Venezuela, Socialism's Standard, Descends Into Pure Chaos

Every college age student in America who sides with the socialism model of their college professors should each be given a Che tee shirt to wear and a free flight for a one week stay in Venezuela.  Then they can come back to America and lecture us old farts on the evils of capitalism.

The story comes from Reuters.

Venezuela security forces battle anti-Maduro protesters

Venezuelan security forces quelled masked protesters with tear gas, water cannons and pepper spray in Caracas on Tuesday after blocking an opposition rally against socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

The clashes began after authorities closed subway stations, set up checkpoints and cordoned off a square where opponents had planned their latest protest against autocratic government and a crippling economic crisis.

In cat-and-mouse skirmishes on backstreets and highways around the capital, youths built barricades, burned trash and hurled rocks and bottles at soldiers and police. Various opposition leaders organized roadblocks.

Police used pepper spray on National Assembly head Julio Borges, two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles and rights activist Lilian Tintori, as they led protesters onto highways and jostled at barricades, witnesses said.

Opposition activists said armed pro-government gangs joined the fray and opened fire. "About 50-100 guys arrived on bike and started to shoot in the air," protester Bernardo Sanchez told local media, saying a bullet had lodged in his thigh.

In one street, kneeling women sang the national anthem as neighbors banged pots and pans from nearby buildings in a show of anger against a government they blame for a deep recession that has led to shortages of food and basics.

"We're going to get rid of them but we have to fight," said Jose Zapata, 57, an electrician, as he marched with a stick in his hand.

Overlooking one wide avenue, some pro-Maduro residents in a state housing project threw trash onto protesters below.

With thousands out on both sides, supporters of the 54-year-old president organized their own rally, in a volatile scenario seen constantly during the 18 years of leftist rule in the South American nation.

"They want an intervention in Venezuela," said Prisons Ministry worker Juan Aponte, 34, who wore the red colors of the ruling Socialist Party.

Protests also were staged in other cities and more are planned across the country for Thursday.

The government accuses opposition parties of abetting a U.S.-led plot to topple Maduro, who has ruled Venezuela since the 2013 death of Hugo Chavez.

INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE

Tensions have soared in the oil-producing country's long-running political standoff after the pro-Maduro Supreme Court last week annulled the opposition-led congress' functions.

Although the court retracted that ruling over the weekend, the National Assembly remains powerless due to previous court judgments.

The renewed instability sent Venezuelan bonds lower, with the benchmark 2027 paper's price down 4.4 percent.

Foreign pressure on Maduro has risen as opposition protests resumed late last week.

"Here the world can see the dictatorial path Mr. Maduro has chosen," Capriles said.

Maduro says the U.S. government and other foes are whipping up hysteria against him to lay the ground for a coup.

"From the north (the United States), they give the order to the defeated fascist right of Venezuela to fill the streets with violence and blood," Maduro said on state TV.

"In Caracas, in Venezuela, peace has triumphed once again."

Maduro's administration is particularly furious with Organization of American States head Luis Almagro, who is leading regional condemnation.

The regional bloc on Monday urged Venezuela to restore congress' authority and guarantee separation of powers, but Venezuela's representative walked out, as did the envoy from fellow leftist Bolivia, which holds the OAS presidency.

"The OAS has surpassed itself in aggression against Venezuela," Maduro said late on Monday. "It is a real court of inquisition, carrying out abuses and vulgarities."

Venezuela's opposition won a National Assembly majority in late 2015 but the Supreme Court has overturned almost all its measures.

Due to the chaos in Caracas, the legislature postponed until Wednesday a session to censure the "rupture" of Venezuela's constitution. Legislators also plan this week to start proceedings to remove Supreme Court judges but that would only be a symbolic rebuke since congress has no power to act.

Venezuelans’ fight for freedom important to U.S.

From Family Security Matters.

Venezuelans’ fight for freedom important to U.S.


While the uprising in Venezuela is getting lots less news coverage than the turmoil in Ukraine, the outcome is of equal importance - if not more - to the United States.

Why? Geography.

Quite simply, though not understating the importance of the results of "East versus West" in Ukraine, Venezue-la is in our hemisphere and what happens there could impact a lot here.

Though there are fewer headlines about Venezue-la today than when fiery, strongman Hugo Chavez was alive and in power, the country still causes problems for U.S. interests.

In other words, we shouldn't be passive about what's going on in
Venezuela.

For example, fueled by communist Cuban ideology, Venezuela is still the source of virulent anti-Americanism in Latin America. Influenced by Caracas, Latin American capitals have veered left politically and are less friendly to Washington in recent years.

Venezuela also leads ALBA, a socialist political and economic grouping made up of Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia, among others; Venezuelan petro-dollars have also helped keep regimes like that of Cuba's Castro brothers in power.

Havana is grateful to Caracas, of course, providing plenty of security personnel to assist Venezuela's military and intelligence services, including those cracking down on the peaceful protesters.

If anyone knows how to run a police state, it's the Cubans.

There are also continuing concerns about Venezuela and the narcotics trade. Just last fall, the United States named Venezuela a major drug transit country for caches of Colombian cocaine.

In addition, elements of Venezuela's security forces may have facilitated the flow of some of these narcotics overseas, including to the United States, according to our State Department.

Over the years, the U.S. Treasury Department has actually designated a number of senior Venezuelan government officials as "Foreign Narcotics Kingpins."

In some cases, Venezuelan officials and security forces reportedly have assisted terrorist groups such as the FARC and ELN in trafficking the narcotics that fund their insurgency against neighboring Colombia.

In fact, in the past there has been a movement in Congress calling for the Obama administration to designate Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism due to its tight ties with the FARC.

And speaking of terrorist ties,
Venezuela now has the welcome mat out for Lebanon's Hezbollah (an active player in the Syrian civil war). As we all know, Hezbollah is no fan of the United States - but now lurks nearby.

Equally troubling is Venezuela's chumminess with Iran. Caracas has opened doors for Tehran in Latin America where Iran is steadily gaining influence. It has also helped Tehran circumvent punitive economic sanctions over its nuclear program.

Like Ukrainians, Venezuelans are fighting for liberty and free markets. More specifically, Venezuelans want to overcome the "Chavista" brand of bad governance evidenced in political repression, high crime rates and economic hardship.

A victory for the forces of political, economic and social freedom will mean Venezuela will be a better partner for the United States in preserving and advancing peace, prosperity and security in this hemisphere.

Freedom-loving Venezue-lans deserve our support.

A Socialism Spill on Aisle 9

From Family Security Matters.

A Socialism Spill on Aisle 9
by DANIEL GREENFIELD
February 27, 2014


The working class in the United States has no better champion than Barack Obama. Like most champions of the working class, he has never actually worked at a real job and instead divided his time between academia, non-profits and politics which explains his current work ethic in which he tries to get a speech in between every two vacations..

