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PANAMA CITY - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reignited a war of words with Peruvian President-elect Alan Garcia on Friday, calling him a "lap dog" of the United States. Chavez's comments during a two-day visit to Panama came after verbal sparring between the two leaders had calmed, and as Venezuela lobbies for a seat on the U.N. Security Council — a bid Garcia earlier this month suggested he might support. "His owner is in Washington, he's a lap dog, a tool of the empire," said Chavez, who frequently refers to the United States as "the empire." In comments to reporters, Chavez...

· Washington fears Chávez will block Iran sanctions · Latin American countries under pressure over vote The US has launched a diplomatic campaign to block Venezuela's bid to become a member of the United Nations security council out of concern that Hugo Chávez's government would use its seat to try to block punitive measures against Iran. Washington has publicly backed Guatemala's rival effort to take the two-year rotating council next year, but it has reportedly gone further in recent weeks - threatening retaliatory action against Latin American countries who support the Venezuelan bid.

Venezuela bypasses Bush, offers help here Poor would get heating-oil discounts, eye operations By LARRY SANDLER lsandler@journalsentinel.com Posted: June 15, 2006 Venezuela's government plans to offer discounted heating oil and free eye surgery to Milwaukee's low-income residents, Venezuelan officials announced Thursday. Advertisement That's the latest move in a broad-based campaign by the oil-rich nation's President Hugo Chavez to build grass-roots support and trade ties despite tension with President Bush's administration. Venezuelan government spokesman Edward Mercado called it "a new way of talking about trade." Milwaukee and Chicago would be the first U.S. cities to benefit from the eye care program,...

Some see it as a NATO counterweight. Others call it a Club for Dictators or at least neardictators. Some consider it an antiAmerican stalking horse for Chinese and or Russian hegemony, with the potential to become "OPEC with nukes." Whatever: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) a so-called "anti-terrorism, anti-separatism, anti-extremism" grouping, including China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which holds its fifth annual meeting this week - definitely reeks of trouble for Uncle Sam. Start with this: The "anti-terrorism" SCO has given observer status to Iran, the world's top state sponsor of terrorism including an annual convention of just...

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....

LIMA, PERU – Peruvian voters elected leftist leader Alan García to a five-year term on Sunday, returning the former president to office 16 years after his first stint. It is a tough defeat for Ollanta Humala, the populist candidate who won the first round less than two months ago. But it is also a blow to Venezuelan leader and US nemesis Hugo Chávez, who openly backed Mr. Humala. In his election-night address, Mr. García said the result is "a defeat for the expansionist efforts of [Mr. Chávez]. Peru's democracy said 'no' to him." García's "rhetorical challenges to Hugo Chávez are...

Venezuela has received its first delivery of tens of thousands of Russian assault rifles. It is the first batch out of a total of 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered from Moscow.

London's left-wingers recently rolled out the red-carpet for Hugo Chávez; no matter that the populist leader has been a disaster for Venezuela's poor. Venezuela President Hugo Chávez is a hero to the international left. It loves his combative anti-Americanism and diatribes against neoliberalism and globalization. There are some messy details it ignores and that the mainstream media underreports: Poverty, corruption, and crime have gotten significantly worse under Chávez. In Latin America, Chávez's popularity is waning as many see his agenda driven by a desire for power – not a genuine concern for the region and his fellow Venezuelans. Will his...

Russia is holding talks with Venezuela to license the manufacture of Kalashnikov rifles there, Russia's state arms exporter has confirmed. On Tuesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Russia planned to build two munitions plants in the country. Moscow has already signed a deal to supply Venezuela with 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles. The move is likely to worry the US, which regards Mr Chavez as a destabilising influence in the region. In May, the US State Department banned arms sales to Venezuela because of concern over its contacts with Iran and Cuba and what it called Venezuela's lack of support for...

He was hailed as the next Fidel Castro, the messianic resurrection of moribund Marxism who would unite Latin America with his fiery anti-Americanism and lead the overthrow of global capitalism. But from Newsweek International to the New York Times, whose dishonest reporting helped install Castro almost half a century ago, a different conclusion is now emerging: Hugo Chavez, the megalomaniac Marxist dictator of Venezuela, has peaked and is now on his way down. As Newsweek reporter Ruchir Sharma wrote this week, “That Chavez Thing Is Over.”

WASHINGTON—A few months ago, Brazil was happy to let Hugo Chavez wreck the Free Trade Area of the Americas pact (FTAA) promoted by the United States and some Latin American countries. Chavez is now wrecking Brazil’s own plan for South American integration (ultimately compatible with the FTAA) and replacing it with Bolivarian megalomania. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s reaction has been to display a mind-boggling lack of leadership.In 1999, Brazilian statesman Roberto de Oliveira Campos said that Russia and Brazil were similar in that Russia was a superpower that discovered it was a Third World nation while Brazil...

