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Venezuela's daily oil production has fallen by a quarter since President Hugo Chavez won power, depriving his "Bolivarian Revolution" of much of the benefit of the global boom in oil prices. US, vilified in a Venezuelan mural, is its best oil customer To win allies and forge an anti-American front, Mr Chavez sells oil to friendly countries at low prices. Ironically, the only big customer buying Venezuelan oil at the full market price is the United States, which the president routinely denounces as the "Empire". "As production falls, the sales to the US become more important," said Pietro Donatello, an...

Venezuela now has more murders than Colombia - despite its neighbour being officially at war against Marxist guerillas. Venezuela now has more murders than Colombia - despite its neighbour being officially at war against Marxist guerillas. Venezuela endures 48 murders for every 100,000 people each year. Britain, by contrast, has 2 per 100,000. In Caracas the official rate is 130 per 100,000, a number which the Investigative Institute of Co-existence and Citizen Security, a think thank dedicated to the study of crime, insists is closer to 166, making Caracas twice as dangerous as Cape Town. It is not just murders...

"Bill Ayers isn't out bombing anymore, but he has never stopped being a radical. His ties to hostile Marxist regimes remain, raising more questions about Barack Obama's refusal to fully repudiate him," states Investor's Business Daily. . . . "Obama says he barely knows [Ayers], but in the years when he was meeting and serving together on the Annenberg Challenge and the Woods Fund, as well as launching his career with a fundraiser in Ayers' Che Guevara-festooned house, Ayers made at least four Marxist pilgrimages to Caracas to praise Chavez's dictatorial regime," continues IBD. . . . "[Ayers] sits on...

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A.M. Mora y Leon Barack Obama's original political sponsor Wiliam Ayers has ties to the Hugo Chavez regime that apparently continue today. Here's how Hugo Chavez advertises Ayers as a member of the directorate of the Miranda International Center, a think tank funded by the Venezuelan government. There is zero doubt he approved of this description of who he is below on the Venezuelan government Web site. I translated it into English for you: Bill Ayers USA bayers@uic.edu 212-576-8274 William Ayers was the leader of the revolutionary and anti-imperialist group The Weather Underground which initiated armed struggle against the government...

2008-10-09 11:00:16 - Martin says Obama is full of anger and rage and should not be president. Andy Martin responds to Barack Obama's smears against Martin Martin says Obama's attempts to smear Martin and Sean Hannity are an example of what Americans can expect if Obama is elected ANDY MARTIN Executive Editor ContrarianCommentary.com 'Factually Correct, Not Politically Correct' FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: AN EXTRAORDINARY MOMENT IN PRESIDENTIAL AND MEDIA HISTORY: A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SMEARS A JOURNALIST FOR EXPRESSING FACTS AND LEGITIMATE OPINIONS, AS A WAY OF INTIMIDATING SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS AND EVERY MEDIA REPRESENTATIVE ANDY MARTIN RESPONDS TO ATTEMPTS BY...

An idea of what Ayers has in mind for America's schools was provided in his own words not 40 years ago when Obama was eight years old, but less than two years ago in November 2006 at the World Education Forum in Caracas hosted by dictator Hugo Chavez.With [anti-American Venezuelan despot Hugo] Chavez at his side, Ayers voiced his support for "the political educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution. . . . I look forward to seeing how . . . all...

The greater threat to our nation's security comes not from Dubai and its pro-Western government, but from Venezuela, where software engineers with links to the leftist, anti-American regime of Hugo Chávez are programming electronic voting machines that will soon power U.S. elections. Congress spent two weeks overreacting to news that Dubai Ports World would operate several American ports, including Miami's, but a better target for their hysteria would be the acquisition by Smartmatic International of California-based Sequoia Voting Systems, whose machines serve millions of U.S. voters. That Smartmatic -- which has been accused by Venezuela's opposition of helping Chávez rig...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

In a recent post I referred to a speech unrepentant domestic terrorist and Obama associate Bill Ayers delivered in Caracas, Venezuela, to the 2006 World Education Forum, sponsored by UNESCO. His text is full of Marxist rhetoric, but that's just Marxist Ayers being Ayers. He's also a professor of education, and there's nothing unusual about his presence at a global forum on education sponsored by an arm of the United Nations. But dig down below the topsoil, and you will discover that the ties between Ayers and Chavez run deeper than his appearance at an academic forum which just happened...

