This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Hugo Chavez

  • Colombia, the new Israel

    Mora at Babalu Blog writes that the United Nations is getting bored with just bashing Israel so they’ve found themselves a new democracy awash in a sea of thugs at which they can aim their false outrage;

    The UN is now demonizing Colombia alongside Israel as a nation whose human rights record must meet UN scrutiny and condemnation.

    While Zimbabwe dies of cholera.
    While Venezuela slides into a dictatorship.
    While Darfur runs from genocide.
    While Russia turn into a hell with no future.
    While Burma goes ignored by the outside as monks are beaten and killed and aid is denied
    While business as usual goes on in red China.
    While Cuba continues to abuse truth tellers like Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and harass Yoani Sanchez. While Cuba artificially impoverishes 9 million people to keep them servile and controlled. While Cuba continues to imprison 1000 people, many up on no charges at all except ‘dangerousness.’ While Cuba gets away with destroying libraries and mob-lynching dissidents. While Cuba refuses to allow anyone at all to leave the vortex legally.

    Never mind that: Israel and Colombia are the real problem you see.

    Well, actually, the United Nations does that because if they get outraged at Zimbabwe, Cuba, Darfur, etc… they’d have to actually do something about it to remain a legitimate human rights defender. As long as they point and yell at the more innocuous offenders, they never really have to actually accomplish anything and their high-paying jobs in cushy offices are secure. And if they actually started making a difference in the world, they’d lose their jobs to peaceful coexistence – can’t have that, can we?

    From the link;

    Colombia was also criticised recently by Human Rights Watch, which said that President Alvaro Uribe’s administration “hampers justice efforts” by obstructing investigations into its alleged links with paramilitaries.

    Um, Human Rights Watch was actually ejected from Venezuela a few months back. When will they get their panties bunched about Chavez?

  • Obama’s Dignity Battalions

    I picked this up from Hot Air, by way of Ace of Spades. It’s a three minute interview with Rahm Emanuel in which he discusses his perception of this Civilian Defense Force.

    Now, I’m no conspiracy theorist, but Emanuel seems pretty focused on this concept of a civilian paramilitary force. He tries to make it sound innocuous, but you look at the pool of people from which he wants to draw this force (college kids), it’s almost as if he wants the cultural opposite from the people who enlist in the military. People more ideologically aligned with Democrats trained and armed. These are the same Democrats who opposed the draft for our military, but see it as useful tool for building a civilian force with the same amount of training, the same weaponry, the same skills. To “teach them what it means to be American”, in Emanuel’s words.

    Now for those of you too young to remember the Dignity Battalions, it was a trained paramilitary force in Panama who owed allegiance to Manuel Noriega. Noriega shuttled them around the country during elections to vote multiple times in May 1989. When the election didn’t go the way Noriega wanted it to go, he sent Dignity Battalion members to beat the crap out of the President-elect Guillermo (Billy) Ford with lead pipes. The attack was so blatant, the Dignity Battalion members so bold, so fearless, that a CNN cameraman captured it and beamed it around the world.

    Hugo Chavez has his own Popular Defense Units, civilian supporters of Chavez, trained in military techniques, who have been used to quell protests in Venezuela, some using gunfire on unarmed civilian opponents.

    The Left admires Chavez’ brand of socialism, his ability to shut down opposition media and now his solution to crush dissent. I’m just sayin’….

    I thought ya’all’d like to discuss this one.

  • McCain hits Obama with Chavez

    Hugo Chavez makes the big time in American politics as a star in the latest John McCain ad with Chavez’ rant just last week about “shit Americans”;

    [youtube AHQwsxHiaY0 nolink]

    The Washington Times says the ad is aimed at Hispanic Americans;

    In the ad – replete with bleeps to cover up Mr. Chavez’s repeated expletives in condemning Americans – the McCain campaign charges that Mr. Obama would meet unconditionally with Mr. Chavez and other anti-American foreign leaders. “Do you believe we should talk with Chavez?” the announcer asks.

    The McCain campaign said Hispanic voters are particularly open to the message because many of them are immigrants who came to the U.S. seeking to escape the sort of political tactics Mr. Chavez employs.

    “They come to American for freedom, and yet Senator Obama seems overly willing to deal with a tin-pot dictator,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said.

    Typically, the Obama campaign’s response has little to do with reality;

    Federico de Jesus, an Obama campaign spokesman, called the new Chavez ad the “latest distortion” from Mr. McCain, and said it’s actually President Bush’s policy that has boosted the Venezuelan leader.