The progressive law professors, who are currently the only thing standing between the working class and the abyss, at least according to other progressive professors, not only haven't worked for a living, but don't know what working for a living entails and don't even understand the concept. Other things that they don't understand include personal responsibility, consequences, elementary arithmetic and human free will.

That last one never fails to throw them for a loop. No sooner do they pass some comprehensive plan intended to ameliorate a terrible problem then they discover that the working people have made a hash out of it. But they never despair because they are certain that there is no progressive solution that cannot be fixed by an even more comprehensive progressive solution.

ObamaCare isn't working? Go Single Payer? There are no more doctors? Outlaw illness. People are still getting sick? Fine them for sabotaging progressive medicine. Like the island whose colonial overlords tried to solve their rat problem by dropping snakes only to discover that it now had a snake problem, progressives always have solutions. The trouble is that they never understand the problem.

The protectors of the working class, currently presiding over a country where over 90 million adults are not in the workforce, keep dropping snakes on the island without ever figuring out why so many people are dying of snakebites. B.O. or Before Obama, 63 percent of working age Americans had jobs. Today it's 58 percent. And Obama is trying to see if he can drop the country below the 50 mark.

The latest snake that Obama is trying to drop on the island is a minimum wage hike. A minimum wage hike sounds like a great idea to a progressive professor who, like Marie Antoinette, wonders why the poor can't just eat cake during a bread shortage. If the poor aren't making enough money, just raise their salaries. If their salaries go up, they'll have more money and the government will be able to spend more money creating jobs that it can then tax using a magic perpetual motion machine.

The first casualty of the minimum wage hike will be some 500,000 jobs. While just 19 percent of the minimum wage increase will go to those below the poverty line, the same isn't true of that 500,000. The most disposable workers also tend to be the poorest in the new economy. They are the first ones out the door when a small business comes up against the ObamaCare employer mandate or a minimum wage hike. It doesn't take much to push them out from full time to part time and from part time to the unemployment line and from the unemployment line to permanent unemployment.

Purge six figures worth of workers and suddenly income inequality becomes an even bigger problem that the Harvard and Yale Friends of the Working Class can use to run for reelection. It doesn't occur to progressive professors slash community organizers that the living standard of the poor is not defined by an infographic comparing their income to Bill Gates' spectacles budget or George Soros' villain lair complete with lasers and piranhas.

It isn't even defined by their salary, but by the buying power of that salary.

A salary is just a number. It was once possible to buy a meal for a dime and a politician for a hundred dollars. Today dinner with a politician will cost you that hundred and the politician may cost you a hundred thousand.

The businesses that minimum wage workers depend on are peopled with other minimum wage workers. Even assuming that the pay hike were employment neutral, which it most certainly is not, it would rebalance once the businesses they patronize pass on the pay hike as a price hike. And then before you know it everyone is making more money that still buys about the same amount that their old paychecks did.

Income inequality is class warfare, a subject of interest to Marxist professors and sober news anchors who are deeply concerned about the words scrolling across their teleprompters, but of very little relevance to the price of a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk and a pound of ground beef. The prices of basic staples have risen sharply under the Friend of the Working Class in Washington. While he dines on faux Wagyu beef at White House dinners, the working class victims of his class warfare are standing in Aisle 9 trying to assemble a puzzle that consists of their upcoming paycheck, a Payday loan and a grocery list.

The woman weighting a can of beans in one hand and her pocketbook in the other trying to decide what she can afford to take home doesn't need income equality with a Harvard Law prof. What she needs a living standard that will allow her to afford what working Americans used to be able to afford. A minimum wage hike is a blunt instrument that looks good until it puts her out of a job or until she comes back to Aisle 9 and sees that the price hikes match her new paycheck.

Progressives don't particularly care about the woman in Aisle 9. They eat up hard luck stories on NPR and CNN the way that their great-grandparents marveled at hunger in Africa because of the way that it makes them feel, not because they understand how those people live or care about them. They use them to feel charitable and to win elections. Each progressive solution makes life worse in Aisle 9, but they never visit Aisle 9. If they did, they would outlaw the other half of the products in it that they haven't already outlawed through various contrived legalisms.

In the Venezuelan Aisle 9, mobs are fighting over powdered milk in government stores in a country that has 85 percent of the oil reserves in the region. Everyone is entitled to powdered milk and other price controlled staples. But being entitled to something doesn't mean that you can get it. Not until the government seizes control of the entire production process of powdered milk and then when that is done, no one will ever drink powdered milk again.

The path to Venezuela's Aisle 9 is surprisingly similar to America's Aisle 9. It began with a series of blunt force measures that were meant to address the standard of living problem in a country with runaway inflation. Governments can raise wages or lower food prices, but they can't enforce the availability of food or jobs and they can't control how the working class will work around the consequences of foodless government supermarkets and minimum wage jobs that have been priced out of the marketplace.

Venezuela's Friend of the Working Class, Hugo Chavez, kicked the golden bucket with an estimated net worth of 2 billion dollars. The Friends of the Working Class are also doing comfortably well in D.C. where it pays to be an expert on poverty and an advocate for helping the working class by adding 12 million illegal aliens to the job market with illegal alien amnesty, shutting down jobs with environmental regulations and freeing the people still working from that dreaded "job lock".

For the Washington Friends of the Working Class drifting from one cocktail party and fundraising
dinner to another, the minimum wage hike is their latest gimmick for winning in 2016. They are as ignorant of the lives of the waiters who bring them their Wagyu beef and the vagaries of a working class budget as they are of Ancient Sanskrit or the geography of the moon.

The working class that they preach about is an unreal abstract to them that is reducible to their party, their movement and their agenda. Their legislation is blessed by their empathy. It does not occur to them that their programs can backfire and that unintended consequences follow from confusing magical thinking with hard numbers. In Aisle 9, things are simple and inflexible, but in politics and academia everything is subjective.

Weighing a can of food in your hands that you need but cannot afford wonderfully focuses the mind on the real, but at the cocktail parties of the Friends of the Working Class, everything is wonderfully unreal. Life is full of possibilities, vacations, conferences and elections. There are no hard facts, only ideas and slogans. Everything and everyone does what you want them to.

Like The Great Gatsby's Tom and Daisy, the progressive law professors and community organizers inhabit a "vast carelessness" of conferences and cocktail parties from which they emerge to carelessly smash things up before retreating back into it with no real awareness of what they have done and a certainty that the people on Aisle 9 whose lives they have smashed up ought to be grateful to them.

Hugo Chavez Dead. Good Riddance, Asswipe.

