Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

I'm keeping track of Hugoland formally known as Venezuela. Please LINK any stories or add what you wish to this thread. The above LINK takes you to past articles posted before the new FR format. Below I'll add what I've catalogued since that LINK no longer could take posts.

[Full Text] CARACAS, VENEZUELA - The man who won Venezuelan hearts three years ago as a strongman who could deliver a better life to the masses is now facing them in the streets.

More than 20,000 people turned out this week calling for the resignation of President Hugo Chávez, while some 2,000 supporters marched in a rival demonstration of support. The demonstrations come after months of building discontent with a president who has managed to alienate the labor class, the media, business groups, the church, political parties, and the military.

In November, Chávez introduced 49 "revolutionary" decrees. The package of laws - affecting everything from land rights and fisheries to the oil industry - unified virtually the whole of organized society in a nationwide business and labor stoppage that paralyzed the country on Dec. 10.

The protests this week have a note of irony, because they started out as a commemoration called by President Chávez. In his eyes, Feb. 27 is a milestone of his so-called revolution - "the date on which the people awoke" in 1989. That is when thousands of rioters and looters took to the streets in protest of an IMF-backed austerity plan, in which the government hiked gas prices.

In what became known as the caracazo, or noisy protest, thousands of rioters and looters were met by Venezuelan military forces, and hundreds were killed. Three years later, Chávez and his military co-conspirators failed in an attempt to overthrow the government responsible for the massacre, that of President Carlos Andres Perez. Chávez was jailed for two years.

"But the elements that brought about the caracazo are still present in Venezuela," says lawyer Liliana Ortega, who for 13 years has led the fight for justice on behalf of the victims' relatives. "Poverty, corruption, impunity ... some of them are perhaps even more deeply ingrained than before."

Chávez's supporters consist of an inchoate mass of street traders, the unemployed, and those whom the old system had marginalized. This, to Chávez, is el pueblo - the people.

"But we are 'the people' too," protests teacher Luis Leonet. "We're not oligarchs like he says. The oligarchs are people like Chávez, people with power."

On Wednesday, Leonet joined a march led by the main labor confederation, the CTV, to protest what unions say is a series of antilabor measures, including one of the 49 decrees dealing with public-sector workers.

Chávez won't talk to the CTV, whose leaders, he says, are corrupt and illegitimate. So he refuses to negotiate the annual renewal of collective contracts with the confederation, holding up deals on pay and conditions for hundreds of thousands of union members like Leonet.

Across town on Wednesday, a progovernment march sought to demonstrate that the president's popularity was as high as ever.

Pollster Luis Vicente Leon, of the Datanalisis organization, warns that marches are no measure of relative popularity. "There is a lot of discontent among ... the really poor," Leon says, adding that so far the protests are mainly among the middle class.

But the middle class can be a dangerous enemy. It includes the bulk of the armed forces, and the management of the state oil company, PDVSA.

This month, four uniformed officers, ranging from a National Guard captain to a rear-admiral and an Air Force general, called on the president to resign, while repudiating the idea of a military coup of Chávez, himself a former Army lieutenant-colonel.

But senior "institutionalist" officers "are under severe pressure from lower ranks frustrated at the lack of impact" that these acts have had, a source close to military dissidents says. In other words, a coup cannot be ruled out, although the United States publicly denounces the idea.

Meanwhile, the president's imposition of a new board of directors on PDVSA this week sparked a virtual uprising by the company's senior management. In an unprecedented public statement, managers said the government was pushing the company "to the verge of operational and financial collapse" by imposing political, rather than commercial, criteria.

The political opposition remains relatively weak and divided. But in the view of many analysts, a president who offends both the military and the oil industry is asking for trouble. In the bars and restaurants of Caracas, the debate is no longer over whether Chávez will finish his term, which has nearly five years to run. It is when and how he will go - and what comes next. [End]

Venezuela's Chavez at a crossroads: Will he blink or charge ahead?***…..The US Government is also keeping the pressure up, by sending a note to many Latin American countries expressing its concern about Chavez harboring terrorists in Venezuela. One can imagine some of them disregarding the note as another intromission by the US in Latin American affairs, but immediately being hit by the harsh reality of the news that as many as 100 members of the FARC attended a political Congress in Caracas a month ago. Images of dozens of people from their own countries exchanging strategies with these terrorists, or blueprints of weapons or even offers of mutual aid, will surely keep many of these Latin American leaders awake at night.