    “We cannot afford more of the same economic policies that have driven us into a ditch, and we cannot afford more of the same foreign policy that has strengthened Chavez and set back U.S. leadership in Latin America while doing nothing to break our dependence on foreign oil,” he said.

    Chavez was anti-US before the Bush Administration came into existence. Chavez merely took advantage of the US Left’s disdain and uses Bush as a boogeyman to whip up the crowds of supporters in his own country (like he was doing last week in the video). The reason we haven’t broken our dependence on foreign oil is because we aren’t allowed by our own legislatures to access our own sources, it has nothing to do with George Bush or Hugo Chavez. It’s the Democrats.

    The only part of the ad I disagree with is the phrase “Do you believe we should talk with Chavez?” It ought to be “Do you believe we could talk with Chavez?”The only way Chavez will accept any audience with a US leader is if the president (who ever it is) comes crawling across the floor of the Miraflores Palace. And right now, Obama is probably just the guy to that.

    UPDATED: Chavez responds as quoted by ElUniversal;

    “I will not reply to any candidate (Obama or McCain). We will try to understand each other, as presidents, with whomever who turns out to take office. Now, they are electioneering, seeking votes, and attacking Chávez there will probably give them votes in some sectors.”

  • US freezes assets of Chavez aides


    Yesterday, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez gave the US amabassador there 72 hours to close the US mission there and recalled his own ambassador. Prior to the announcement, Chavez manufactured a rally and assembled a crowd of supporters and told them that he had successfully twarted another coup attempt, ostensibly backed by the US. Jungle Mom posted this video in which Chavez called Americans “Yanquis de mierda” saying “we’ve had enough of your shit…” More of that excellent diplomacy to which we’ve become accustomed from Banana Boy. Val Prieto at Babalu Blog does a better translation than i can.

    As I wrote yesterday on my Latin American blog, Tall & Rich, the Venezuelan blog, The Devil’s Excrement, saw no evidence of a coup. It also comes the day after the legislature gave Chavez the authority to toss out foreign oil companies.

    The Miami Herald this morning, reports that the US retaliated by accusing thee Chavez aides of supporting the Colombian narco-terrorist group FARC.

    The move by the U.S. Treasury Department, a day after Chávez announced the expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy, freezes any assets the three men may have under U.S. jurisdiction.

    Rodríguez Chacín is accused of helping the FARC obtain weapons, while the other two allegedly protected drug shipments. There was no immediate reaction to the sanctions from Venezuelan authorities.

    This all comes as Bolivia’s communist President Evo Morales expelled the US ambassador there for supposedly lending aid to the autonomy movement there;

    U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington ”regrets” the expulsions, which ”reflect the weakness and desperation” of the Chávez and Morales governments.

    Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro said McCormack’s statement was an attempt to ”cover up the reality of the decadent government of the United States.” A foreign ministry statement accused Washington of “repeated demonstrations of hostility.”

    It also comes on the day that a Miami judge is scheduled to sentence two Chavez agents in the maleta-gate scandal involving illegal campaign contributions to the Argentine elections from Chavez (el Universal link);

    A judge is to sentence on Friday, September 12 Venezuelan Moisés Maionica and Uruguayan Rodolfo Edgardo Waseele Paciello, who are accused of conspiring to act as covert agents of the Venezuelan government in US territory without Washington authorization in the so-called suitcase scandal, reported on Monday court sources.

    While part of the Russian Navy sails into Venezuelan waters, Chavez welcomed two Russian bombers to his country on Wednesday (France24 link);

    Two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers were in Venezuela on Wednesday for “training flights,” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said, adding he would be piloting one of the aircraft.

    “I hope that stings, ‘pitiyanquis’,” he said, using a derogatory term for Venezuelan opponents who have perceived US sympathies.

    “What’s more, I’m going to take the controls of one of these monsters,” boasted the president, a former paratrooper and left-wing politician who has avowed antagonism towards the United States.

    Manuel at The Devil’s Excrement says there’s no evidence of Chavez actually piloting either of the aircraft yet…just more bluster from the little pudgy weasel.