The halls of Hell are welcoming home Hugo Chavez today as the dictator of Venezuela finally lost his battle with cancer.  According to the news source here at the Daily Mail, Chavez developed an infection that did him in.  Hmmm....he got an infection?  So Hugo, if you can hear me down there...how do you feel about the sanitary standards of that government run healthcare over there in Cuba now?

BREAKING NEWS: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez dies after developing 'severe infection' during battle with cancer

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has died in hospital at the age of 58 after developing a severe respiratory infection during his battle with cancer.

The country's vice president Nicolas Maduro, surrounded by other government officials, made the announcement during a national television broadcast tonight.

He said that the long-standing president died at 4:25pm local time.

A government spokesman had earlier said that the far-left leader, who has held control in the country for 14 years, was in a 'very delicate' condition in hospital.

Details of Chavez's health, who championed a leftist revival across Latin America, have been cloaked in mystery since he was first diagnosed with the disease in June 2011.

Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas earlier appeared on national television last night to announce that the president was suffering from 'a new, severe infection'.

Chavez, 58, had been undergoing 'chemotherapy of strong impact,' Villegas added.

The president has neither been seen nor heard from, except for a couple of hospital bed photos, since submitting to a fourth round of surgery in Cuba in December for an unspecified cancer in the pelvic area.

The government said he returned home on February 18 and had been confined to Caracas' military hospital since.

Villegas said that Chavez was 'standing by Christ and life conscious of the difficulties he faces'.

He also took the opportunity to lash out at 'the corrupt Venezuelan right' for what he called a psychological war seeking 'scenarios of violence as a pretext for foreign intervention.'

He called on Chavez's supporters, who include thousands of well-armed militiamen, to be 'on a war footing'.

The president's death is expected to trigger a snap election, though the opposition has argued that it should have been held after Chavez was unable to be sworn in on January 10.

The campaigning has already unofficially begun, with vice president Maduro, who Chavez has said should succeed him, frequently commandeering all broadcast channels to promote the 'revolution' and vilify the opposition.

Chavez has run Venezuela for more than 14 years as a virtual one-man show, gradually placing all state institutions under his personal control. But the former army paratroop officer who rose to fame with a failed 1992 coup, never groomed a successor with his force of personality.

Chavez was last re-elected in October, and his challenger Henrique Capriles, the youthful governor of Miranda state, is expected to be the opposition's candidate again.

One of Chavez's three daughters, Maria Gabriela, earlier expressed thanks to well-wishers via her Twitter account. 'We will prevail!' she wrote, echoing a favorite phrase of her father. 'With God always.'

There had been speculation that Chavez's cancer has spread to his lungs.

Maduro said last week that the president had begun receiving chemotherapy around the end of January.

Doctors have said that such therapy was not necessarily to try to beat Chavez's cancer into remission but could have been palliative, to extend Chavez's life and ease his suffering.

While in Cuba, Chavez suffered a severe respiratory infection that nearly killed him. A tracheal tube was inserted then and government officials said his breathing remained laboured.

The Iranian-Venezuelan Plot To Hack White House, Pentagon and FBI Databases

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (left) and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (right) in Tehran.


Remember all of those photos we saw where Hugo Chavez was getting all cozy with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Well, there's a story going around seen here at Family Security Matters that points to a major plot by Iran and Venezuela to use Mexican hackers and operatives to break into databases at the White House, the Pentagon and the FBI as well as some U.S. nuclear facilities.

I guess the fact that the Iranians worked with some Mexicans to try and assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C. lends some credence to this report.

Either way, you'd have to be an ostrich with your head buried in the sand if you didn't see by now that our porous southern border is becoming one of the biggest jihadis draws in the entire world right now.

Venezuela, Iran Linked to Alleged Cyperattack Plot


U.S. Spanish-language television network, Univision, has released aninvestigative documentaryin which it is claimed that Venezuelan and Iranian diplomats negotiated with Mexican hackers to break into White House, Pentagon, and FBI databases, as well as U.S. nuclear facilities. Critical to these allegations are a series of recordings made by one of the hackers, who went undercover and attempted to document the conspiracy.

According to the report, Juan Carlos Munoz Ledo, a computer instructor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, was recruited in 2006 to participate in cyber attacks on US government websites. In later years he met with former Iranian ambassador to Mexico, Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri, and former cultural attaché of the Venezuelan Embassy in Mexico, Livia Acosta, to give updates on the project’s advance. In a recording from one of these meetings, Acosta, who is now the Venezuelan consul in Miami, can be heard saying she could get information from the hackers sent directly to Hugo Chavez.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner says his government is probing the report but hasn’t confirmed its claims. However, he suggested Tuesday the implications were “very disturbing.”

Solomon Chang, a researcher on cyber security for strategic planning and forecasting consultancy Wikistrat, suggests the report raises “alarming” uncertainties as it remains unclear exactly what the hackers were trying to achieve. “Were they trying to advance their technological capabilities at the expense of the U.S. military? Are they simply trying to explore U.S. cybernetic structural weaknesses? Sabotage the infrastructures? These questions remain unanswered,” he said.

In response, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida) has written Secretary of State Hilary Clinton asking for an investigation into Acosta as a result of her alleged “willingness to undermine U.S. interests.”

Earlier this year, Chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) called for hearings on Iranian activities in Latin America. This week’s report comes just months after U.S. prosecutors accused factions in the Iranian government of a plot to recruit a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. by bombing a Washington-area restaurant.

In response to the Univision report, Venezuelan opposition leader Pablo Medina has called ties between his country and Iran troubling, and the latest allegations “very serious.” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, meanwhile, has called the report “lies.”

The Iranian Backed Missile Base In Venezuela

Think back to the early 1960's ...John F. Kennedy faces off against Russia's Nikita Kruschev over Russian missiles in Cuba....now, fast forward to 2011 and consider a missile base being constructed in Venezuela with the assistance of the Iranians...Barack Hussein Obama faces off against Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. How comfy are you with that scenario? Barack Hussein Obama spent 59 days last year on vacation, Hugo Chavez didn't take vacation - he was meeting with Iranians and Russians and all other elements of the year that would wish to have the United States under threat from a nearby neighbor.

This article from Family Security Matters sheds even more light on the growing threat from Venezuela's madman:

Like Marxist Fidel Castro was in the 1960s, Caudillo Chávez is today’s darling of American liberals and the international left. They are enchanted with his underclass roots, his anti-imperialist posturing, and insults he hurls at the United States in media shows that are crowd-pleasing combinations of Keith Olbermann rants and videos of “The Big Guy from Brooklyn.” More ominously, Chavez has imitated Castro, and like Fidel he has found a big brother to give him the nuclear military clout to dominate Latin America: The Islamic Republic of Iran.

