Posted on 06/11/2006 8:33:12 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced on Sunday that he will visit Iran and North Korea, two nations at odds with Washington over nuclear development, at a time when Chavez is seeking to distance Venezuela from the United States.
Chavez, who has promised a socialist revolution to end poverty in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, has drawn fire from the State Department for building alliances with U.S. foes like Cuba and Iran.
"We will soon be in North Korea, we will soon be in Tehran, deepening our ... strategic alliances," Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast.
He said the tour will also include stops in China and Russia, where Venezuela will sign military cooperation agreements with the Russian government, following U.S. moves to block Chavez's arms purchases from other countries.
He did not provide dates for the trip, which he said will include a stop in "North Vietnam."
The State Department last month added Venezuela to a list of nations not cooperating in the fight on terrorism and has repeatedly accused Chavez of supporting leftist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia, though there has been no clear evidence to support this claim.
The U.S. government in January blocked sales of Spanish military planes and ships to Venezuela by refusing Spain an export license for the U.S. technology used in the vessels.
Chavez has aggressively supported Iran's efforts to develop nuclear technology, and has helped undermine the U.S. embargo of Cuba by increasing trade and providing oil on favorable terms.
He drew State Department criticism in 2000 by visiting former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as part of a tour to strengthen the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Last month, he took a Venezuelan delegation to England, Italy, Austria, Libya, and Algeria.
The leftist former paratrooper, who has hurled insults like "donkey" and "assassin" at President Bush, is up for re-election in December.
He is widely expected to win after building up popular support through multibillion-dollar social investment projects financed by oil revenues.
That should be "Jowl Boy"...
Time to replace oil as much as possible. Let's take power out of the hands of these authoritarian idiots.
Didn't they shoot Yamamoto down over the Pacific hmmmmmmmmmmmm!
I sure hope someone doesn’t fire one of those pesky anti-aircraft missiles while he is flying over the Atlantic.
Either this is one of the most oxymoronic phrases I've heard in a long while, or he really means that everyone will be poor equally, hence no "poverty" since there will be no wealth.
I just think he's full of hot air. I imagine that eventually the people there would turn against him. People can become rather upset when they start going hungry. Venezuela should be swimming in wealth right now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.