Axis of Good?
Posted on 01/16/2004 10:52:02 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday his country was forging an alliance with Argentina and Brazil to lead Latin America's opposition to U.S. free trade plans for the region.
"Clearly, an axis can be seen ... -- and it's not an axis of evil as some people say -- .. that passes from Caracas, through Brasilia and reaches Buenos Aires," the left-wing Venezuelan leader said in a state of the nation speech to parliament.
Chavez spoke a day after returning from a summit of regional leaders in Monterrey, Mexico in which he, President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sharply criticized Washington's plans for a hemisphere-wide free trade zone.
U.S. President Bush tried to rally Latin American support at the summit for the U.S. project to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas by Jan. 1, 2005.
Chavez, an outspoken former paratrooper elected in 1998, on Thursday hailed Kirchner and Lula as like-minded leaders spearheading a Latin American continent that is increasingly shying away from U.S. polices.
"There is a new America present, a new voice," he said.
He has campaigned vehemently against the proposed FTAA, arguing that Latin America's weaker economies cannot compete with powerful U.S. corporations. He says the region should first strengthen its own trade ties.
Chavez, who held talks with Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana on the way back from Mexico, also called for communist-run Cuba to be allowed to participate in any future Summit of the Americas.
Castro is barred from these summits because the United States shuns his one-party government as undemocratic.
"I think it would be good if we consulted all the countries of Latin America about whether it's right that Cuba should be excluded. Yes or no?" Chavez said.
The Venezuelan president said the growing cooperation between Cuba and Venezuela, in which more than 10,000 Cuban doctors are participating in Venezuelan government health projects, was a model of social and economic collaboration.
"Yes, we are de-stabilizers ... Fidel and Chavez ... against death, against injustice, against hunger, sickness and inequality," Chavez said. He faces a bid by foes to hold a referendum this year to try to vote him out of office.
Supreme Court Judge Alejandro Angulo Fontiveros said the so-called "famine theft" clause should be part of a broad penal code reform measure for humanitarian reasons. "This is a guide for judges to avoid injustice," said Mr Fontiveros, who is in charge of drafting the reforms. "They lock up for years a poor person who lives in atrocious misery and what they need is medicine."
But critics say the initiative will fuel crime in a country mired in a recession and where police last year reported an average of 25 murders a day and thousands of robberies a month. Two thirds of Venezuela's 25 million people are poor and a third of those cannot afford their basic food needs despite the nation's huge oil wealth, according to government figures. [end]
U.S. warns of possible threats against American interests in Venezuela(01-16) 20:45 PST CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) [full text]The U.S. State Department warned Friday of a potential threat to American interests in Caracas, urging U.S. citizens here to take precautions.
"The U.S. Embassy has received information of a possible threat against U.S. interests in Caracas sometime between Sunday, January 18, and Tuesday morning," said the advisory on a U.S. State Department Web site. "U.S. citizens are advised to maintain security awareness."
The embassy warning also said that "the risk of encountering explosive devices in Venezuela, particularly in Caracas, appears to be on the increase. These appear to be related with recent political unrest."
Officials at the U.S. Embassy could not immediately be reached for comment.
Several bombings in this South American capital of 6 million last year have raised tensions in this city, though none of the attacks targeted a U.S.-owned business.
Venezuela has been steeped in a political crisis for two years, which has included a short-lived 2002 coup and crippling two-month strike against President Hugo Chavez last year.
Government opponents accuse him of becoming increasingly authoritarian and are pushing for his recall. Chavez claims his adversaries are conspiring to grab power by any means possible. [end]
Cuba II - with oil.
On September 29 alone, six flights brought 950 Cubans, mostly males in their 30s and 40s. These "Cubans travel without caring about their belongings, which are loaded directly from the planes to the trucks of the mayor's offices," reported the journal El Universal on November 18. "The load is guarded by National Guard officers."
In this nation that once had a free press, the tightening grip of the Chavez dictatorship has forbidden the photographing of this airport influx of operatives from his friend Fidel Castro's Communist police state.
"The use of TV cameras as well as the presence of journalists from any mass media is prohibited," reported El Universal. "Nevertheless, a few photojournalists have managed to catch images from landings, defeating security controls."
Between September 26 and October 27, this journal reports from its sources that 11,530 Cubans arrived in Venezuela on 76 such flights. Chavez's seizure of one television station and threats against the rest of the press have reduced such critical news coverage of his regime.***
So Chavez is forging his imploding economy with couple of other run down SA countries. How lucky for them.