Planning for Iran’s penetration of the Western Hemisphere is well underway. On 25 November 2010, the respected German journal Die Welt published a report that Iran and Venezuela agreed on 19 October to build a joint military base. That complex will include medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) like the Shahab-3 (range 1200 miles) and Scud-B and Scud-C missiles (ranges185 to 340 miles). Those weapons will enable Chavez to make missile strikes on much of South America, the Caribbean Basin and, with the Shahab-3, even reach American cities. Longer range missiles being developed by Iran will threaten all of the United States when they are installed in Venezuela.

The missile base is part of a pattern that began in March 2009, when President Obama met Chavez at an Organization of American States meeting in Trinidad. President Obama shook hands with the dictator, as usual, and said he wanted to be friends and reset US-Venezuelan relations. Chavez responded by presenting Obama with a book that claims the United States plunders Latin America.

It has been one of the hallmarks of America's newest President to completely ignore the most threatening circumstances yet be all over the most minor of distractions - Obama simply ignored early threats from North Korea while jumped to immediate action when a black professor in Connecticut was arrested by a white police officer. Once again, Obama has been nearly completely silent on Iran's nuclear program but has been resoundingly vocal about bullying in public schools.

You know, there are times that one could argue that Obama simply doesn't see anything south of Washington, D.C. ...well, except for a threat from the state of Arizona - we have a southern border overrun by illegals, drug cartel terrorists and islamic terrorists and he ignores it, and now, we see a viable military threat to America's south and still we hear or see nothing of a Presidential response.

Is he confused? Is he scared? Or is it that he just doesn't care?

Iranian Missile Base In Venezuela?


Hugo Chavez, yanqui-hating dictator of Venezuela, will not accept Washington’s proposed emissary and has dared the United States to break diplomatic relations. It seems Ambassador-select Larry Palmer’s sin is that he did not applaud Chavez when he used his rubber-stamp parliament to perpetuate his dictatorial regime. The State Department’s limp-wristed response was to cancel the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador. That, and silence from the White House, told the megalomaniac in Caracas exactly what the United States will do when Iran finishes building a nuclear missile base in Venezuela – absolutely nothing.

Like Marxist Fidel Castro was in the 1960s, Caudillo Chávez is today’s darling of American liberals and the international left. They are enchanted with his underclass roots, his anti-imperialist posturing, and insults he hurls at the United States in media shows that are crowd-pleasing combinations of Keith Olbermann rants and videos of “The Big Guy from Brooklyn.” More ominously, Chavez has imitated Castro, and like Fidel he has found a big brother to give him the nuclear military clout to dominate Latin America: The Islamic Republic of Iran.

Planning for Iran’s penetration of the Western Hemisphere is well underway. On 25 November 2010, the respected German journal Die Welt published a report that Iran and Venezuela agreed on 19 October to build a joint military base. That complex will include medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) like the Shahab-3 (range 1200 miles) and Scud-B and Scud-C missiles (ranges185 to 340 miles). Those weapons will enable Chavez to make missile strikes on much of South America, the Caribbean Basin and, with the Shahab-3, even reach American cities. Longer range missiles being developed by Iran will threaten all of the United States when they are installed in Venezuela.

The missile base is part of a pattern that began in March 2009, when President Obama met Chavez at an Organization of American States meeting in Trinidad. President Obama shook hands with the dictator, as usual, and said he wanted to be friends and reset US-Venezuelan relations. Chavez responded by presenting Obama with a book that claims the United States plunders Latin America.

Later, in Lisbon in November 2010, NATO agreed to develop missile defenses to protect Europe from the East (meaning Iran). That sensible decision was a backdrop for new plans by Iran’s President Ahmadinejad to destroy the United States—his Great Satan—and for old plans by Chavez to dominate Latin America. The two autocrats would simply build a strategic rocket base in South America, the vulnerable underbelly of America! And then there is that tractor factory.

Iran has already built what they call a ‘tractor factory’ in Venezuela, the most heavily guarded and secret tractor factory in the world. The fenced compound is so secret that even Venezuelans are not allowed to enter it, only Iranians. (There are reports Ahmadinejad visited the facility some months ago.) The factory is in a remote area, not far from a uranium deposit former Venezuelan officials estimate holds 50,000 tons of ore. Is it a stretch to connect the secret ‘tractor factory’ and the uranium? Maybe just smoke, but so much more is happening in Venezuela that one can only think there is fire, too. A few examples:

· In November 2008, Russia and Venezuela agreed on "cooperation in thermonuclear fusion…” involving the same Russian company that built the Bushehr reactor in Iran: Atomstroyexport. Russia has kindly extended a $4 billion line of credit to Chavez.
· In October 2010 Russia agreed to build two 1,200 megawatt nuclear reactors and a research reactor.
· Russia needs a new customer for the SA-300 missiles Iran tried to buy to protect its nuclear program from air attack. Now Venezuela tells Russia that it likes the SA-300. Might those missiles slip into Iran through a Venezuelan back door?
· Iran uses Venezuela and other Latin American countries as havens for its terrorists. For months Hezbollah, Iran’s terror army, has metastasized across our undefended border with Mexico to set up sleeper cells in our cities. And now we learn a senior Hezbollah thug was appointed as Venezuela’s Deputy Chief of Mission to Syria?

So now it’s on our borders once again: two dictators who hate America, uranium, secret factories, and rocket bases. What is to be done?

In 1962 President John F. Kennedy blew the dust off the Monroe Doctrine. He saw Soviet and Cuban dictators building missile bases that threatened America, and he sent me and other airmen and sailors to Cuba to end that menace. We did it because President Kennedy’s resolve to protect the United States was firm and clear. The foreign menace was driven away.

My service in Cuba in 1962 gives me the standing to ask Mr. Obama a simple question: Why do you allow Iranian missiles to threaten our homeland?

Venezuelan Students Take To The Streets In Protest, Hugo Calls In Troops

It doesn't sound like the mass demonstrations that we've seen in Greece and before that in Iran but there WERE hundreds of university students in the streets of Venezuela protesting newly passed authority for the government to control those same universities.

Confronted with the protests, Hugo Chavez's government sent in troops with water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds. Now, if I am not mistaken, this is one of the first examples of public unrest to this magnitude in Venezuela - where actual troops and action had to be taken against protesting crowds.

From the article at Reuters via Breitbart:

The measure, passed in the early hours, is the latest in a package of laws rushed through by the National Assembly to entrench President Hugo Chavez's self-styled socialist "revolution" before a new parliament is sworn in next month.

The students say the law gives too much power to the government, aims to promote socialist ideology and will be used to crack down on autonomous universities that have long been centers of opposition to the president's leftist agenda.

In the latest of a string of minor protests against the new laws, about 500 student demonstrators converged in downtown Caracas. Some waved signs reading: "We will not obey your law!" and "I'll swap Christmas for freedom."