And then tonight Uribe sends a message to the Venezuelan people directly anas well as to other Bolivarian countries, asking them to help fight terrorism. By doing so, he places both Chávez and his collaborators in a very uncomfortable position.

As usual when an unexpected crisis comes, Chavez steps back, gathers his advisors and plots what his next step will be. The problem is that he is dealing with a multi faceted and constant attack by people who have beliefs and strategies as coherent as Chavez’ are. Thus, they are not waiting for Chavez’ response, but guaranteeing that his plans for a response will be aborted even before he has had a chance to implement it or announce it.

Tomorrow Chavez will supposedly lead a march in defense of sovereignty from Petare, at the extreme East of the valley of Caracas, to the middle where the Colombian Consulate is. Chavez has not dare mingle with his people for quite a long time as he gets more and more paranoid that too many people want to kill him.

Personally leading that march tomorrow may present other risks for the Venezuelan President. If things get out of hand and there is a clash with another scheduled opposition march in defense of democracy, he will look bad internationally. If his own march gets violent or too intense outside the Colombian Consulate, images of similar past protests in La Havana or even in Teheran, may send a very powerful negative image of Chavez as an out of control rogue President.

At this time, it will simply be a matter of what Chavez decides to do this time around. This blogger believes that Chavez created this crisis on purpose, as part of an aggressive stage of the internationalization of his revolution. Once the Granda affair exploded, he chose one course of action, thinking that he was seizing an opportunity for the export of Bolivarianism. Typically, Chavez steps back until he finds another opportunity for attack, but somehow all of his radical friends are watching closely and the choice will not be an easy one this time around….***

Bloody clashes feared in Venezuela over land redistribution

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002158326_vene23.html

***....Chávez and his allies claim that many large landowners have expanded their holdings over the years through corruption.
But land reform is dangerous territory, and history has not been kind to Latin leaders who have walked Chávez's path: Both Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, and Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973 were ousted by U.S.-backed coups after confiscating idle lands.

And the Bush administration has not concealed its disapproval of the Chávez government lately. During her Senate confirmation hearings last week, Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice said Chávez was "a negative force in the region."

In El Charcote — "the puddle" — a sprawling farm about one-third larger than the city of Miami, the struggle between land owners and squatters is not new.

Since 1999, nearly 1,000 peasants from the region have squeezed their way onto the property owned by Agropecuaria Flora, a subsidiary of a firm owned by British tycoon Lord Vestey. His many properties in Venezuela form the country's biggest meat producer.

The squatters have built small mud or wooden huts and rudimentary wooden fences to keep the cattle away from their meager crops.

Most say they came with the encouragement of a neighbor, a friend or a fellow peasant. All say they were inspired by Chávez, who signed an agrarian-reform law in 2001 that initially sparked few official government seizures but filled many landless peasants with hope.

"I don't have any politics," said Victor Quinones, a 54-year-old peasant living in a mud shelter along the side of the road that slashes through El Charcote. "But Chávez helps us with the land. ... This is the best it's been for me in 54 years."

Quinones has 37 acres and says the peasant committee that organized the squatters also gave equal plots to the rest of the arrivals as well as copies of the section of the constitution outlining the agrarian laws.

Most of the plots appeared to be producing very little. Quinones, for instance, planted some squash, yucca and black beans. Only the beans made it to market for sale.

"This isn't easy," he explained. "You're hungry. There are hardly any tools."

But Quinones isn't the only one struggling. The invasion has left Agropecuaria Flora barely solvent. El Charcote, which before the arrival of the first peasants had some 11,000 head of cattle, is now managing only 6,500 because of the reduction in grazing area. The cattle sold to market in that period have simply not been replaced.

"We're 100 percent invaded," said Anthony Richards, El Charcote's English-born administrator, who arrived in Venezuela in 1987 and has spent the last 18 months on this cattle ranch. "Soon we'll have a ranch without any cattle."

The British Embassy has contacted the Venezuelan government over the situation, but the Venezuelans have done little besides pass paper between the ministries to share their "concerns."

Invaders remain. And fiery words from the presidential palace continue unabated, stirring concern that more land invasions will follow on other private farms.