Hugo Chavez has come as close as you can to endorsing Barack Obama as you can come without actually saying so. However if you read what Chavez has recently said, you can pretty much consider it an endorsement. And this makes the DUmmies very nervous as you can see in this THREAD titled, "Hugo Chávez: 'New US president should listen to the world.'" The DUmmies know that Chavez is in favor of his fellow Marxist, Obama, winning the election but they don't want him to come out and say so just yet because they fear the backlash of such...

Energy: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez revealed his worst fear on Tuesday by calling lower oil prices "a hundred hurricanes." With the ban on U.S. offshore drilling now lifted, it's time to make his nightmare come true.Why do we say this? Because Chavez is using his abundant oil earnings for three purposes: to buy regional influence, to buy arms and now to introduce Russian nuclear proliferation to our hemisphere. All are serious threats that the next U.S. president will face if global oil prices remain high. Only lower oil prices will stop him. That's because oil prices, not ideas, fuel his capacity...

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that Russia will help Venezuela develop nuclear energy — a move likely to raise U.S. concerns over increasingly close cooperation between Caracas and Moscow. Chavez said he accepted an offer from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for assistance in building a nuclear reactor. "Russia is ready to support Venezuela in the development of nuclear energy with peaceful purposes and we already have a commission working on it," Chavez said. "We are interested in developing nuclear energy." Putin offered Chavez assistance in developing nuclear energy during a meeting in the Russian city of...

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday Venezuela will develop a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes, in another challenge to Washington just days after Russia offered nuclear assistance to the socialist Latin American leader. "In Venezuela we are interested in development of nuclear energy, of course for peaceful purposes, for medical purposes, for purposes of electricity generation," Chavez said at a political rally.

(English-language translation) ORENBURG, Russia (AFP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez today reiterated his "modest but full" support for Russia following its intervention in Georgia this past August, while at the same time not recognizing the Georgian separatist republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "Taking advantage of the occasion, I ratify moral, modest but full, support of Russia's actions in the Caucasus," Chávez declared during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Dimitri Medvedev in Orenburg in southwestern Russia. "We know how the people of South Ossetia were attacked," he added. Moscow's troops entered Georgian territory on August 8 following a military...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he was ready to consider helping Venezuela develop a nuclear energy program after meeting the country's President Hugo Chavez on Thursday. NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he was ready to consider helping Venezuela develop a nuclear energy program after meeting the country's President Hugo Chavez on Thursday. The move toward closer cooperation, particularly on the military side between Moscow and Caracas, comes in the wake of the Georgia conflict that triggered widespread western condemnation of Russia's intervention. The offer of support for Chavez, an outspoken critic of Washington, comes...

Venezuela President Hugo Chávez, speaking in China moments before flying on to Russia as part of a five-nation tour, on Thursday described the U.S. economy as "a sinking ship" in the final throes of capitalism but pledged that he would not cut off oil exports to the U.S. unless his nation were attacked. Venezuela has among the largest proven oil reserves of any country — at about 80 billion barrels, the country has nearly as much as Russia and the U.S. combined. "I said to President Hu Jintao in our meeting yesterday ... that Venezuela's oil reserves just keep going...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez broke into an unlikely snippet of song for bitter ideological foe George W. Bush on Thursday, trilling "you are so like me" about the man he has called a donkey and the devil. The staunch leftist said the world financial crisis had forced his U.S. counterpart to recognise flaws in the economic system that he had been pointing out for years. "I am sounding like Bush, more or less. What a novelty!" Chavez said, after quoting from Bush's warning that the United States was in the middle of a serious financial crisis that...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez held talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday before the two sides signed an oil cooperation deal and several economic agreements. The Chinese government gave no immediate details of the oil agreement but it said other documents covered economic cooperation, education and justice. The Venezuelan government said more than 20 agreements would be signed during Chavez's three-day visit to China, which began on Tuesday. Hu welcomed Chavez as an "old friend," following earlier meetings between the Venezuelan leader and Wu Bangguo, the official number two in China's ruling Communist Party, and Vice Premier Li Keqiang....

Just days after Moscow dispatched a Navy squadron to Venezuela, the Latin American country's president will touch down in Orenburg for a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday. Hugo Chavez, an outspoken ally of Moscow, is stopping over during a flight from China to France, officials from the Venezuelan Embassy and Orenburg regional administration said Tuesday. The choice of Orenburg, capital of a region stretching along the border with Kazakhstan, is connected solely to Medvedev's schedule, a Venezuelan Embassy official said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media. Alxei Likhtin, deputy information...