I agree. I don't have a plan, but if I had one, it would have to involve pushing back, both philosophically, and politically, and at some point you send in the specialists. But you have to be prepared to present your case, and we aren't really doing that very well, primarily because we don't understand what we are up against. And in part because, again, there is no philosophical barrier between Chavez and our own Democratic Party. Again, they would disagree with a Chavez or Castro for their abuses, but would find it impossible to refute their program because essentially they agree with it.
Expect to see the American left in mourning when Castro finally leaves the vail of tears he spent his life building. In the meantime expect to see anti-Castro and anti-Chavez forces in our State Department quietly marginalized and obstructed at every opportunity from within the institution.
''We've gotten hundreds of calls, mostly from the media, but also from our own officers and some members of the public,'' said Miami-Dade police spokesman Randy Rossman. ``At this point, we are not mobilizing anyone for anything special at this time.''
The latest rumor -- something that has occurred frequently over the years -- appear to have been spawned from comments published Wednesday from Luis Eduardo Garzón, the leftist mayor of Bogota, Colombia. He said that Castro appeared to be ''very sick'' during their talks in late December.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez met with his friend Castro in Cuba on Wednesday, Cuban state television reported, without offering details of the visit.
One senior exile community leader said he was contacted by a CIA official Friday to ask what he knew about it.
A foreign correspondent in Havana took a precautionary drive past Castro's offices in the Palace of the Revolution Friday afternoon and reported that all seemed normal.
Officials at the Cuban American National Foundation said many of the 100-plus callers who phoned their Miami office said they saw or heard about something on TV that suggested Castro might have suffered a stroke or worse.
''It's a rumor that started yesterday,'' CANF executive director Joe Garcia said Friday afternoon. ``It's wishful thinking. I don't have anything on it. But it's gotta be right some time.'' [End]
Chavez appoints radicals to head Venezuelan passport agency - reports of Arabs otaining ID documents*** CARACAS -- Already facing allegations that Muslim extremists have obtained Venezuelan identity documents, President Hugo Chávez has put the country's passport agency in the hands of two radicals -- one a supporter of Saddam Hussein.
Hugo Cabezas and Tareck el Aissami were appointed last month as director and deputy director of the Identification and Immigration Directorate, in charge of border controls and issuing passports and national ID cards. The agency also works with electoral authorities on voter registration.
Both were top student leaders at the University of the Andes in the western city of Merida, described by senior school officials as a virtual haven for armed Chávez supporters and leftist guerrillas.
When El Aissami served as president of the student body from 2001 to 2003, his armed supporters controlled the university's dormitories, said Oswando Alcala, a professor and director of student affairs.
Cabezas and El Aissami declined several Herald requests for interviews. Calls to the Information Ministry in Caracas also failed to elicit an official response.
Their appointments to the passport office raised eyebrows both because of the reports of Arabs obtaining Venezuelan ID documents and the possibility of fraud in an ongoing drive for a referendum to recall Chávez. His popularity stands at less than 40 percent.
''These appointments raise suspicions,'' said Pompeyo Marquez, a former Cabinet minister for border issues and an opponent of Chávez opponent. ``The risk is that they can play tricks both as regards elections and with identity cards.''
MAGAZINE REPORT
Allegations that Chávez's leftist government issued ID documents to Islamic radicals surfaced most recently in the newsweekly U.S. News and World Report.
''Venezuela is providing support -- including identity documents -- that could prove useful to radical Islamic groups,'' the magazine reported last month, quoting senior U.S. military and intelligence officials.
Chávez has strongly denied previous opposition allegations of links to Islamic radicals and leftist guerrillas from neighboring Colombia. Following the U.S. magazine's report, he accused the U.S. ''extreme right'' of trying to justify his ouster by ``anything: an assassination, a coup d'etat, an invasion.''*** [More at LINK]
The U.S. revokes visas of 17 pilots who fly the Caracas-Miami route for Venezuelan airline***CARACAS, Venezuela -- The U.S. State Department revoked the visas of 17 pilots who fly the Caracas-Miami route for the privately owned Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela airline, the company's president said. The local El Universal quoted Nelson Ramiz on Friday as saying the visas for pilots subcontracted by the airline were suspended last week without any explanation from the U.S. government. Ramiz said the airline has requested an explanation from the U.S. consul in Venezuela, but has yet to receive an answer.***
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