The government has already declared 500 private plots of land idle. But it has yet to inspect any of the 30,900 square miles of government-owned lands — a bit less than half the size of Florida....***

Cracking Down on Caracas***While we have our eyes on the Middle East and the recent good news out of there, a danger to democracy is brewing right here in our backyard. Venezuela, long one of Latin America's strongest democracies, is now under siege by its president, Hugo Chavez. Thanks to an ill-judged intervention by former President Jimmy Carter, Chavez narrowly survived a recall election and has now accelerated his subversion of Venezuela's democracy by a scummy deal with Fidel Castro.

According to Miami's El Nuevo Herald, Chavez has granted Cuban judicial and security forces extensive police powers within Venezuela. Cubans are already running the intelligence services and indoctrinating and training the military. They will effectively bypass what is left of Venezuela's judicial system when they exercise new powers to investigate, seize, detain, and interrogate Venezuelans and Cubans living in Venezuela, with the right to extradite them to Cuba and try them there. This threatens the safety of some 30,000 Cubans in Venezuela.

All this is a culmination of Chavez's frontal attack on civil society, reducing state institutions to mere shadows with only ceremonial powers. Just for starters, Chavez has rewritten Venezuela's Constitution to enhance his powers, purged critics in the military, set up legislation to pack the Supreme Court, intimidated the media by threatening the expropriation of the licenses of private television stations that supported the opposition, and given succor to thousands of Castro's military and intelligence officers, along with many social and medical workers, while tens of thousands of young Venezuelans have been sent to Cuba for indoctrination.

Spots and pans. havez, in turn, provides Castro with 80,000 barrels a day of essential oil. Venezuela's rich flow of oil revenues has enabled Chavez to buy the support of sectors of Venezuelan society and assert himself as the leader of what he calls a "jihad" against American imperialism. Chavez's sense of moral justice is manifest in his alliance with the worst criminal organizations in Latin America, especially the narcoterrorists in Colombia. Just recently, he denounced Colombian authorities because they arrested a senior member of the narcoterrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who had been given sanctuary in Venezuela.

To get a sense of the degree to which Chavez is intimidating his opponents and harassing dissidents, just read the language of a new criminal law that he pushed through the legislature: "Any individual who creates panic in the community or makes it restless by disseminating false information via print media, radio, TV, phone, electronic mail, or pamphlets will be punished with two to five years in prison." Even the most popular form of political protest, banging pots and pans, done in the presence of members of his government, now carries with it up to a three-month jail sentence. …..***

Russian arms sale to Chavez irks U.S.***The Bush administration has lodged a formal protest with Russia for agreeing to provide the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez more than 100,000 AK-47 rifles that U.S. officials believe could be used to aid left-wing uprisings in Latin America.

The administration in December sent a secret letter of protest (formally called a demarche) to the Russian Embassy in Washington, according to senior U.S. officials. The officials say the warning was followed up by concerns expressed directly to the Russian defense and foreign ministers.

............ Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to the U.S., denied yesterday his country plans to ship weapons for rebel uprisings.

"This is outrageous," Mr. Alvarez said. "How do you think we can do that? Venezuela is a respectable country. We have never participated in arms traffic at all." He said Venezuela is buying the rifles "because of defensive purposes for the country."

"We support a peaceful and democratic revolution," Mr. Alvarez said. "We cannot be encouraging any other situation that is not democratic and peaceful."

Washington, however, is wary of Mr. Chavez, who calls the United States an imperialistic power that has to be confronted. ...........***

Courted by Russia and China - Venezuela explores its options***.......Foreigners seeking deals Analysts were baffled in early January when Venezuelan authorities told Houston independent Harvest Natural Resources, which exclusively produces fields in Venezuela, that it had been denied drilling permits to add to its output.

Meanwhile, foreign state oil firms like Russia's Gazpromneft and China National Petroleum Corp. are seeking bilateral agreements with Venezuela's state oil giant Petróleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA.

"Venezuela's final objective is not to kick out the private companies, but rather to increase the amount of taxes they pay," said Roger Tissot of PFC Energy, a Washington-based consulting firm. "Chavez is in a position to have some companies go, because others are lining up to get in."

Total said Friday it is talking to PDVSA about investing in a $5 billion expansion of a heavy-oil joint venture, said the French company's chief executive, Thierry Desmarest. But there are still mixed opinions about what's going on.

