Free Republic

War On Terror: We have a new "axis" to worry about — the "Axis of Unity" just formed by Iran and Venezuela. Time to pay attention: Iran is openly fighting us in the Mideast. Now it's getting ready to fight us here, too. We've talked a great deal about Iran's threat. Simply put, we think Iran is at war with us, and has been since its revolution in 1979. We just haven't noticed. Recent events only bolster our conviction. Most alarmingly, Iran's mullahs have become so emboldened by our inaction they're going from making mere threats to actively killing our...

Latin America: Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has expropriated $4.5 billion in assets from two U.S. oil firms. It's an ugly loss, but they will live. What's in doubt is Venezuela's future. No one knows what exactly will take over the mighty Orinoco-region investments that ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil will likely vacate as Chavez declares yet another "people's victory." But there's little chance the country will be able to match what those two companies could add to oil output and national development there. And the loser will be Venezuela.

Diplomacy: President Bush invited Russia's leader to Kennebunkport this week, but he's hardly our good amigo. His latest provocations should be enough for Bush to cancel the trip and re-evaluate this friendship. On July 1, President Bush will honor Russian President Vladimir Putin with access few other world leaders experience. He's heading to the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport to dine on lobster and view the beautiful Maine scenery, as only a few distinguished world leaders, like Poland's Lech Walesa and Jordan's King Hussein, have done. Sure there are differences, the media kits say, but the rationale is that the...

Leadership: For the musty World Bank, president designee Robert Zoellick already seems like fresh air. He's not only standing up for the bank's real purpose — economic development — he's even challenging tyrants. Last Sunday, while visiting Mexico City, Zoellick threw a first punch at, of all people, Venezuela's bullying dictator, Hugo Chavez. Chavez has tried to cow the World Bank into taking a softer stance on his dictatorship after the bank's leadership crisis last spring. Although Venezuela paid off its debts to the bank in April, Chavez denounced the bank as "imperialist" and threatened to drop his country's membership....

This week we got delicious moments of chavismo ridicule, and of all reasons, a fight against Spain and Spaniards. It seems that the days of love and ideological lust of the early days of the Zapatero government are a thing of the past. It all started with some concern expressed over the RCTV closing by Moratinos, the Spanish Foreign Minister who has presided over a recent warming up of Spain's icy cold relations with the US (most links in English, for a change). Chavez totally miffed said that he was taking distance from Spain even if "it hurt". Ah! The...

I like sizzling meat on the grill. Wild, huh? Anybody? Now, we all know ol' Nuge isn't by any stretch of the imagination a weirdo when it comes to an omnivorous diet. Especially here in the great Republic of Texas, a smiling, drooling preference for succulent, protein-rich, nutritious backstrap over aromatic mesquite coals is as American and natural and right as Mom, apple pie and the flag. It's beautiful, really. But a culture war rages against such universal, self-evident truths. It would be laughable if it were not so deranged. Some weirdos actually are on a crusade to outlaw the...

Private television station RCTV Monday summoned The Carter Center to make the Venezuelan government comply with its commitments under the so-called Roundtable of Negotiations and Agreements in 2003. In a public letter, signed by RCTV chair Marcel Granier, The Carter Center is asked to act with "firmness" in this sense, following its "shy" and "tardy" statement on President Hugo Chávez' refusal to renew the broadcast license for RCTV.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Robert Zoellick, almost certain to be the next head of the World Bank, on Saturday took aim at Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, warning that his oil-fueled socialist revolution was headed for trouble. "It's a country where economic problems are mounting, and as we're seeing also on the political and press side it's not moving in a healthy direction," Zoellick told reporters during a visit to Mexico.

Freedom: As protests in Venezuela carry into a second week, it's clear Hugo Chavez crossed a line by shutting down a big TV station. With his legitimacy ebbing fast, he'll repress more. A kind of Rubicon was crossed when the communist dictator, ignoring the pleadings of even loyal supporters, including his poverty-stricken political base and much of the international left, bulled forward to shut down the popular RCTV television station May 27. He lost political capital in a way he never had before. His absurd justifications were a sign of a dictator on the defensive. The move against RCTV, he...