They were confronted by National Guard troops in helmets and riot gear, and clashes briefly blocked a major highway, Reuters witnesses said. A photographer from another news agency was hurt when he was hit in the head by a rock.

I cannot imagine that Chavez is going to keep these protests down - the guy is on a complete roll of dictatorial madness - his economy is shot, his people are disgruntled, his inner circle has got to be whispering behind closed doors.

This is just another example of a regime where, if we had a President that didn't have his head up his ass, we should be involved in an uprising campaign against Chavez. We should have CIA agents in Venezuela assisting in actions that would help topple the most dangerous dictator in the Western hemisphere.

Venezuela security forces break up student protest


The measure, passed in the early hours, is the latest in a package of laws rushed through by the National Assembly to entrench President Hugo Chavez's self-styled socialist "revolution" before a new parliament is sworn in next month.

The students say the law gives too much power to the government, aims to promote socialist ideology and will be used to crack down on autonomous universities that have long been centers of opposition to the president's leftist agenda.

In the latest of a string of minor protests against the new laws, about 500 student demonstrators converged in downtown Caracas. Some waved signs reading: "We will not obey your law!" and "I'll swap Christmas for freedom."

They were confronted by National Guard troops in helmets and riot gear, and clashes briefly blocked a major highway, Reuters witnesses said. A photographer from another news agency was hurt when he was hit in the head by a rock.

Elsewhere, student supporters of Chavez celebrated the passing of the measure, stringing up a copy of the old university law and beating it with sticks.

The outgoing National Assembly, which is dominated by Chavez loyalists, has passed a raft of legislation in recent days including bills making it easier for the government to nationalize banks, police criticism on the Web, and prevent lawmakers from voting against their own parties.

Most controversial among those was an "Enabling Law" that gave Chavez the power to rule the continent's biggest oil producer by decree for the next 18 months, taking him to within six months of the next presidential election.

"This was a predawn ambush by 100 people who intend to govern the lives of more than 20 million Venezuelans," the rector of the Central University of Venezuela, Cecilia Garcia, told local media, referring to the 3 a.m. vote on the new law.

An opposition coalition that won about half the popular vote at a legislative poll in September is due to take 40 percent of seats in the next Assembly beginning on January 5.

It has accused Chavez of launching a "coup d'etat" by bypassing the incoming parliament and urged peaceful protests.

He rejects allegations he is using the new laws to usher in Cuban-style Communism. The government says the university law reform was essential to develop the country's higher education system and involve grassroots groups in decision-making.

Is It Really Possible That Hugo Chavez Is Going To Have Nukes?

The opening line of the article here at Family Security Matters goes way beyond "sobering"... it states:

If something isn't done to prevent it, we'll likely be facing an emerging nuclear threat from President Hugo Chavez's Venezuela sometime in the next 10 years.

Now, if that doesn't send a chill down your spine, I don't know what will. But the article does address what some probably just have laughed off as some grand plans by a quircky dictator in Venezuela. Well, the fact of the matter is that this nutcase to our South, namely Hugo Chavez, has extremely close ties with every misfit nuclear power or nuclear wannabe in the world and I don't think there's an American alive who doesn't know of Chavez' hatred of America.

From the article:

Just two weeks ago, on one of several stops of his grand tour abroad, Chavez alighted in Russia (on his ninth visit there) to sign an agreement for the building of two 1,200-megawatt nuclear reactors and a research reactor back home, according to Russian sources.
As the most popular purveyor of proliferation problems (e.g., building North Korea's and now Iran's first nuclear reactors), Russia is a perfect place to start your nuclear program.
Of course, Chavez insists he's only looking to achieve energy independence. But anyone who looks at Venezuela's vast oil wealth is understandably skeptical that peaceful power generation is his real motive.
Consider some other stops on Chavez's seven-country whistle-stop tour. In Iran, he visited his "brother" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Some experts fear Caracas and Tehran may already have some small-scale nuclear projects underway. Plus, the two regimes are reportedly working on the mapping and mining of Venezuela's uranium deposits, possibly the world's largest.
This would certainly benefit Iran, whose nuke program is laboring under punitive sanctions that are meant to inhibit access to supporting materials and technology.
Clearly, getting its hands on uranium won't be a problem for Caracas. But it might trade the raw material for Iranian uranium-enrichment technology -- technology that Venezuela is widely thought to have solicited from neighboring (nuclear) Brazil and Argentina. (They refused.)

As you can see, it looks like Chavez is trying to go the route of Iran in saying he needs nuclear reactors for energy - just a need of his people for running their A/C , yanno. And why shouldn't he try this approach....hell, it's worked like a charm for the Iranians.

The Iranians will have nukes within two years and Barack Hussein Obama and European leaders will STILL be sitting their with their thumbs up their asses.

But if you want to find a nut job even more off their rocker than Ahmadinejad and the whack job mullahs....just look at Chavez. With this madman having nukes, the likes of Columbia would be nothing but a smoldering, molten block of land. I've said several times that I didn't think Chavez was going to survive the economic and social collapse of his country - I only hope it happens a hell of a lot quicker now.