Within minutes of touching down in Beijing, Chavez declared himself an "anti-imperialist" and made constant allusions to his battles with the Bush administration, saying China's rise "has shown the world that one doesn't have to attack anyone to become a great power." A self-styled revolutionary, Chavez hailed Mao Zedong, the communist founder of modern China, whom many Chinese view as irrelevant nowadays as they chase wealth. "We are offering tribute in the land of Mao," the former army paratrooper said. "I am a Maoist." Last Sunday, before leaving on a five-nation journey that began in Cuba and also will take...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Beijing Tuesday to meet with top Chinese officials and to discuss the possibility of buying weapons, state-run media reported. Chavez is in China for meetings with President Hu Jintao, along with other "relevant state leaders," according to the Xinhua news agency. Their discussions are expected to include "bilateral relations and issues of mutual concern," Xinhua reported. Venezuela is reportedly working on a deal to purchase Chinese K-8 military training planes. The nations are also expected to sign cooperation agreements in the areas of "justice, sports, and quality supervision and inspection." Two months ago, Chavez...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country is no longer the backyard of the U.S. and that he finds it more important to visit Beijing than New York, as he arrived Tuesday in China's capital on first leg of an international tour. "China is showing the world that it isn't necessary to harm anyone to be a great power. They are soldiers of peace," Chavez said upon his arrival in Beijing, according to a Venezuelan government statement. Asked about his absence from talks this week on the sidelines of the United Nations in New York, Chavez said: "It's much more...

Human Rights Watch on Friday condemned the expulsion from Venezuela of two of its senior staff members after releasing a report that was sharply critical of President Hugo Chavez. The staffers, Jose Miguel Vivanco and Daniel Wilkinson, were forced to leave the country late Thursday. The order came a few hours after a Caracas news conference where they presented a report describing how Chavez has weakened democratic institutions and human rights guarantees in Venezuela. "Chavez's expulsion of Human Rights Watch's team is further evidence of Venezuela's descent into intolerance," Kenneth Roth, executive director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch,...

A suitcase filled with $800,000 in cash has embroiled Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez in a scandal which has fuelled claims of corruption and cover-up at the heart of his self-styled socialist revolution. A court case involving wiretaps and explosive testimony has lifted the lid on alleged attempts to buy influence across Latin America, putting Chávez on the defensive during a torrid week of coup rumours and expulsions of human rights critics and the US ambassador. Tumbling oil prices compounded the anxiety in Caracas, which is almost wholly reliant on oil revenues, and prompted the President to warn that the government...

ANNCR: Did you see who Obama wants to talk with? CHAVEZ: Go to h*ll, you filthy Yankees! ANNCR: Barack Obama says that he would meet Chavez without conditions. CHAVEZ: Filthy Yankees, go to h*ll hundred times! ANNCR: He said he would meet in his first year in office. CHAVEZ: The United States which is behind every conspiracy against our country. ANNCR: He said it was a disgrace that we haven’t spoken with them. CHAVEZ: If any aggression were to come against Venezuela, then there will be no oil for people or the government of the Unites States! ANNCR: Do you...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela expelled two senior Human Rights Watch monitors hours after they reported that "discrimination on political grounds has been a defining feature" of Hugo Chavez' presidency. Jose Miguel Vivanco, the group's longtime Americas director, was expelled along with the group's deputy director Daniel Wilkinson for engaging in political acts while in the country on a tourist visa, the government said. "We aren't going to tolerate any foreigner coming here to try to sully the dignity" of Venezuela,

The United States stopped trying to be polite Friday in an escalating diplomatic shoving match with the populist leaders of Venezuela and Bolivia. Washington slapped new sanctions on three aides close to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and called him weak and desperate. The Venezuelan ambassador got the boot for good measure, a move that was purely for show. Chavez had already brought his man home.

VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez expelled the US envoy to Caracas today and threatened to halt crude exports to the US on a day he highlighted the recent arrival of two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers. Mr Chavez today ordered US ambassador Patrick Duddy to leave the country within 72 hours, in a move he described as an act of solidarity with Venezuela's ally Bolivia, which also expelled its US envoy. "Starting at this moment the Yankee ambassador in Caracas has 72 hours to leave Venezuela," Mr Chavez said at a public event in the port city of Puerto Cabello, 120km west...

