Posted on 07/04/2007 11:30:15 AM PDT by george76
The Venezuelan president bonds with regimes that the rest of the world -- and his own compatriots -- shun.
THE LATEST Global Attitudes survey by the Pew Foundation contains a lot of bad news for the United States, but there was one relative bright spot in Latin America: Venezuela. According to Pew, 56 percent of Venezuelans say they have a favorable view of the United States, a higher number than in Britain or Canada. Seventy-one percent say they like U.S. television and movies and a stratospheric 84 percent feel positively about Americans. Though only 23 percent say they have confidence in George W. Bush, the U.S. president's rating is almost 50 percent higher in Venezuela than that of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Those numbers cast an interesting light on the foreign policy of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who describes the United States as an evil empire and Mr. Bush as "the devil," and who just completed a tour of three countries he sees as close allies in a global anti-American alliance: Russia, Iran and Belarus. He addressed each of their leaders as "brother" and called for ever-closer economic and military bonds between their governments and his. This raises an obvious question: For whom was Mr. Chávez speaking?
His hosts clearly had something to gain. Belarus, known as Europe's last dictatorship, is such a pariah that its ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, is now shunned even by his longtime patron, Mr. Putin; he was delighted to be visited by any head of state. Belarus and Venezuela share "absolutely identical" views, Mr. Lukashenko giddily proclaimed.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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The answer to the question of whom Venezuela's president represents emerges from the data: No one, other than himself.Fascinating article. Thank you for posting it.
bttt
Thanks.
That wapo would allow this is interesting too.
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