El Loco's Nuke Push


If something isn't done to prevent it, we'll likely be facing an emerging nuclear threat from President Hugo Chavez's Venezuela sometime in the next 10 years.
He vows that "nothing will stop us" from bringing "nuclear power" to Venezuela. Unfortunately, "nuclear power" is now a common coverup term for a nuclear-weapons program, such as we're seeing in Iran.
After five years of talking up his atomic aspirations without making much headway, the anti-American Chavez is finally getting somewhere.
Just two weeks ago, on one of several stops of his grand tour abroad, Chavez alighted in Russia (on his ninth visit there) to sign an agreement for the building of two 1,200-megawatt nuclear reactors and a research reactor back home, according to Russian sources.
As the most popular purveyor of proliferation problems (e.g., building North Korea's and now Iran's first nuclear reactors), Russia is a perfect place to start your nuclear program.
Of course, Chavez insists he's only looking to achieve energy independence. But anyone who looks at Venezuela's vast oil wealth is understandably skeptical that peaceful power generation is his real motive.
Consider some other stops on Chavez's seven-country whistle-stop tour. In Iran, he visited his "brother" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Some experts fear Caracas and Tehran may already have some small-scale nuclear projects underway. Plus, the two regimes are reportedly working on the mapping and mining of Venezuela's uranium deposits, possibly the world's largest.
This would certainly benefit Iran, whose nuke program is laboring under punitive sanctions that are meant to inhibit access to supporting materials and technology.
Clearly, getting its hands on uranium won't be a problem for Caracas. But it might trade the raw material for Iranian uranium-enrichment technology -- technology that Venezuela is widely thought to have solicited from neighboring (nuclear) Brazil and Argentina. (They refused.)
Down the road, the concern is that Iran will also share with Venezuela the military dimensions of its nuclear program, such as ballistic-missile and nuke-warhead systems and technology.
The scenario has all the trappings of an over-the-horizon Cuban Missile Crisis.
Chavez also popped into Libya to see Moammar Khadafy, who had his own nuclear aspirations until a few years ago. Libya's program was helped by Pakistan's proliferator extraordinaire, A.Q. Kahn, and may still have some expertise to share.
He stopped in Syria, too, which had been (and may still be) receiving nuclear assistance from North Korea. (Israel destroyed a nuclear reactor being built by North Korea in Syria in a 2007 raid.)
Chavez didn't visit North Korea on this tour, but he plainly wants to go -- he reportedly canceled a trip to see "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il earlier this year, after some opposition from the Venezuelan parliament.
But it's not just the possibility that we'll see a nuclear threat emanating from Venezuela in the years to come that should concern us; others in the region will feel the need to react, too. Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, for one, already has, reportedly saying this week that a Venezuelan nuclear program poses a serious threat to Latin American security.
Not all Chavez's neighbors have the resources -- but big powers like Brazil and Argentina, which had bomb programs in the '70s and '80s, might pursue nukes again. (Similarly, a number of Arab states are hedging against Iran's nuke-quest with their own new nuclear programs.)
What was President Obama's reaction to Chavez's Russian deal? "Our attitude is that Venezuela has rights to peacefully develop nuclear power . . . We have no incentive nor interest in increasing friction between Venezuela and the US, but we do think Venezuela needs to act responsibly."
Talk about the triumph of hope over experience.
It's clear: We're in the early stages of a potentially big problem. Being in denial or waiting to get tough, as we did with the Iranian nuclear program, likely would have the same ineffectual results.
Like an aggressive disease, a nuke program under Chavez would only get worse with time unless steps to deal with it are taken early on. The time to start is now.

Russia Figures a Way Around Sanctions Prohibiting Sale of S-300 Intercept Missiles to Iran...Sell 'em to Venezuela First!

Oh what tangled webs the evil in this world will weave...as the Russians apparently have found a way to get around U.N. and Western sanctions on sales of defensive missile systems to Iran...you see, the Russians have figured out that they will just sell the S-300 intercept missile system to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela who will then sell them to Iran (Venezuela isn't exactly in the loop on the Iran sanctions). This way, Russia gets its money and oil from Iran, the Iranians get to eventually kill more Israelis and Americans and Hugo Chavez gets to feel like he's a superpower.

From the article at DEBKA:

Russia appears ready to sell Venezuela the same five advanced S-300PMU-1 air defense missile battalions it withheld from Iran because of international sanctions. debkafile's military sources report Venezuela's ruler Hugo Chavez, offered to buy them when he met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow Thursday, Oct. 14. Israel immediately turned to Washington to try and block the transaction. Clearly, the highly-sophisticated interceptors are bound for their original client, Iran, through its good friend Chavez.

This time, the deal will be much harder to stop.

Our military sources stress that Iran needs the S-300 as the key to the effective defense of its nuclear and strategic sites against air or missile attack - even by cruise missiles - and to raising the risk to the assailants of heavy casualties. That said, the Israeli Air Force has spent the last two years training intensively in tactics for countering those very Russian interceptors. In September, Israel and Greece carried out joint practice strikes against the S-300 missiles Athens had purchased from Moscow.

Chavez began his Moscow visit by voicing interest in "buying different types of Russian-made air defense systems to create a multilayered air defense network."

The day after his offer, Russia cautiously tested the water in Washington to find how the Obama administration reacted to the prospect of ballistic missile interceptors being deployed not only in Iran but in the United States' Latin American backyard.

Let's face it - there is nothing right now out there in the world that is going to stop this kind of behavior. The threat of retaliation and force by America is gone as this country is held hostage by a weak-kneed, islamic sympathizing Marxist in Obama. The world is spiraling down into chaos and mayhem while Obama fiddles with his mirror.

2011 is going to be one ugly ass year, people.

Iran may get Russian S-300 interceptors after all - via Venezuela


Russia appears ready to sell Venezuela the same five advanced S-300PMU-1 air defense missile battalions it withheld from Iran because of international sanctions. debkafile's military sources report Venezuela's ruler Hugo Chavez, offered to buy them when he met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow Thursday, Oct. 14. Israel immediately turned to Washington to try and block the transaction. Clearly, the highly-sophisticated interceptors are bound for their original client, Iran, through its good friend Chavez.

This time, the deal will be much harder to stop.

Our military sources stress that Iran needs the S-300 as the key to the effective defense of its nuclear and strategic sites against air or missile attack - even by cruise missiles - and to raising the risk to the assailants of heavy casualties. That said, the Israeli Air Force has spent the last two years training intensively in tactics for countering those very Russian interceptors. In September, Israel and Greece carried out joint practice strikes against the S-300 missiles Athens had purchased from Moscow.

Chavez began his Moscow visit by voicing interest in "buying different types of Russian-made air defense systems to create a multilayered air defense network."

The day after his offer, Russia cautiously tested the water in Washington to find how the Obama administration reacted to the prospect of ballistic missile interceptors being deployed not only in Iran but in the United States' Latin American backyard.

Igor Korotchenko, head of a Moscow think tank on the international arms trade, revealed: "Russia is looking for a buyer for five battalions of S-300PMU-1 defense systems ordered by Iran and Venezuela could become such a buyer."

He knew enough about the deal to disclose that Caracas was prepared to pay the asking price of $800 million in cash to expedite the deal although it asked Moscow for several loans to cover previous arms transactions, including the recent $2.2 billion purchase of 92 Russian T-72 tanks and the Smerch multiple launch rocket systems.

Our sources add Iran rather than Venezuela is in a hurry to get hold of the missiles and install them around its most vulnerable sites. There should be no delay once they reach Tehran because special units of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards had finished training on the weapon's operation in Russia.

debkafile's sources note that hardly a month has gone by since Sept. 22 when Medvedev publicly announced the S-300 missile system sale to Iran was cancelled - to wide acclaim from the US and Israeli media. Moscow lost no time in finding a neat stratagem for bypassing the UN sanctions barring arms sales to Iran with impunity. Even the Russian offer to return the $166.8 million Iran advanced for the deal can be covered by Caracas as intermediate customer.

Is Iran Shuttling Terrorists Into Venezuela? Is the U.S. Their Target?

I like to think that I keep up on things and although I don't really get my news via the MSM, I do catch a bit of the likes of Katie Couric and Brian Williams from time to time and I gotta admit, I just haven't heard ANYTHING about the fact that there are two flights, each and every month, between Iran and then Syria and on to Venezuela. Isn't that a bit odd? I just didn't know that there was such a huge "tourist" draw in Venezuela for Persians from Iran and Baathists from Syria!