    As I wrote yesterday, if I were Venezuelan, I’d be worried about who Chavez will accuse of undermining the Bolivarian Revolution after he tosses the yanquis out. The Real Cuba reports that the Bolivian Army has announced to Chavez that they won’t allow ANY foreign intervention;

    “To the President of Venezuela, Mr Hugo Chavez, and to the international community, we say that the armed forces (of Bolivia) emphatically reject any foreign intervention of any kind, wherever they be from,” Armed Forces Commander in Chief Luis Trigo said in a televised statement. “We will not allow any foreign soldier or armed force to set foot on our soil,” he added.

    In Latin American, the military defends the respective constitutions of their nations, not the political leaders. The Bolivian Army allows Morales to be President – that makes this pronouncement much more ominous than it seems.

    Thanks to Jimmy Carter…the gift that keeps on giving.

    Crossposted at Tall & Rich

  • US ties Chavez to Hezbollah

    Chavez Ahmadinejad hug

    Well, Jungle Mom has been warning readers of this blog about this for years (here and here), but today the Washington Times writes that the US has announced that it’s discovered ties between Hezbollah and Chavez;

    An investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) names Venezuelan diplomat Ghazi Nasr al Din and Venezuelan-Arab businessman Fawzi Kanan as key links between the two.

    “It is extremely troubling to see the government of Venezuela employing and providing safe harbor for Hezbollah facilitators and fundraisers,” said Adam Szubin, political affairs director of OFAC.

    Mr. al Din has served as charge d’affaires at the Venezuelan Embassy in Syria and as director of political affairs at the embassy in Lebanon.

    The Treasury Department made the accusations in a June 18 statement, which summarized an investigation of Venezuelan-registered businesses that are thought to be laundering money for Hezbollah.

    Yuh, it’s troubling, but since most of our own Christian missionaries in Venezuela have been removed and replaced by Shi’ite clerics for more than a year, who is surprised? Which news agency will summon the intestinal fortitude to ask Obama what he intends to do about this?

  • Colombia gets de-FARC’d (UPDATED)

    Of course, by now everyone’s heard of the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt from FARC guerillas along with the US citizens Farc has been holding for more than five years. Venezuela’s El Universal has the background on the rescue;

    The Colombian Army rescued safe and sound ex presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US citizens and 11 military officers held as hostages by the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), on Wednesday announced Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos.

    “They were rescued in an operation aimed at infiltrating the FARC first squad, the same that has held a large number of hostages for years. Through several procedures, we also could infiltrate the FARC Secretariat. Since hostages were divided into three groups, we managed to have them gathered at one single place and then moved to the south of the country, where they would supposed to report to (new FARC top leader) Alfonso Cano,” said Santos.

    The minister added that arrangements were made so that the hostages were picked up in pre-established place by a helicopter belonging to a ghost organization and that a FARC leader known as César and another member of FARC Secretariat traveled together with the hostages to hand them over to Cano.

    Santos said the freed hostages are flying in choppers to San José del Guaviare, capital city of the Guaviare region.

    “This operation, called ‘Check,’ is unprecedented and a proof of Colombian military forces’ quality and professionalism,” pointed out Santos.

    Actually, there must’ve been a mistranslation. According to their Spanish language article it was operation “Jack”

    “Esta operación que se denominó ‘Jaque’, no tiene precedentes y pasará a la historia por su audacia y efectividad, dejando muy en alto la calidad y el profesionalismo de las Fuerzas Armadas colombianas”, señaló Santos.

    McClatchy reports that John McCain had just finished a visit to Colombia moments before the rescue;

    McCain, Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Sen. Lindsey Graham took turns praising Uribe, who’s raised a ruckus within Colombia’s political establishment during the past week by asking the country’s Congress to let him run for president an unprecedented third time.

    Leftist critics of Uribe have said he’s trying to perpetuate himself in office like a “dictator.” Human rights groups have been saying for months that the president hasn’t placed enough priority on reducing atrocities against peasants committed by the military.

    However, Colombians overall have given Uribe extraordinarily high ratings, with 70 percent saying they view him favorably.

    Under Uribe, guerrillas in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are on the brink of defeat, major cities have become mostly safe for the first time in years and the economy has grown steadily.

    The news just keeps getting better for Colombians.

    Here’s Spanish-language video of the homecoming (h/t to my buddy Kate at A Colombo-Americana’s Perspective) ;

    [youtube LpEVf2MEsj0 nolink]

    I’m betting there are some angry screams coming from the Miraflores Palace in Caracas.

    More links at Venezuela news and Views.

    Of course, the Left thinks there’s some kind of conspiracy going on because McCain just happened to be in the same country. And suddenly Think Progress believes Fox News.

