Whose Waterloo is it? {Chavez}

Washington Times ^ | November 23, 2007 | Barry Casselman

[3AngelaD]

The biggest political story recently in the Spanish-speaking world has been a confrontation in Chile between the king of Spain and President Hugo Chavez, a democratically-elected Venezuelan demagogue who will soon try to circumvent his country's constitution to become dictator for life. Mr. Chavez also has become the mouthpiece of a small axis of Latin American leaders...who advocate Marxist socialism and virulent anti-Americanism...

...Chavez kept on with his harangue until a man seated next to Mr. Zapatero leaned forward, pointed his finger at Mr. Chavez, and said "Why don't you shut up?" This man was the Spanish head of state, King Juan Carlos. All of this was televised, and the king's rebuke almost instantly became a rallying cry in the Spanish-speaking world and elsewhere against the abusive Mr. Chavez....Fidel Castro issued a dictum from his sickbed, praising Chavez...Castro was careful not to attack the king directly because he knows that Juan Carlos enjoys tremendous respect throughout the Spanish-speaking world for his courageous and eloquent defense of Spanish democracy when the Spanish right-wing staged a coup in Madrid in 1981...

Chavez and Castro are obsessed with past grievances, and find them useful to divert attention from the failure of their own economic theories and management of their governments....As usual, Castro has his history upside-down. What he calls "Waterloo ideology" is his Marxist mumbo-jumbo interpretation of the famous battle in which Napoleon I was defeated...Castro has conveniently decided to ignore the megalomaniac "Emperor" Napoleon, who spent 20 years bringing war and death over the continent...Chavez is a petty dictator, so it won't necessarily take an army and a generation more to remove him and his ilk. In fact, the turning point may have already been accomplished by a brave modern king who has faced and lived through much worse.

[3AngelaD]

This is the best summing up of the King Juan Carlos-Chavez episode that I have read.

[Yardstick]

I hope the Spanish king’s comment somehow marks the beginning of the end of Chavez.

[griswold3]

“Spanish investment in Venezuela is not indispensable for us, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, Banco Santander ... we don’t need them,” Chavez said at a news conference.

“So if the government of Spain or the state of Spain ... starts to generate a conflict, things are not going to go well.”

Chavez earlier this year threatened to nationalize banks amid a wave of state takeovers, although most analysts have said he is more likely to boost regulations over the sector.”

I heard Chavez got his apology but I haven’t seen it in print.

[TLI]

A few things to know about good old Hugo.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (R) visits a arms factory in Russia July 26, 2006. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

The leftist government of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is negotiating with European and Russian companies to purchase or build nine submarines worth $3 billion, U.S. officials said.

Caracas is seeking the submarines for defense against what Chavez anticipates will be a future U.S. attack.

The Venezuelans are said to be looking at the Spanish-French Scorpene and the Russian Amur, one of the most advanced non-nuclear Russian submarines.

The 1,500t Scorpene has a length of 66.4m. The two vessels are powered by four diesel generators providing more than 2,500kW using GM synchronous motors with permanent magnets. The Chilean Scorpene will have a hull-mounted medium-frequency active / passive sonar. The vessels are armed with WASS (Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subaquei) Black Shark heavyweight torpedoes. The Black Shark is a dual purpose, wire-guided torpedo which is fitted with Astra active / passive acoustic head and a multi-target guidance and control unit incorporating a counter-countermeasures system. It has an electrical propulsion system based on a silver oxide and aluminium battery. Black Shark will also arm the two Scorpene vessels for the Royal Malaysian Navy.

The six torpedo tubes will be capable of firing SM-39 Exocet anti-ship missiles, which have a range of 50km. The vessels will be equipped with EDO Reconnaissance Systems AR-900 electronic support measures/direction-finding (ESM/DF) system.

WEAPONS SYSTEMS
Scorpene is equipped with six bow-located 21in torpedo tubes providing salvo launch capability. Positive discharge launching is by an air turbine pump.

The submarine's weapons include anti-ship and anti-submarine torpedoes and anti-surface missiles. 18 torpedoes and missiles or 30 mines can be carried by the Scorpene attack submarine. The handling and loading of weapons is automated.

SUBTICS COMBAT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The SUBTICS combat management system, with up to six multifunction common consoles and a centrally situated tactical table, is collocated with the platform-control facilities. The combat management system is composed of a command and tactical data handling system, a weapon control system and an integrated suite of acoustic sensors with an interface to a set of air surface detection sensors and to the integrated navigation system. The system can also download data from external sources. The integrated navigation system combines data from global positioning systems, the log, depth measurement and the ship's trim / list monitoring system. The Scorpene monitors the environment including seawater density and temperature and the submarine's own noise signature.

SONAR SUITE
The vessel's sonar suite includes a long-range passive cylindrical array, an intercept sonar, active sonar, distributed array, flank array, a high-resolution sonar for mine and obstacle avoidance and a towed array. CONTROL AND MONITORING All submarine handling operations are carried out from the control room. The vessel features a high level of automation and surveillance, with automatic control mode of rudders and propulsion, continuous monitoring of the propulsion systems and platform installations, centralised and continuous surveillance of all potential hazards (leaks, fires, presence of gases) and the status of the installations that affect the safety while submerged.

LINK

Hugo may come off as karaoke crooning buffoon but I believe we will be hearing much more from him, so to speak.

[Nick5]

Yes, and many hoped that the Bay of Pigs would somehow mark the beginning of the end of Castro. But I guess we can dream...

[Yardstick]

Well aren’t you just the hard-bitten realist. How impressive.

And your point is devastating. Since Castro hasn’t come to an end, Chavez can’t come to an end.

QED as I slink off.

[Nick5]

Actually I’m fairly optimistic that Venezuela ‘07 isn’t Cuba ‘59 and that Chavez isn’t going to be crowned dictator for life. For one thing, the forces of opposition aren’t stampeding onto Miami-bound airplanes.

[444Flyer]

Poor little loo loo Chachi?

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

This power-hungry maniac can’t wait until Fidel dies. He wants to be top communist in Latin-America.

[3AngelaD]

One of the royal mottoes is “Never apologize, never explain.” Chavez needs Spanish investments, and investments from the rest of the world, more than the world needs Chavez, because without that investment, he cannot fully exploit Venezuela’s oil assets. Chavez is a blow hard, and was surprised when the rest of the civilized world sided with the King. Ni modo.

[theymakemesick]

Here's a few more for your album:

Daniel Ortega

Robert Mugabe

Vladimir Putin

Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko

Danny Glover

I couldn't find one of Kim Jong Il, but I didn't look very hard. Cheers

[TLI]

Thanks! I will tack them in.

[444Flyer]

Thin as thieves.