From the article at Family Security Matters:

Last week in New York, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the press that if the United States attacked Iran over its nuclear program it would face war like it had never seen.

Bluster? Maybe, but it ain't an empty boast if you can do it.

And Iran may have already been making preparations to strike America should we come to blows over nukes -- or anything else.

How? "Terror Air."

For three years now, there's been a twice-monthly "Axis of Evil Express" that shuttles "passengers" between Iran, Syria and Venezuela -- with occasional stops in Lebanon.

The flights come courtesy of Iran Air and Conviasa (Venezuela's national airline), which insists it's filling the travel needs of Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese and Venezuelan business-people and tourists.

But a Pentagon report to Congress this year on Iranian military power noted that Iran's elite troops, the IRGC and Qods Force, are growing in number in Latin America, especially in Venezuela.

What better way to move terrorists, spooks, weapons -- and who knows what else -- than under the cover of an innocuous commercial flight?

The fact of the matter is this - south of the American border has become an absolute terrorist haven. We have troops in harm's way in Afghanistan and Iraq per the direction of our Commander-in-chief, fighting against giving terrorists a foothold in those countries, yet at the same time, our "leader" has completely ignored the likes of Hezbollah and Hamas congregating in South America and Mexico....he has looked the other way as drug cartel gangs have turned into terrorist cells in Mexico, complete now with car bombing expertise....and now, we see a pipeline of potential terrorists direct from Iran and Syria into the country south of our border that represents the most antagonistic foe of our Republic.

By the way, has anyone discussed the fact that these "businessmen" from Tehran arriving twice a month in Venezuela might just be scientists in business suits? You know, scientists that are visiting Hugo Chavez direct from their normal jobs at the Iranian nuclear facilities?

Axis of Evil Express: Terror Flights from Tehran to Caracas


Last week in New York, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the press that if the United States attacked Iran over its nuclear program it would face war like it had never seen.

Bluster? Maybe, but it ain't an empty boast if you can do it.

And Iran may have already been making preparations to strike America should we come to blows over nukes -- or anything else.

How? "Terror Air."

For three years now, there's been a twice-monthly "Axis of Evil Express" that shuttles "passengers" between Iran, Syria and Venezuela -- with occasional stops in Lebanon.

The flights come courtesy of Iran Air and Conviasa (Venezuela's national airline), which insists it's filling the travel needs of Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese and Venezuelan business-people and tourists.

Now, there is commerce and cooperation going on between Iran and Venezuela on some industrial and manufacturing fronts (e.g., autos, tractors and petrochemicals) and energy matters.

But the tourism angle is a bit hard to swallow, even though there is a Middle Eastern diaspora in Latin America. Can't you almost see the Venezuelan family huddled over glossy travel brochures, explaining how much fun they'll have on vacation in the Islamic Republic of Iran?

Plus, the flight doesn't accept open bookings, as transport for entrepreneurs or sightseers surely would. No, these planes are most likely carrying bad actors from the likes of Hezbollah, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Guard's Qods Force.

Hezbollah has been in Latin America for some time now -- witness its attacks on the Israeli embassy in 1992 and a Jewish community center in 1994, both in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as well as its documented drug and arms trafficking.

But a Pentagon report to Congress this year on Iranian military power noted that Iran's elite troops, the IRGC and Qods Force, are growing in number in Latin America, especially in Venezuela.

What better way to move terrorists, spooks, weapons -- and who knows what else -- than under the cover of an innocuous commercial flight?

The direct flight dodges risky transits through various immigration portals where the passengers might show up on terror watchlists. Military flights between Tehran and Caracas might also garner notice by foreign intelligence.

In fact, in 2008, the State Department wrote that passengers on these planes get only "cursory immigration and customs controls" in Caracas. Plus, easy-to-get Venezuelan IDs make the country a "potentially attractive way station for terrorists," allowing newly arrived passengers to pose as Venezolanos during travel in the region.

But why come to Venezuela?

Well, Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez have become quite chummy. The IRGC and Qods Force, which provide internal security and train and equip other terror groups, could be coming to tutor Chavez's security services.

It's also been reported Iranian "advisers" are embedded with the Venezuelan military. They may also be coaching the narco-terror group FARC, a Chavez ally, in its war with Colombia.

But, most important, with Tehran and Caracas' declared "axis of unity" against Washington, Iran (and its allies) might envision using Venezuela as a base camp for attacks on our interests in the region or even inside America.

There have been enough on-the-record suspicions about the Terror Air flight that some claim it'll soon be cancelled. That may be, but it doesn't mean its passengers have gone home or will no longer travel to the region -- far from it.

Indeed, Tehran's henchman will continue to help the anti-Yanqui Latin Left (e.g., Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia) to foment instability and subversion across the region -- while preparing terrorist action against us.

Remember: Although Ahmadinejad may seem to be little more than the Iranian regime's "yapping dog," that doesn't mean that when he threatens the United States (or Israel), he's crying wolf.

Oh Great...Now Chavez Wants His Own Nuclear Weapons

At some point in time, the American people are simply going to have to form a human ring around the White House and demand of this rookie, socialist President that he keep his oath to protect the American people. We have sat idly by while this fool that "leads" our country has allowed tyrannical leaders to not only move towards acquiring the means to endanger America but he has encouraged them.

The latest nutjob world leader to explore nuclear capabilities is the madman from Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. No one in their right mind would even trust Hugo Chavez in a room of 20 people while he has access to a steak knife...imagine this loon with nuclear weapons.

Here's the story from Yahoo News:

