Agents of Hizbullah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have deployed special forces in Venezuela intended to kidnap Jewish businessmen and smuggle them to Lebanon, Israel Radio reported Thursday. An expert on counter-terrorism warned in an interview with The Los Angeles Times that Iranian-backed agents have managed to recruit collaborators among Venezuelan citizens living in the capital Caracas. The collaborators are supposed to observe traffic at the Caracas airport and around it in order to collect information on Jewish travelers there. Hizbullah has strengthened its grasp of Venezuela following the warm relationship that grew between Venezuela and Iran. Experts quoted by the Times warned that Venezuela might become a base out of which Hizbullah could carry out terror attacks.

Well, gentle reader, do not worry! They are only coming for dem Jooz. Those people, after all, are wealthy and they are known nuisances. Hugo Chávez, the Bolivarian Socialist, that malodorous piece of Devil’s excreta has deep ties with Hizbullah. Not only did he allow them to open a regional office in his capital, but his former ambassador to Lebanon collected funds for Nasrallah’s boys. Chávez friendship with every despot and America hater is well documented; he uses his country’s oil wealth not for the benefit of the poor - who put him in power - but to subvert other Latin American countries and put his own puppets in.

For the rest of this post go to: Freedom’s Cost

Hero of the far left in both America and Europe, Hugo Chavez, has pushed through 26 new laws ‘covering changes in areas ranging from the military to small businesses.’ The laws are part of a package that Chavez was able to push through on the last day of his 18-months special powers authority. (more…)

For those of you who know people who can’t stop caterwauling about the looming Theocracy in America, please introduce them to what I like to call The First Church of Chavez (via protein wisdom). It’s his church, bankrolled with his stolen oil money and purposed to condemn liberty and capitalism at every turn. Lest you think I’m being hyperbolic, the church’s mission statement makes no bones about why it’s there.

(more…)

U.S. terror report cites Venezuela, Iran

Venezuela’s associations with terror states, Iran’s meddling in Iraq and the resurgence of al Qaeda in Afghanistan top the concerns in a new State Department report on terrorism threats in countries around the world.enezuelan President Hugo Chavez is not cooperating with U.S. anti-terror efforts and has “deepened Venezuelan relationships with state sponsors of terrorism Iran and Cuba,” the annual report says.

(more…)

This picture has apparently hurt the paper-thin ego of Chavez, whose lackeys in the government controlled press made the whole affair even funnier by accusing Reuters of “media terrorism”. Read the story here (Spanish)

The New York Times has quite an interesting article up about the latest crisis caused by Venezuela President Hugo Chavez. The Times argues that Chavez considers the democratically elected government of Colombia to be, basically, a proxy of the United States. Chavez even went so far as to call Colombia the “Israel of Latin America” recently. (more…)

My, my. It seems that the Savior of South America - Hugo Chavez - is in bed with terrorists. According to a CNN report Chavez “recently gave the FARC $300 million.” As if that’s not enough, “evidence in three seized computers also suggests FARC had given Chavez 100 million pesos when he was a jailed rebel leader.” (more…)

Earlier today, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered thousands of troops to the country’s border with Colombia. The reason? Colombia’s military killed “a top rebel leader.” The rebels in this case are, of course, the FARC; an incredibly ruthless organization. Aside from that, he also “ordered the Venezuelan Embassy in Colombia closed and said all embassy personnel would be withdrawn.” (more…)

Joe Gandelman links to this story in the Miami Herald which states that “Venezuelan Jews, long uneasy with the Chávez government’s alliances with Iran and other Middle Eastern countries that espouse anti-Israel views, are concerned that the government is sponsoring anti-Semitism in this hemisphere,” according to a “prominent journalist.”

(more…)

Captain Ed passes on the report that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’ magnanimity in defeat may have been a sham to cover up his unsuccessful attempt to steal the referendum.

Chavez’ acquiescence to electoral defeat came as a surprise to many observers in light of his clear attempts in advance of the referendum to intimidate and bully dissenters and thus lay the groundwork for not only stealing the election, but also for a follow-on crackdown. Nonetheless, not even calling dissenters “traitors” was enough to silence Chavez’ cheering section, many of whom cited his acceptance of defeat as proof of Chavez’ democratic bona fides and the superiority of his regime to that horrible dictatorship found in the United States. (more…)

Ed Morrissey says probably, yeah.

Challenging accusations that he is a dictator-in-waiting and implicitly abandoning his earlier characterization of dissenters as “traitors”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accepted defeat in a referendum that would have granted him president-for-life status and allowed him to revoke basic freedoms.

