely to create jobs or provide significant public benefits." The administration has big plans for the Internet — like controlling it. Susan Crawford, the so-called Internet czar, told the Wall Street Journal in April that the broadband billions...

WASHINGTON — With a key arms control treaty set to expire soon, the Obama administration is searching for ways to keep inspectors in Russia or else it risks losing American eyes on the world’s second most formidable nuclear weapons arsenal for the first time in decades. The administration has been negotiating a replacement for the pact, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, which goes out of force on Dec. 5. But even if the talks produce a new agreement by then, the Senate and the Russian Parliament will not have time to ratify it before the old one expires...

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez's government began taking over management of a Hilton-run hotel on Venezuela's Margarita Island on Wednesday. Tourism Minister Pedro Morejon said a 20-year concession granted to the company has expired and the government "has taken legitimate control of an asset that belongs to all the people of Venezuela." Chavez issued a decree last week ordering the "forced acquisition" of the Margarita Hilton & Suites and its marina, though news of the edict did not surface until Tuesday. Morejon said the government has held majority ownership of the hotel since 1995, when a banking crisis forced...

Media Bias: Not long after pro football welcomed a convicted felon back on the playing field, Rush Limbaugh is dropped for his opinions from a group seeking to buy an NFL franchise. Won't someone throw a flag? When even Keith Olbermann says back off, you know the politically correct critics of the conservative icon and megaradio talk host's proposed part ownership of the St. Louis Rams are guilty of piling on. The prospect of the leading conservative voice in America participating in the purchase of a football team sent the liberal elites into cardiac arrest and into a frenzied campaign...

To: US State Department & United Nations IN SUPPORT OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF HONDURAS. We the citizens of the world, lovers of liberty and democracy, concerned about the isolation and impoverishment which is being imposed upon the Republic of Honduras by; the United Nations, the OAS, the UNASUR, the EU, and the U.S, hereby set forth our intend, individually and organizationally, to demonstrate our support of the government of the Republic of Honduras, presided by Roberto Micheletti together with all the legitimate and constitutional bodies of said government. We strongly support the current government’s efforts to safeguard the constitution...

The US-based Hilton hotel chain is "evaluating" the Venezuelan government's seizure of one of its hotels on the Caribbean resort island of Margarita, a spokeswoman told AFP on Wednesday. President Hugo Chavez ordered the "acquisition by force" of the landmark hotel Tuesday, according to Venezuelan officials. "At this time, Hilton Worldwide is evaluating how the Venezuelan government's action affects its interest in this hotel," said Karla Visconti, a Hilton Worldwide spokeswoman for the Caribbean, Mexico, and Latin America. In a brief statement Visconti said the hotel "remains a member of the Hilton system of hotels, and welcomes guests with the...

President Hugo Chavez has ordered the "acquisition by force" of a landmark Hilton Hotel on Venezuela's Margarita island, the government's Official Gazette announced Tuesday. The facility, on the Caribbean resort island of Margarita in Nueva Esparta state, was targeted for state takeover less than a month after it was used to host the Africa-South America Summit. It is not the first time Chavez's government has checked into a Hilton and stayed for good. Caracas has already seized the Hotel Hilton in Caracas, rechristening it the Hotel Alba, a reference to the Venezuelan-led leftist regional alliance Alianza Bolivariana para las Americas...

(Caracas) -- Venezuela's leader is criticizing the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama. Hugo Chavez said, quote, "for the first time we are witnessing an award with the nominee having done nothing to deserve it." Although in the past, the socialist leader has praised Obama personally, Chavez has also criticized what he has described as the "imperialist" policies of the U.S. In a column, the leader took the Nobel committee to task for overlooking Obama's role in "perpetuating his battalions in Iraq and Afghanistan and his decision to install new military bases in Colombia." The remarks from...