Montezuma’s Revenge, also called by some the Aztec Two-Step, was identified for generations throughout Latin America with the diarrhea, flatulence and gastric distress that tourists suffer after drinking bad water. However, if President Hugo Chavez gets his way, the name “Montezuma” will soon be associated directly with Hugo Chavez Frias, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and self-proclaimed leader of the new 21st century revolutionary socialism. Why? Because Chavez is convinced that he is a direct blood descendant of the Emperor Montezuma, the last lord of Aztec Mexica empire before Hernan Cortes arrived with a handful of homicidal Conquistadors...

PRESIDENT Hugo Chavez confirmed today that Venezuela will buy Russian fighter jets during a planned visit to Moscow, and warned that Caracas could sell its US-made F-16s to Iran. "We will soon be in Moscow because we will buy Russian fighter jets to defend these skies and land," Mr Chavez said in a speech on state-owned television. Mr Chavez hailed the Russian Sukhoi fighters as "the best in the world, 100 times better than the F-16s". The leftist leader did not say when he planned to travel to Russia, but Venezuela's ambassador to Moscow has said the trip could take...

Americans are suffering a new psychological disorder: news-induced political numbness. It's not the return of Jimmy Carter's "malaise." Despite the steady stream of Congressional absurdities and conservatives' growing impatience with the president, we're doing pretty well for a nation at war. But the incessant 24/7 television-newspaper-Internet barrage has caused people to tune the world out instead of reserving energy to think about the events that must be the focus of our attention. All of us, especially the White House, desperately want a break to rest and recuperate. But that's not an option. Times are tough, and we just have to...

Alan García is worried -- and with reason. The former Peruvian president has stated that Hugo Chávez is intent on conquering Latin America with a mighty stream of petrodollars. It is obvious that García's rival, Comandante Ollanta Humala, is Caracas' candidate.Chávez would love to duplicate in Lima the success he achieved in La Paz with Evo Morales' triumph. In Nicaragua, comrade Daniel Ortega receives crude oil and urea -- a nitrogenated fertilizer -- so Sandinistas may spread this electoral booty among their supporters and buy votes in the brazenest tradition of graft.In Mexico meanwhile, the PAN and the PRI have...

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is the new rock star of world politics. His impassioned rants against globalization, with animated poses to match, make front-page headlines almost daily. The commentariat—particularly in Europe—seems to buy Chávez's line that Latin Americans are so disenchanted by their short tryst with liberalism that they now prefer a strongman to spread the benefits of a commodity boom. The recent moves by a Chávez soulmate, Evo Morales, to renationalize the energy resources of Bolivia reinforce a growing perception that Latin America is lurching to the radical left. But it's not. While Chávez does seem to rekindle a...

Oliver Stone has branded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez a liar. Chavez declared on Sunday that the "JFK" director was teaming with British producer John Daly to make a film about the 2002 military coup against him. "They've asked for our permission to announce it today in Cannes [at the film fest], and we've told them yes," Chavez said during his weekly TV and radio program. He said that he'd already met with Daly to talk about the project. Instead, Stone and Daly told Cannes reporters Chavez was full of bull. Daly confirmed he was working on a film called...

The National Assembly (AN) approved Thursday a statement in solidarity with 40 million of Hispanics residing in the United States. Additionally, it protested against a migration reform proposed by US President George W. Bush. The resolution echoed disagreement of the Venezuelan legislature with the US Government bill and claimed that it is a feeling shared by million people in Latin America and the rest of the world, DPA quoted. "In case of passing the draft migration reform submitted to the US Congress by the US ruler, it will be the legal ground to violate the rights of million Hispanic fellows...

WHEN VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT HUGO CH VEZ met with the Pope earlier this week, he assured Benedict XVI that he is a Christian. And he told the press that has a special friend who is one too. Sort of. "Our Bolivarian revolution is very Christian and I have a friend who isn't Christian, but lately has said he is a Christian in the social aspect: his name is Fidel Castro," Chávez announced. "I talk to [Castro] a lot about Christ each time we see each other, and he told me recently, 'Chávez, I'm Christian in the social sense.'" Chávez calls Jesus...

TRIPOLI, Libya — Venezuela's anti-American president was given a warm welcome in the Libyan capital Wednesday by Col. Moammar Gadhafi, whose authoritarian regime was removed only this week from Washington's list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Gadhafi, his face partly covered by a large brown scarf draped over his Arab tribal robe, looked on as President Hugo Chavez shook hands with waiting officials at a VIP arrival terminal. The building was scarred with bullet holes. Some crenelated concrete at the top had been blasted away, perhaps damaged in U.S. airstrikes more than two decades ago. Chavez, whose country was placed...