    Next they’ll be saying McCain freed Betancourt and the Americans himself in a Chuck Norris/John Rambo style raid.

    El Universal listed the former hostages names;

    Ingrid Betancourt, Thomas Howes, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, lieutenant Juan Carlos Bermeo, second lieutenant Raimundo Malagón, sergeant José Ricardo Marulanda, corporal William Pérez, sergeant Erasmo Romero, corporal José Miguel Arteaga, corporal Armando Florez, corporal Julio Buitrago (police), assistant superintendent Armando Castellanos (police), lieutenant Vainey Rodríguez and corporal John Jairo Durán (police).

    UPDATED: 30 minutes ago Colombia’s El Tiempo posted this Spanish Language video of Betancourt’s first press conference;

    [youtube 4AkU6mesU6A nolink]

    “El helicóptero casi se cae porque saltamos, gritamos, lloramos nos abrazamos, no lo podiamos creer. Dios hizo este milagro. Esto es un milagro”

    My Calle J translation;

    The helicopter almost fell from the sky because we jumped, we screamed, we cried, we hugged, we couldn’t believe it. God made this miracle. It’s a miracle.

    UPDATED AGAIN: More news and links at Fausta’s Blog.

  • Chavez to FARC; guerilla war is over

    6_22_chavez_bolivar_051508.jpg

    In a surprising turn of events, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez called on FARC to lay down their weapons (Associated Press/Fox News link);

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday urged Colombian rebels to lay down their weapons, unilaterally free dozens of hostages and end a decades-long armed struggle.

    Chavez sent the uncharacteristic message to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, saying their ongoing efforts to overthrow Colombia’s democratically elected government were unjustified.

    “The guerrilla war is history,” Chavez said during his weekly television and radio program. “At this moment in Latin America, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place.”

    Why would Chavez make such an announcement? Well, if you read my other blog “Tall & Rich” you’d know that Saturday Colombia captured a couple of Venezuelans delivering ammunition to FARC terrorists. You’d also know that INTERPOL has substantiated ties between FARC and the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela. This is Chavez way of deflecting the impending criticism.

    But, FARC has no such intentions;

    Yet a FARC statement posted Sunday on a Web site sympathetic to its cause suggested the group is far from laying down its arms.

    Written by rebel leader Luciano Marin Arango, alias “Ivan Marquez,” and dated June 5, the statement demands that new elections be called to oust Colombia’s government and Congress. The FARC’s “strategic objective is the taking of power for the people,” the statement said.

    It also claimed that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has backed plans to kill Chavez and leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

    Seems to me, at the rate leaders of FARC are giving up the ghost, it’d be hard to find someone to call themselves a FARC commander these days.

    Crossposted at Tall & Rich.

  • “Hope” for “Change”

    So Barak Obama pulled his snotty little kid act because John McCain, in a conference call with bloggers last month, hinted at the fact that Obama is endorsed by Hamas (USAToday link);

     “I think it’s very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president,” the Republican nominee-in-waiting said. “If Senator Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly.”

    So what does Barak say? (Yahoo/Politico link)

    Obama responded with the same sort of high-road message that seems to have worked fairly well against the gas tax holiday: The suggestion, he said, was “offensive,” and furthermore a mark that McCain is “losing his bearings” as he pursues the presidency.

    “My policy toward Hamas is no different than his,” said Obama, who called McCain’s comment a “smear.”

    So a smear is actually the truth now? Because what Hamas spokesman Ahmed Josef actually said was (Powerline link);

     “We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election.” Why? “He has a vision to change America.”

    It’s kinda hard to misinterpret that, isn’t it? Why shouldn’t John McCain take advantage of Hamas’ support for Obama?

    Clearly there is no “change” nor any “hope”. Obama is campaigning the same way Al Gore campaigned and the same way John Kerry campaigned. Whining little pussies who can’t take a punch.

    Obama hopes to control the debate by trying to shame John McCain into avoiding questions regarding Obama’s judgement and ability to lead. If Obama can’t take a couple of jabs involving actual facts, how can he lead this country in a world full of rogues? Is he going to call Ahmadinejad a racist everytime he threatens the US? Is he going to try to shame Hugo Chavez into ending his anti-American rhetoric?

    I’ve said it a thousand times – Obama is no leader, he’s just another drama queen who’ll be more fun to watch lose than either Gore or Kerry were.