PrintOctober 9, 2007
The Latest from our Hero Hugo
We here at AT like to keep our readers informed of events and personalities around the world on a daily basis.
But all of us here have a special place in our hearts for that madcap socialist, hero to the masses and Hollywood nitwits, that Master of Disaster, President for Life Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
It seems that our Hugo has been playing footsie with the gangster/terrorists who run FARC - which is sort of a combination Columbian drug cartel and Third World Communist Revolutionaries for Socialist Justice. Except that latter is mostly for show. What FARC is really all about is making the life of the Columbian people a living hell through terror tactics while raking in huge amounts of money through their cocaine operations so that they can overthrow the Columbian government and make even more money.
Sounds like the kind of group our Hugo can get behind with enthusiasm. Sure enough, Strategypage is reporting that our Dear Leader is giving the terrorists a leg up in Venezuela:
In the meantime, Venezuela is becoming more hospitable to FARC. Along the Colombian border, Venezuelan troops are being withdrawn. This makes it easier for FARC to operate, and avoid clashing with Venezuelan soldiers (on the border, it's often hard to tell which country soldiers belong to, or which side of the border you are on.) Meanwhile, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez tried, and failed, to get FARC leaders safe passage to Venezuela, where Chavez wants to try and negotiate a deal that would exchange 45 FARC kidnap victims for 500 imprisoned FARC killers, kidnappers and cocaine producers. FARC is also demanding a large tract inside Colombia that is free of government interference. Colombia refuses to consider this, but FARC is insistent, as without sanctuary, the constant hammering by security forces will cause further factionalism and infighting inside the FARC.What a hero.
Anytime I write anything about Chavez, I'm liable to get some very creepy emails from lefties insisting that Hugo is a great man, a true man of the people whose socialist model will bring an end to poverty in Latin America.
Actually, I've read where many Venezuelans refer to him as la cabra que ríe (loosely translated: The Laughing Goat). As far as being a "man of the people" if your name is Ahmadinejad or Assad or Kim, he can be very friendly. Other people - especially his fellow countrymen who disagree with the idea that he is establishing a socialist paradise in Venezuela - not so much. Aside from destroying opposition newspapers and TV stations, Chavez has ruined the independence of the judiciary so that now they are a simple extension of his will.
And his appropriation of foreign oil and gas companies may have national security implications for the US. Ed Lasky reports that in ordering Exxon and Conoco out of the country, those oil giants have left behind valuable technology that makes it easier to refine the "heavy" crude oil found in Venezuela:
"It will be very easy for any firm that gets into a partnership with Venezuela to benefit from the best practices both companies left in the Orinoco Belt," said Manuel Treviño, a former PDVSA employee and president of NCT Corporación Petrolera Latinoamericana, a private company based in Spain that offers consulting services to international companies in Venezuela.Ed Lasky explains:
"What happens now is that Venezuela will bring in new partners to work on those projects and will share with them all the experience and technology left," said Bob Fryklund, vice president of industry relations at energy consulting firm IHS Inc. in Houston and a former ConocoPhillips manager.
Given the close ties between Venezuala and Iran, will this development end up weakening American sanctions on Iran regarding investments in their energy industry by American companies? As Venezuelan leader and Iran ally Hugo Chavez expropriates American oil companies investments. Will this valuable technology end up in Iran's hands-allowing them to evade, in a sense, American sanctions on oil investments in Iran?
Congress has passed sanctions restricting oil companies from investing in Iran's energy industry. A part of this impetus came from the recognition that American companies have unsurpassed technology that competitors in other nations lack. This expropriation may lead Chavez to give some golden eggs to Iran and thus evade the sanctions.
I suppose the left will see this as big bad oil companies getting their just desserts. Meanwhile, Chavez continues to roll merrily along, as popular as ever with the blind lefties in this country who see him as a heroic figure, standing up to America. What he does in his off hours as far as murdering opponents and stifling dissent just doesn't seem to matter.
One wonders what it will take to wake these liberals up. Then again, they've been worshipping at the altar of Castro for 50 years while ignoring that gentleman's brutish treatment of Cuban dissidents so I suppose we shouldn't expect much.
Maybe Sean Penn will have a talk with him.
(Hat Tip: Ed Lasky)