Some analysts speculate that Friday's meeting shows the increasing involvement of Chavez himself in negotiations with oil companies. Others say Venezuela is using strong-arm tactics to force companies into contracts under the tougher terms of the new hydrocarbons law.

Recent moves by the Venezuelan government to increase tax revenues from its foreign operators have hit ConocoPhillips hard due to its exposure in Venezuela. The Houston company has a 32 percent stake in the Corocoro field, as well as 40 percent participation in Block 2 of the offshore Deltana Platform natural gas reserves.

In addition, the company has a significant stake in two multibillion-dollar heavy crude upgraders that turn Venezuela's tarry Orinoco oil into synthetic crude. Chavez, a firebrand leftist and sworn enemy of President Bush, last November abruptly ended a royalty holiday negotiated in the 1990s, boosting royalty payments from 1 percent to 16.6 percent. .............***

Chavez Stepping Out of Bounds[Full Text] Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez is adding weapons imports to his leftist crusade. That's a combustible mix.

This week, Mr. Chávez signed deals with Brazil that include the likely acquisition of at least a dozen light- attack aircraft.

At the same time, Venezuela is negotiating with Russia to purchase as many as 50 Mig-29 SMT fighter jets (the most advanced type) to replace its American-made F-16s. This on top of an agreement to buy 40 Russian military helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles.

Washington protested to Moscow last week, citing the potential of a "destabilizing effect on the hemisphere." But the Russians shot down the complaint, and Chávez once again chided the US for "meddling."

Specifically, the US is concerned the weapons will find their way into rebel hands in neighboring Colombia. There, President Alvaro Uribe is trying to put down a longstanding leftist insurgency and fight the drug trade. Colombia is Washington's close ally, and the largest recipient of US security aid outside the Middle East.

Colombia and Venezuela verged on war in 1987, when the two were locked in a territorial dispute. This week, they managed to defuse a political crisis over a wanted Colombian rebel who had a bounty on his head and had been kidnapped from Venezuela. Bogota accuses the leftist government in Caracas of harboring insurgents.

Washington is concerned about Chávez's antidemocratic course and his plans to divert Venezuelan oil from the US to China. How the populist leader handles his economy is one thing, but embarking on a potential arms race with Colombia (and thus the US), and beefing up the military while cracking down on Venezuelans' liberties, is not just his affair. [End]

Venezuela targets American writers***When you think of a government information office, do you think of much more than dusty information pamphlets and glossy tourist brochures full of pleasant platitudes, putting the best face forward on a particular nation? Such is perfectly natural for friendly, and even some not-so-friendly nations, because that's what government information offices normally do.

But Venezuela's Marxist government has an entirely different idea. The innocuously named Venezuela Information Office in Washington, D.C. is an aggressive Cuba-style PsyOps and disinformation operation sponsored by the Venezuelan government. Its operatives not only seek to get the Venezuelan government's castroite message out to the American public, but also aggressively to target American journalists individually. The VIO doesn't have much of a case they can persuasively use in defense of Hugo Chavez, so all they can do now is focus on striking out at Chavez's U.S. critics. They launch Carville-like political slime campaigns against any American writer who notes unflatteringly true things about castroite Venezuela. And they have been busy with list-servs, strategic battle plans, activating propaganda sleepers and organized letter-writing campaigns in their effort to discredit and neutralize critics.

This VIO is now going after Wall Street Journal editorial writer Mary Anastasia O'Grady, who's the most eloquent essayist in America exposing the depredations of the Chavez regime....***

Venezuela's Chavez Seeking to Create 'Bolivarian Army' to Counter 'U.S. Imperialism'***... In his European venture, President Bush is wise to do what he can to ease the prospect of another "Islamic Nuclear Power" in Tehran. It's even possible -- though unlikely -- that he can dissuade Vladimir Putin from selling nuclear technology to the Iranians. If there is truth to the rumor that the Russians are providing their nuclear know-how to Tehran in exchange for Iranian "help" in Chechnya, then the transfer will take place no matter what Putin promises.