"Venezuela's Chavez says US ambassador must leave"

CARACAS, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Outspoken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Wednesday accused the United States of restarting plans to murder him. The socialist president, whose anti-U.S. outbursts have become a regular feature of international politics, alleged that America was planning to bomb the Miraflores Palace or the studio from where he broadcasts his Sunday TV and radio program "Hello, President." Chavez's latest denouncement of the U.S. came during the inauguration ceremony of a medical center in Flores de Catia, in the west of Caracas. "The plans to kill me are reactivated, and the Yankee forces are looking for active militaries...

Venezuela's Chavez Changes PdVSA Board of Directors by Raul Gallegos and Darcy Crowe Dow Jones Newswires Friday, September 05, 2008 CARACAS (Dow Jones Newswires), September 5, 2008 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has overhauled the board of directors of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, bringing in a host of new faces while leaving current Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez at the helm of the company. Chavez named six new directors in a decision that took immediate effect, the state oil company said in a statement. Related Products Economics of Worldwide Petroleum Production, 2nd Edition Tales From The Oil Patch Ramirez will remain as...

Marching On Chavez by: Lance Nation, September 04, 2008 On December 2, 2007, Hugo Chávez’s attempt to grant complete power to his PSUV and instate himself as Venezuela’s dictator failed. An average Venezuelan student decided not watch every liberty stripped from Venezuelans and led 200,000 people on marches against Chávez’s constitutional reforms. For his efforts, Yon Goicoechea is this year’s recipient of the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. “Chávez is not Venezuela. There is another different Venezuela that is growing in our land. Another different Venezuela, with a new perspective of life, with a new perspective of government, and...

Iran's increasingly close ties with Venezuela are causing concern to western terror analysts, given that Iran has long been a sponsor of Hezbollah. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran in an embrace accompanied by increasingly strident anti-US rhetoric from the Latin strongman. That has increased scrutiny of Hezbollah’s activities in Latin America.

CARACAS (AFP) - The recent nationalizations of strategic sectors in Venezuela are frightening away foreign companies and turning the country into South America's worst destination for foreign investment, analysts say. President Hugo Chavez's decision to take over electricity, oil, steelmaking, cement and telephone enterprises over the past year may strengthen the "revolutionary" drive towards building a socialist nation, but it also drives off multinationals which have the funds to boost economic activity.

The presumptive Democratic candidate aspires to end U.S. foreign policy “unilateralism:” Democrat Barack Obama represents a “new type of leader” who hopes to use multilateralism, dialogue and the cooperation on the international scene, his campaign advisors said today. “The new element that Obama brings in working with the rest of the world is that… he will listen and will work with our allies, and thus move away from the unilateralism” that has been the mark of the government of Republican President George W. Bush, declared Greg Craig, one of Obama’s main foreign policy advisers, at a press conference. Craig described...

Last week, while most of the world banded together to condemn Russia's thuggish invasion of little Georgia, another oil-fueled villain was busy patting the aggressor on the back. We speak of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, all but forgotten in recent weeks as other international bad guys have hogged the headlines. Chavez urged the Russians, with whom he recently concluded a multibillion-dollar arms deal, to go all the way and topple Georgia's democratically elected government. When Chavez was still in elementary school, his hero Fidel Castro, brought the world to the nuclear brink. Now, armed with our petrodollars, he's "Castro on...

CARACAS (AFP) - President Hugo Chavez said Saturday he has injected close to one billion dollars in Venezuela's petrochemical industry to turn it into the second-largest producer of polyethylene behind Brazil by 2011. < > He blamed the slow advance of the country's petrochemical industry to multinational companies bent on "keeping Venezuela dependent ... limiting its role to producing only oil" and not its derivatives. "But now the revolution is here, and all that has stopped. Never again will we be a colony ... regardless of the cost," the leftist Chavez said.

Socialism: Venezuela's seizure of Cemex assets Monday is more than a typical nationalization of resources. Its vindictive manner has much to do with the firm's Mexican headquarters. It's a message to others in the region.Like a quasi-military conquest, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez marched in troops to "take back" four Cemex cement plants in the dead of night as part of his nationalization of cement announced in April. "It was time," he said Tuesday, calling it one of his "steps toward socialism." Chavez then popped out fireworks as red T-shirted mobs, judges and politicians headed to the plants and cheered their...