After visiting Tegucigalpa last week and meeting with a cross section of leaders from Honduras's government, business community, and civil society, I can report there is no chaos there. There is, however, chaos to spare in the Obama administration's policy toward our poor and loyal allies in Honduras. In a day packed with meetings, we met only one person in Honduras who opposed Mr. Zelaya's ouster, who wishes his return, and who mystifyingly rejects the legitimacy of the November elections: U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens.

Hugo Chávez asks mining minister during televised cabinet meeting: 'How's the uranium for Iran? For the atomic bomb?' Telling somewhat less than tasteful jokes about weapons of mass destruction has been an occasional pastime of a number of senior US Republican politicians. George W Bush, at a 2004 press dinner, showed a series of photos of him searching the Oval Office while telling guests: "No they're not here". Ronald Reagan, during a sound check for a regular radio broadcast, joked he had signed legislation to outlaw Russia and that the "bombing will begin in five minutes". And John McCain, at...

In case you haven't seen a TV in the last month, here is some background. Bertha Lewis is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Organizer of ACORN, the largest community organization in the country. Appointed in May 2008, Ms. Lewis oversees the operations of its 400,000 strong membership, which is active in over 110 cities across the country. During the past few weeks while Lewis has been all over the press defending her organization, she has claimed that her first priority is ACORN's Clients, those poor people needing housing, medical care, etc. If she is so concerned about "the little...

PORLAMAR, Venezuela – Moammar Gadhafi and Hugo Chavez are strengthening their relationship and finding common ground as two radical former military men who both want to challenge the "imperialism" of wealthy nations and aspire to speak for many poor nations. The Libyan and Venezuelan leaders were expected to meet one-on-one on Monday, although no public events were announced. Chavez and Gadhafi led a weekend summit where South American and African leaders pledged to deepen links between the continents. Chavez made diplomatic inroads while offering African countries Venezuela's help in oil projects, mining and financial assistance.

"We don't believe that human nature is perfectible; we're suspicious of government efforts to fix problems because often what it's trying to fix is human nature, and that is impossible. It is what it is. But that doesn't mean that we're resigned to any negative destiny. Not at all. I believe in striving for the ideal, but in realistic confines of human nature... The opposite of a common-sense conservative is a liberalism that holds that there is no human problem that government can't fix if only the right people are put in charge. Unfortunately, history and common sense are not...

Moammar Gadhafi and Hugo Chavez urged nearly 30 leaders from throughout Africa and South America on Saturday to form a strong intercontinental alliance to make the two regions a new global power. Gadhafi proposed a defense alliance of South American and African nations, calling it "a NATO of the South" -- an idea Chavez has raised with other allies in the past. Seven South American leaders signed an agreement to create a regional development bank with $20 billion in startup capital, and Chavez offered to help create a "South-South bank" with African countries in the future. The two-day meeting that...

Politics: In yet another vote against transparency, the Senate killed an amendment imposing legislative oversight on unconfirmed White House officials. Shouldn't we know who they are and what they're doing? Green czar Van Jones is gone, forced to leave the administration after Fox News and the conservative blogosphere revealed his past as a self-avowed communist. Jones had issues that some argue should have been discussed in confirmation hearings that never occurred before he assumed his position. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, would have liked to have learned of Jones' communist links and more before this man, who believes that white America...

(English-language translation) Sao Paulo - High-level officials with the Brazilian government are accusing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez of "orchestrating" the plan for the return of deposed Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya, who is sheltered at the Brazilian Embassy, the local press reports. Advisors to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Foreign Ministry interviewed by Sao Paulo newspaper O Estado pointed out that the "infrastructure, the logistics, and the advice to specifically seek the Brazilian Embassy" for Zelaya's clandestine return were prepared by Chávez. Zelaya's unexpected bursting into Brazil's diplomatic legation has caused an unprecedented and hard-to-resolve conflict, since...

This happened in an interview after Chavez speech to the United Nations, Foxnews ask some questions of Chavez and he responded through his translator.

Chavez: "The stupid people from Fox News -- not you, of course."