But no matter what the outcome in Europe, regardless of how the administration deals with North Korea's nuclear ambitions, they cannot ignore the growing storm south of our border. As one retired intelligence officer, an expert on Latin America, told me this week, "If they think they have a problem with illegal immigration today, wait until the Castro-Chavez-Ortega 'Axis of Evil' gets done destabilizing this hemisphere." ...***

The New Fidel ***....Even more troubling, Miami’s El Nuevo Herald reported in January that Cuban judicial and security forces have arrived in Caracas wielding unusual inter-country police powers which allow them to abduct Venezuelan and Cuban citizens and transport them to Cuba without an extradition hearing. “Cubans are running Venezuelan intelligence services, indoctrinating and training the military, and now this. Whoever heard of one country allowing another country to have police powers?” said Otto Reich, the former ambassador to Venezuela under President Ronald Reagan. As a self-proclaimed “revolutionary” and darling of the anti-imperialist movement, Chavez’s claim that he is an innocent victim of U.S. aggression and unilateralism may resonate in some global circles, but in reality, it is simply an ill-timed and unfortunate attempt to gain domestic significance. By portraying the U.S. as an enemy of the Venezuelan people, Chavez is playing the centuries-old “victim” game used by past dictators to maintain power. His desperate cries concerning the “bully to the north” and an “imminent U.S. invasion” point to a government in turmoil.

The real reason for Chavez’s desperation lies not in the encroachment of Venezuelan sovereignty by the U.S.; rather, it rests entirely upon a multitude of unfulfilled promises Chavez has made to the Venezuelan people over the course of the past six years and a growing impatience with his brash style of governing. Latin American leaders such as Columbia’s President, Alvaro Uribe, a strong U.S. ally in the war on terror, are no longer willing to dismiss his inflammatory comments as instances of trivial mockery....***

Chavez Casts Himself as the Anti-Bush***….Since threatening to cut off oil shipments to the United States, which buys 1.5 million barrels a day from Venezuela, Chavez has been traveling the globe looking for new markets and allies to unite against "the imperialist power." He recently signed energy deals with France, India and China, which is searching for new sources of oil to power its industrial expansion. Chavez also has made a series of arms purchases, including one for military helicopters from Russia.

And on Friday, Chavez hosted President Mohammad Khatami of Iran, a nation that has a secretive nuclear program and has been labeled by Bush as part of an "axis of evil."

.... "All over the world, there is a clamor for equality . . . and profound rejection of the imperialist desires of the U.S. government. Faced with the threat of the U.S. government against our brother people in Iran, count on us for all our support." …***

Citgo oil chief a close ally of Venezuela's Chavez***CARACAS - In the waning days of 2002, a little-known manager from the national oil company appeared in Caracas to file a petition requesting that Venezuela's highest court end a massive oil strike that had brought the country to its knees.

This maneuver failed to end the strike, but it did attract the attention of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the target of the opposition-led oil lockdown.

That obscure manager was Félix Rodríguez, who within weeks of his major public appearance would begin to shoot up through the ranks of state oil giant Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA. He became a corporate director, then vice president of exploration and production. Last month he was catapulted to the presidency of PDVSA's biggest subsidiary, Citgo.

The arrival of Rodríguez, whose style is more reminiscent of the boisterous Chavez than a typical top energy executive, puts a new face at the head of the huge Houston-based refining and marketing operation.

……………The nomination of Rodríguez as Citgo president also coincided with the arrival of several new board members, including Bernard Mommer, a German-born Marxist and behind-the-scenes architect of Chavez's oil policy.

Mommer helped create Venezuela's 2001 Hydrocarbons Law, which boosted royalty rates from 16.6 percent to 30 percent and requires a state majority in all upstream oil projects. Mommer has never trusted PDVSA or Citgo, viewing them as instruments to prevent revenue from reaching the nation. Venezuelan energy authorities in recent weeks confirmed they are in discussions with several corporations for the sale of certain Citgo properties. The announcement that PDVSA was considering such changes coincided with the appointment of Rodríguez at Citgo. In his 29-year career in the industry, Rodríguez has been almost entirely devoted to finding and producing oil. He has almost no experience in refining or financial administration. ……..

U.S. exploring taming Chávez***With President Bush personally firing off questions, his administration is carrying out a top-to-bottom review of U.S. policies toward Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his leftist ''revolution,'' U.S. officials say.

One option already on the table is to create a multiagency task force of a type usually reserved for critical issues. Others include campaigns to highlight allegations of graft in Chávez' government and persuade his Latin American neighbors to help rein him in, the officials added.