Venezuela has seized control of plants and offices belonging to Mexican cement giant Cemex, as it proceeds with nationalising its cement industry. Government officials backed by the National Guard took over the factories after talks ended without a deal. It comes a day after France's Lafarge and Swiss group Holcim agreed to hand over local subsidiaries to Caracas. Venezuela has begun nationalising several industries as part of a drive toward "21st-Century socialism". At a political rally on Monday President Hugo Chavez said Cemex would move into state hands - after 60 days of failed negotiations - adding: "These are all...

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will take control of cement plants and offices belonging to Mexico's Cemex as of midnight on Monday after failing to reach an agreement in nationalization talks, the government said. < > The government said it paid $552 million for an 85 percent stake in Switzerland's Holcim's local unit and $267 million for 89 percent of the shares in France's Lafarge's local unit. "Lafarge is working to protect as best as it can the interests of its shareholders and of its staff on the ground," a spokeswoman for Lafarge said earlier in the day, declining any further...

With $1 billion a month in state oil profits, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has converted cash into political clout.

President Hugo Chavez assured World Jewish Congress (WJC) leaders on Wednesday that he would work with the Jewish community against anti-Semitism. The meeting succeeded in allaying much of the fear among Jewish leaders about increasing anti-Semitism in the South American country. WJC Secretary-General Michael Schneider told the Associated Press that the meeting was a positive one, and that Chavez and the Jewish community are "on the same page" regarding anti-Semitism. Chavez told the Venezuela has not had a fully accredited ambassador in Israel since 2006. delegation that he would arrange a joint statement condemning anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Riot police used tear gas Wednesday to block hundreds of Venezuelans protesting the latest moves by President Hugo Chavez to concentrate his power. The demonstrators said a blacklist of opposition candidates and a series of socialist decrees are destroying what's left of their democracy. Though the protest of about 1,000 people chanting "freedom!" was small compared to past marches, there is a growing public outcry over the sidelining of key government opponents ahead of state and local elections in November.

Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, who funds Iran-aligned terrorist group Hezbollah, has given $1.5 million to a Washington, D.C.-area charity that advocates for illegal aliens, the Washington Post reports. (See my previous Boston Herald op-ed about Chavez and terrorism here.) As part of Venezuela's "public diplomacy" (i.e. propaganda and subversion) program in the United States, the Silver Spring, Maryland-based Casa de Maryland will receive the grant from CITGO, Venezuela's government-owned oil company that is controlled by Chavez. Of course the Washington Post buried the story, placing it on page D8, as Ken Shepherd of NewsBusters noted. The Post reported that The...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez is aiming to set up neighborhood-based militias, move toward a socialist economy in Venezuela and increase state control over agriculture under a package of laws enacted by presidential decree. ... The decree allows the government to "restrict or prohibit the import, export, distribution, exchange or sale" of certain foods or agricultural products and "take over distribution activities when considered necessary." Other measures increase state control over commerce, services and publicity. Businesses that violate the new rules can face fines or indefinite closure. One decree aims to support efforts toward a socialist-style economy at the...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez is aiming to set up neighborhood-based militias, move toward a socialist economy in Venezuela and increase state control over agriculture under a package of laws enacted by presidential decree. Changes in areas from the military to small business loans were pushed through by the president in 26 laws released Monday in the official gazette.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says 24 Sukhoi fighter jets have been delivered to Venezuela — and are ready to defend his country from "imperialist" aggressions.

CARACAS: Venezuela will nationalize the local unit of the Spanish bank Grupo Santander, President Hugo Chavez said Thursday. Chavez said he would pay fair compensation for the bank. The government blocked the bank's attempt to sell itself to a local investor. In an address, Chavez said that "I am interested, and we are going to nationalize it." The financial institution is Venezuela's largest bank. Under Chavez's governance, Venezuela also has nationalized its largest telephone, electricity, steel and cement companies and has assumed majority control over four major oil projects.

Not since then-Rep. Christopher Dodd helped communist Pol Pot get his Killing Fields project off the ground in Cambodia in 1974 has a member of Congress played such a prominent role in so much murder and mayhem. Sen. Dodd for decades has undermined U.S. foreign policy in the Americas. He has coddled some of history's most vile communist tyrants and downplayed their unambiguous threat to U.S. national security. He has blocked the confirmation of solid anti-communists for key hemispheric diplomatic posts. He applauded Hugo Chavez' rise to power in Venezuela, condemned the April 2002 coup that briefly ousted Chavez, and...