Posted on 03/10/2007 4:21:23 PM PST by Kitten Festival
TRINIDAD, Bolivia - President Hugo Chavez visited flood-ravaged Bolivia on Saturday to show off the fact that Venezuela has pledged 10 times more aid than the Bush administration. But local leaders gave him a cool reception, accusing him of meddling in Bolivian politics.
Bolivia was the latest stop on a Chavez tour intended to upstage President Bush's own trip through Latin America.
... Thousands of Bolivians, joined by Venezuelan aid workers, greeted Chavez at the airport in Trinidad, a city in Bolivia's eastern lowlands where a rainy season supercharged by El Nino has killed 51 people, driven thousands from their homes ...
Chavez, wearing an untucked red shirt in the blazing heat, kissed a Bolivian flag held by sailors in dress whites. He has pledged $15 million in aid for flood victims, including a squadron of helicopters to deliver food to remote villages, dwarfing the $1.5 million sent by the U.S.
A spokesman for Bolivian President Evo Morales told state television TVB that Morales' government espoused policies "against war, against violence, and these policies, without a doubt, are counter to what the U.S. government is imposing, no only in Iraq, but also in the continent."
However, not everyone welcomed Chavez. Bolivia's cattle-ranching state of Beni is a stronghold of opposition to Morales, a Chavez ally who has pledged to redistribute large tracts of land to the poor. Local leaders see Chavez's generosity as political opportunism and resent his influence in Bolivia.
The Beni governor and the mayor of Trinidad have refused to receive Chavez, complaining that Venezuelan aid workers have ignored their authority.
"We are grateful for the assistance of the Venezuelan people, but we're bothered by the intervention of Chavez in Bolivia," Mayor Moises Shiriqui told The Associated Press. "He's coming here for a political campaign."
(Excerpt) Read more at casperstartribune.net ...
By the way, Chavez wears his shirts untucked now because he´s gotten fat as a hog.
LOL! Love that little detail. I guess that's what the Revolution will do for you - if you're the boss, that is.
Where's the sharp shooter with the .50 cal sniper rifle with the one mile range when we really need him?
You (censored) yanquis are without shame. You (censored) capitalistas do not understand companero Chavez. You (censored)(censored) do not understand his divine committment to the campesino.
El Commandante has given all his food to the poor - all of it, and, si, si, even his rum, cigars, and, sob, women.
Now his stomach is swollen like a campesino's tent from that divine malnutrition.
El Commadante is a man of the people. His stomach is empty.
But one day the people of Venezuela and Bolivia will have full stomachs - like, si, the brothers and sisters in Cuba.
How could I not have known! How unworthy of El Comandante are we...
Bolivians might snub him, but Chavez still has the love of hordes of left wing, pasty, internet nerds aka Daily Kos, DU, HuffPo etc....
Chavez is a punk, thug. In 5 years times Venezuela will be a basket case begging us to bail them out.
I think it will be sooner than that. But Chavez will have to be out on a meathook for that to happen.
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