With Chávez appearing increasingly belligerent toward the Bush administration in recent months, ''a chain reaction has been started to review what are the options on Venezuela,'' said Miguel Diaz, with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. ………..***

Latin America’s Terrible Two - Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez constitute an axis of evil ***…..What is happening in our neighborhood? Press reports indicate that a leftist-populist alliance is engulfing most of South America. Some Andean and Central American countries are sliding back from economic reforms and narcotics eradication, and the Caribbean remains irrationally hostile to the U.S. This is the reality U.S. policymakers must confront; and our most pressing specific challenge is neutralizing or defeating the Cuba-Venezuela axis. With the combination of Castro’s evil genius, experience in political warfare, and economic desperation, and Chávez’s unlimited money and recklessness, the peace of this region is in peril…………***

Remember the Maine? (Hugo Chavez's Venezuela has purchased "biological and nerve agents." )*** Spain's Europa Press news agency reports reports that Venezuela purchased "biological and nerve agents" as well as dual-use materials from Spain sometime during the first half of 2004. According to a report about defense expenditures obtained by Europa Press, Venezuela was the only country listed under the category of "states to which chemical warfare agents and radioactive materials were sold." An English translation appears here.

The accusation comes in the wake of Spain's announcement that it will sell conventional weaponry -- planes and Russian rifles -- to Venezuela. I found the story through Iberian blogger Barcepundit, who notes that "If Rumsfeld was reportedly angry about the sale of planes and boats, boy I can only imagine what he'll think about this."

The amount of biological or nerve agents probably isn't large -- Europa Press sets the purchase price at 30,000 Euros, which isn't out of line with the price of a single kilogram of South American heroin. I'm not familiar with the going rates on the WMD black market, but hopefully doomsday weapons are scarcer and therefore more expensive than heroin. (A further 500,000 Euros was spent on the dual-use materials which might be legitimately destined for the petroleum and leather-tanning industries.) But any amount of WMD in the hands of the Castroite Chavez regime is too much. …………………..***

Bush administration has Venezuela in its crosshairs ***……….Washington, which has categorically denied the claims that any Americans were arrested, would be much more likely to task satellites than human spies with such a mission — if there was much value in photographing oil refineries and military bases to begin with, which there isn't. All of which would again make Chavez's statements easy to dismiss — except for an April 26 story in The New York Times.

According to the story, which clearly was intentionally leaked to The Times by the Bush administration, the United States has concluded that there is no way to improve relations with Chavez and that, in short, he must go. Washington is considering a program of destabilizing Venezuela, which could include financing institutions and political groups that oppose Chavez.

Since this has been a basic model for dealing with regimes in Washington's crosshairs for several years, the report can be taken seriously. Moreover, it was timed to coincide with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's departure for a tour through Latin American states, where her agenda included discussions on Venezuela with other regional leaders.

Any attempts to build a campaign against Chavez in Latin America likely will hit a wall, since doing so not only would involve giving governments in that region a reason to care about the Washington-Caracas rift, but reversing a growing trend of anti-American sentiment and leftist economic policies that have been taking root for several years already. Moreover, it is difficult to overlook the fact that Chavez — former coup plotter and radical revolutionary though he may be — was democratically elected by the Venezuelans.

What is by far the most interesting aspect of this growing crisis is that it is occurring to begin with. The threat from Chavez, whatever it is, was always there. What has changed most perceptibly is the American view of the world.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States has been obsessed with its confrontation with the jihadists. The Bush administration not only had no time for Venezuela before, but the last thing it wanted on its plate was another crisis when it was having trouble dealing with the Muslim world. ….****

The 'Cubanization' of Latin America -- John Bolton's concerns about Castro are being legitimized***……...My Venezuelan contact assured me that there is evidence of infiltration in the Ecuadoran armed forces.

He also told me that Chávez envisions an axis of power linking Brasilia, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. As it is, these populist governments aren't much for standing on principle and anything anti-Yanqui scores cheap domestic points; some may even aspire to Venezuelan-style authoritarianism. But it is also possible that cooperation with Chávez is part survival technique to ward off his use of bullying militants.

...[T]he revolution must necessarily "break the spine of democracy in the region. That is Colombia."