Other less prominent features in the referendum would have targeted Venezuela’s economy and local political institutions for massive change and increased personal control by Chavez:

The defeated reform package would have created new types of communal property, let Chavez handpick local leaders under a redrawn political map and suspended civil liberties during extended states of emergency. (more…)

Chavez sets groundwork for crackdown. (more…)

Having previously declared that all who oppose him are “traitors”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced that if there are any accusations of fraud after the upcoming referendum on granting Chavez an unlimited grip on power, he will retaliate by cutting of oil supplies to the United States. (more…)

From an editorial in today’s Washington Post:

Mr. Chavez’s apologists like to dismiss the Venezuelan forces opposing his deconstruction of democracy — which include the Catholic Church, the private business community and labor unions as well as students — as a corrupt elite. So it’s worth noting what some of Mr. Chavez’s long-standing allies are saying about his constitutional changes. The political party Podemos, whose members ran for parliament on a pro-Chavez platform, call it “a constitutional fraud.” Mr. Chavez’s recently retired defense minister, Gen. Ra¿l Isa¿as Baduel, said it was an “undemocratic imposition” and that its approval would amount to “a coup.” (more…)

Ignacio Ramonet is the editor-in-chief of Le Monde Diplomatique (not to be confused with Le Monde), a decidedly left-wing, anti-American publication. Last August, he heaped praise (in French) on Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Truthout — an American left-wing website — translated Ramonet’s words into English.

Here, in its entirity and with my emphases, are the thoughts of a rather prominent useful idiot:

Few world leaders are the objects of as hateful demolition campaigns as Mr. Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela. His enemies have stopped at nothing: coup d’état, oil strike, capital flight, assassination attempts… (more…)

Hugo Chavez may be a card-carrying member of the anti-globalization crowd, but that doesn’t mean what you may think it means. To see why, read this op-ed by Moises Naim, the editor of Foreign Policy magazine and the author of “Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy.”Ideological labels aside, Chavez is this generation’s Noriega.

From the Associated Press:

Masked gunmen opened fire on students returning from a march . . . The violence broke out after an estimated 80,000 anti-Chavez demonstrators — led by university students — marched peacefully to the Supreme Court to protest constitutional changes that would greatly expand Chavez’s power if voters agree to the changes in December.

H/t Avenida Central.

Fausta Wertz writes for Pajamas Media:

How the Man Who Would Be Castro marked a new milestone on the path towards totalitarianism by shutting down the nation’s most popular television station. He will keep at it until there is no free press left and no one to report the fact that it disappeared.

President Hugo Chavez, not satisfied with closing RCTV, the most popular TV station in the Venezuela, yesterday threatened another private TV station, by launching an investigation as to whether Globovision, the only remaining broadcaster that is not government-controlled, was using subliminal messages to incite an assassination attempt on the president. Chavez threatened the opposition, saying that he is prepared to die to defend his beliefs and asking if opposition media outlets are similarly prepared.

In what is becoming the land of Chavez, investigations on the suspicion of subliminal messages are just as credible as pulling the RCTV license of without any judicial deliberation.

Fausta goes on to summarize what happened recently.

Chavez is, slowly but surely, showing his true colors. Chavez does not care about the people of Venezuela, Chavez cares about his own power. If he is not stopped, he will draw all power to himself and South America will be one dictator richer.

The question is, can he be stopped? To be honest, I do not think that other countries can stop Chavez from becoming a tyrant. The only people who can possibly stop him are Venezuelans. Of course, he can oppress them by sending in the police and even military whenever they protest his rule.

In short: I am not hopeful. I fear for Venezuela that it will have its very own Führer, who does not tolerate any opposition.

I think that the US can only do one thing: make sure that the Chavez revolution does not spread. This means that the US has to invest big time in South America, to create goodwill.

U.S. President George W. Bush is - of course - still in South America in an attempt to improve America’s image, to (potentially) help South American governments and to limit the influence of certain hostile leaders / countries (like Chavez).

Two interesting articles were published in the Washington Post recently, one today about Bush’s visit to Guatamala and one on March 9, by Marcela Sanchez, and about Bush’s “other half” - the one addressing poverty, helping people and regions develop (economically), etc., instead of the one that’s, in Steven Hadley’s words, “counter-terror, trade and counter-narcotics.”

Sanchez touches on an important subject, namely: (the causes and potential remedy for) anti-Americanism in South America. As people who visited South America and / or those who simply try to keep track of developments there, know, as the commenter who sent me the links to these two articles Christine Stanley, pointed out, anti-Americanism is very strong and growing in most, if not all, South American countries.
(more…)

Hugo Chavez isn’t happy that Bush is visiting South America. He called Bush’s visit an “act of imperialism” and told Bush to “go home”. More:

“The Bush plan is ridiculous. He thinks he is Columbus, discovering poverty after seven years in power.”

(more…)

To say that Bush - and the U.S. as a whole - isn’t exactly very popular in South America would be quite an understatement.

U.S. President George W. Bush is visiting Latin America to - in the words of the Times - “counter the region’s growing anti-Americanism and the populist influence of Venezuela’s leader, Hugo Chávez.”

He will reportedly offer “medical care and mortgage help for working families”: in short, he’ll try to convince them that the U.S. cares about South America. Bush is quoted as saying: “In an age of growing prosperity and abundance, this is a scandal – and it’s a challenge. The fact is that tens of millions of our brothers and sisters to the south have seen little improvement in their daily lives. And this has led some to question the value of democracy.”

Although quite some conservatives might not be happy with this, it seems to me that an offensive like this is necessary if the U.S. wants to protects its own interests in the region. Money talks and, up until now, Chavez is doing most of the talking.