Leadership: As unrest over freedom's end grows in Venezuela, out comes Jimmy Carter's Center, expressing "concern." That's rich. Carter played a leading role in trashing the press there, making dictatorship possible. Jimmy Carter often wins praise as an international mediator, but it was precisely his mediation in two events in August 2004 that led to the turmoil now seen across Venezuela. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets crying "freedom" for two reasons: they're ruled by a dictator who's gathering absolute power, and they can't even complain because he's effectively ended free speech. On May 27, dictator...

Michael Ramirez's take on Hugo Chavez's dictatorship is here.

Scott Stantis has his take on Hugo Chavez's shutdown of Venezuela's RCTV here.

CARACAS, Venezuela - National Guard troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets Monday into a crowd of protesters angry over a decision by President Hugo Chavez that forced a critical television station off the air. University students blocked one lane of a major highway hours after Radio Caracas Television ceased broadcasting at midnight and was replaced with a new state-funded channel. Chavez had refused to renew RCTV's broadcast license, accusing it of "subversive" activities and of backing a 2002 coup against him. Two students were injured by rubber bullets and a third was hit with a tear gas canister, said...

Energy: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez put on a big show for May Day, expropriating the last big foreign oil company project assets. But neither oil supplies nor the oil firms will go under. Venezuela may be a different story. Oh, it was a big show all right for the communist dictator, almost like a military conquest. Chavez sent soldiers charging in to "re-take" four large foreign-oil installations, planting the Venezuelan flag. And this being May Day, red-shirted mobs chimed in with Chavista slogans, making the whole scene movie-perfect. Only the pitchforks were missing. In reality, it was just a $30 billion...

Forcing Big Oil to give up control of Venezuela's most promising oil fields this week will be relatively easy for President Hugo Chavez, but he will face a more delicate challenge in getting the world's top oil companies to stay and keep investing. If Chavez can persuade companies to stick around despite tougher terms, Venezuela will be on track to develop the planet's largest known oil deposit, possibly to surpass Saudi Arabia as the nation with the most reserves. If he scares them away, the Orinoco River region could end up starved of the investment and know-how needed to transform...

President Hugo Chávez wants the private sector to invest in Venezuela, by arguing that the government is not at odds with businesses. "Are you willing to invest in Venezuela? Here, we are. This government is not an enemy of Venezuelan businesses. We are ready to give them a stake, as we are doing it in different ambits." "Nevertheless, domestic businesses should not lend themselves to attack their own homeland, as it was the case five years ago, to cause the collapse of the government and the democratic system," the ruler clarified.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani called for a national campaign to achieve energy independence during a Missouri campaign stop Saturday. The former New York mayor said a national program to tap new energy sources, akin to the 1960s technological race to beat the Soviets to the moon, would give Republicans a positive issue to stand for in the 2008 White House race. "Too much of our party is defined by what we're against. Too little is defined by what we're for. When you start being for something, millions and millions of people start to follow you,"...

Energy: Venezuela's oil exports to the U.S. are falling sharply. But that won't make Hugo Chavez less of a problem for us. Without his oil earnings, the communist dictator is likely to be more trouble than ever. The latest figures from the U.S. Energy Department show a long slide in imports of oil from Venezuela, a nation that as recently as 1998 was our top energy supplier. In January, Venezuela's exports to the U.S. fell below the 1-million-barrel mark. Only 955,000 barrels a day were shipped that month, far less than the 1.2 million barrels sent in January a year...

Today began the tender by the Venezuelan Government for all of the shares of two well run companies, Electricidad de Caracas and CANTV. By May 8th. these two companies will become Government owned, will begin to deteriorate and will be a burden on the Government's finances. Thus in a country with huge crime rates, poverty rates at 40%, a failed state health system, malnutrition and all sorts of problems, ideology domiantes reality and the Government will spend some US$ 3 billion in purchasing two companies it does not need (That is $ 120 per citizen). Meanwhile, the prison observatory reports...

Marcel Granier is one of the directors of RCTV, the oldest TV network in Venezuela. Marcel Granier is also an articulate opponent of Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, who Granier likes to call "el teniente coronel", for the last grade in the army Chavez held before trying the bloody coup of 1992. In 2002 during the April events RCTV had a perturbing moment of silence while the Carmona ill fated adventure was collapsing. There are many possible explanations for this silence but to date no impartial inquiry has been launched. In fact, as we are nearing the 5 anniversary...