Colombians are specifically worried about three things. The first is Chávez's overt weapons buildup. War is not considered imminent. But there is a fear that the persistent threat from a hostile neighbor engaged aggressively in arms acquisition will take a toll politically and economically.

The second concern is Chávez support for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN). For years Castro has been giving their troops medical care in Cuba. But now Chávez is providing safe haven to them just across the Colombian border....

The third big worry that Colombians have about Venezuelan aggression is the likelihood that Chávez will try to interfere in the 2006 presidential elections. There is good reason to believe that Chávez will choose his Colombian protégé, fund him liberally, and should he "win," help him to consolidate power....

Castro's revolution is alive and active all over Latin America. Where he and his Venezuelan mini-me have not gained the upper hand, they have been successful in fueling violence and instability and discouraging development.

If Mr. Bolton felt, in recent years, that U.S. intelligence in the region was wanting and could end up costing U.S. interests, he was prescient....***

A Latin American Al Jazeera?***What do Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and Al Jazeera have in common besides contempt for the United States? A 24-hour news network starting this month or next. Mr. Chavez is using his government's oil money, funds from Mr. Castro and other sources to create "Telesur," a "counter-hegemonic" Spanish-language network modeled partly after Al Jazeera. Latin intellectuals have long wanted media alternatives to CNN and Los Angeles-based Univision. .....South American governments including Argentina's and Brazil's are helping fund Telesur. But we figure they'll yearn for CNN when they see what a strongman, a dictator and Al Qaeda's favorite channel can do to the truth.

For one, Telesur's director, Uruguayan journalist Aram Aharonian, seems more interested in thwarting the United States than in conveying the truth. He calls the United States "the enemy" and the Iraq War "genocidal." In a March interview with La Jornada, after giving nods to Messrs. Castro and Chavez, he promised a free editorial line -- with the exception that he'll broadcast "nothing against regional integration or the struggle against neoliberal globalization." That's Marxist for nothing favoring the United States. He praises Al Jazeera and welcomes the comparison. "Al Jazeera wants to show the Arabian point of view and Telesur wants to show the Latin American point of view," he told the New York Sun in March.

... the president of Telesur's board, Andres Izarra, is also Mr. Chavez's information minister. Incredibly, Mr. Aharonian says that won't affect Telesur's coverage. No wonder the critics are already calling it "Telechavez."

....So far no private investors have emerged. Only governments,... Mr. Castro's 19 percent stake says something, ...Mr. Chavez is using his country's oil money. Next week, Qatari Emir Hamad Bin-Khalifah Al Thani reportedly will meet with Venezuelan officials to talk shop and deepen ties with Al Jazeera…..***

Chavez says Venezuela interested in nuclear energy [Full Text] CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday his government was interested in nuclear energy and could start talks with Iranian partners to study possible atomic and solar power projects.

Chavez, a fierce critic of the United States and a leftist ally of Communist Cuba, said Venezuela and other Latin American countries could develop nuclear energy as an alternative power source for civilian purposes.

"We are interested too, we must start working on that area... the nuclear area. We could, along with Brazil, with Argentina and others, start investigations into the nuclear sector and ask for help from countries like Iran," Chavez said on his regular Sunday TV program.

"It is for development, for life, for peace and energy," the president said during the program broadcast at an event in Caracas for Iranian companies.

Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, is a key energy supplier to the United States, but its relations with Washington have soured since Chavez came to office six years ago promising to fight poverty with a raft of social reforms.

Chavez has backed Iran, branded by Washington part of an "axis of evil," in Tehran's dispute with the United States and Europe over its nuclear program. U.S. officials accuse Iran of secretly working to produce nuclear arms, but Tehran says its atomic program is only for civilian energy uses.

"I am sure the Iranian government is not making any atomic bomb," Chavez said, repeating support he gave during a visit by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami to Venezuela in March.

Venezuela is rich in heavy crude oil and natural gas. About 75 percent of its electric power is generated by state-run hydroelectric plants.

A self-proclaimed socialist revolutionary, Chavez says he is offering an alternative to U.S. "imperialism" and accuses Washington of trying to oust or kill him. Supporters applaud his education and health programs to help the poor.

He has strengthened political, energy and economic ties with China, India and Russia as an alternative to Venezuela's traditional alliance with the United States. [End]

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