Venezuela seeking uranium with Iran's help

PORLAMAR, Venezuela – Iran is helping to detect uranium deposits in Venezuela and initial evaluations suggest reserves are significant, President Hugo Chavez's government said Friday.
Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz said Iran has been assisting Venezuela with geophysical survey flights and geochemical analysis of the deposits, and that evaluations "indicate the existence of uranium in western parts of the country and in Santa Elena de Uairen," in southeastern Bolivar state.
"We could have important reserves of uranium," Sanz told reporters upon arrival on Venezuela's Margarita Island for a weekend Africa-South America summit. He added that efforts to certify the reserves could begin within the next three years.
The announcement came as revelations that Iran has secretly been building a uranium-enrichment plant provoke concerns among countries including the U.S., Russia, France, Britain, Germany and China.
On Friday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged Iran in a statement to prove it is not seeking to develop atomic weapons, saying the undeclared construction of an enrichment facility flies in the face of U.N. Security Council demands for Iran to stop uranium enrichment at its only declared facility.
Iran is under three sets of Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment at what had been its single publicly known enrichment plant, which is being monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said recently that U.S. officials also have "concerns" about a possible transfer of nuclear materials between Iran and Venezuela.
But analysts say Iran, which has significant uranium deposits, currently has no need to import uranium, although those deposits may not be enough to sustain its future enrichment goals.
Sanz dismissed suggestions that Venezuela could aid Iran with its nuclear program, saying Venezuela is only aiming to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Chavez has repeatedly said that all countries should end their nuclear-weapons programs, while insisting that Iran and Venezuela have a "sovereign right" to pursue peaceful nuclear ambitions.
Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington said that regardless of whether the uranium exploration efforts lead to nuclear cooperation, they are going to cause "a serious problem in the relationship" between Caracas and Washington.
Chavez's government has "clearly announced they're sort of beginning down this road," Shifter said. "It's going to be very difficult for the U.S. to really pursue any cooperation with Caracas on other issues because this is going to top everything else."
Chavez's project remains in its planning stages and still faces a host of practical hurdles, likely requiring billions of dollars, as well as technology and expertise that Venezuela lacks. Russia has offered to help bridge that gap, and Chavez has announced that the two countries have created an atomic energy commission.
But Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom, has said there are no concrete projects and that any joint work on mining deposits of uranium or the radioactive metal thorium would have to wait until Venezuela decides whether it wants Russian help exploring them and, if so, create a joint venture for the purpose.
Both Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are well-known for their anti-U.S. rhetoric, and have forged ties in everything from finance to factories, provoking concerns in Washington. Iran now manufactures cars, tractors and bicycles in Venezuela.
Earlier this month, Chavez sealed a deal to export 20,000 barrels of gasoline daily to Iran, giving Tehran a cushion if the West carries out threats of fuel sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.

Hugo Chavez' Military Takes Over Venezuelan Airports and Ports

Venezuela continues to fall under the complete Socialist dictatorship of Hugo Chavez as today, the Venezuelan military took control of all airports and maritime ports. Pray for the country folks, because the end of any personal freedom is near. Here's are some of the details from the report at Breitbart:

Venezuela's military took control Saturday of all the country's major airports and maritime ports, following a recently enacted law handing management of the facilities to the central government.
Soldiers occupied major facilities under the legal reform approved by the pro-Chavez parliament, taking over maritime terminals in the opposition stronghold city of Maracaibo in the state of Zulia, the port of Guanta in Anzoategui and others in the states of Carabobo and Nueva Esparta.

"Since this morning we began to reverse the disintegration of national unity," said President Hugo Chavez, referring to the reversal of decentralization moves 20 years ago that handed authority of ports and airports to state governments.
"We are reunifying the motherland, which was in pieces. This is a very important step."

The "motherland" ? Does that sound just a bit too familiar? And Chavez has the nerve to talk about unity. What this motherfucker is gonna find himself in is a country with 97% of the population looking for his head on a platter - I only hope they get it soon.

Venezuelan military takes over country's airports

"Since this morning we began to reverse the disintegration of national unity," said President Hugo Chavez, referring to the reversal of decentralization moves 20 years ago that handed authority of ports and airports to state governments.
"We are reunifying the motherland, which was in pieces. This is a very important step."
When Chavez announced the move last week, he threatened to arrest opposition governors if they resisted. Many opponents decried the order as unconstitutional and as an attempt to concentrate all power in Chavez's hands.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Caracas in protest Friday over the president's jail threats to opposition figures.

Russian President Gets In America's Face, To Make Latin American Tour

Russian President Medvedev is about to make a Latin American tour which most American experts say is all about statement - statement to the U.S. leadership that there's no respect for the U.S. coming from Russia. Putin's little cabin boy, Medvedev, is scheduled to visit Cuba, Venezuela and two more countries. Here's some of the details from the article over at Breitbart:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is embarking on a four-nation Latin American tour seen as sending a defiant message to the United States at the close of the George W. Bush presidency

"The current level of cooperation could be broader than in the Soviet era. Latin America has already ceased to be the United States' backyard," a Russian diplomat told the Russian daily Kommersant ahead of Medvedev's arrival from Portugal.
"Now the region is following its own line, which gives Russia an opportunity to strengthen our position," said the official

This is all a combination of the strong stance the Americans took against Russia in their invasion of Georgia and of course, the missile defense systems to go up in Poland. And at the same time, Russia is trying to address their teetering economy by trying to form some trade agreements with Latin America which of course will bring Russian influence to the region. Considering the economies of Cuba and Venezuela, I hope the Russians enter into a long term agreement with those clowns - so I can watch them both go down in flames.

Russian leader makes defiant Latin America tour

Medvedev was to arrive in Peru early Saturday, meeting Bush at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, where Russia's anti-US stance and absence from the World Trade Organization contrasts with most APEC states.
Officials said Bush and Medvedev would discuss the global financial crisis, the August war in Georgia and the touchstone issue of US missile defense plans in eastern Europe.
On Sunday, Medvedev was also to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, whose own Latin American tour this week underlined growing outside interest in the region.
Bush met with the Chinese leader on Friday.
Russia analysts say Moscow's quest for influence in Latin America is intended to counter US influence in the former Soviet satellites of eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
On Monday, the Russian leader heads to Brazil, a key trading partner.
On Wednesday, he goes to Venezuela for talks with President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of Washington, as Russian warships prepare for joint exercises in the Caribbean Sea.
Russian media say officials will pursue arms and energy deals with Venezuela, whose Russian weapons purchases have prompted concern that arms stockpiles could fall into the hands of leftist rebels in neighboring Colombia.
Lima-based analyst Alejandro Deustua, of the country's Diplomatic Academy, criticized Russia's role in South America, saying it was time for Russia to "explain plainly to each South American country what their intentions are with these military exercises."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted Russian weapons sold in Latin America were defensive rather than offensive and that Russian moves were not aimed at "third countries" -- a clear reference to the United States, RIA Novosti reported.
Medvedev rounds off his tour in Cuba, the flagship ally of the Soviet Union in the Cold War and the United States' communist foe in the western hemisphere since the late 1950s.
Russian energy firms have been seeking projects in Latin America such as possible involvement in a planned South American gas pipeline.
A proposed Russian purchase of Spanish energy company Repsol -- a major player in the region -- could advance such goals.
But Medvedev's tour drew sniping from the influential daily Kommersant, which said Russia's plans were falling apart as oil prices fell and Moscow's economic fortunes plunged.

Chavez Calls On Russia To Protect Venezuela From The United States

With each passing day, Hugo Chavez sinks deeper into his psychosis. This guy is nothing short of bonkers. Chavez travelled to Russia on a shopping spree for defense weapons when he came up with the latest brainstorms, portrayed here at Breitbart:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on Tuesday for a strategic alliance with Russia to protect the South American country from the United States.
Chavez is expected to reach a number of agreements for purchasing military hardware while in Russia, according to Russian news media reports. One newspaper reported that the deals could be worth up to $2 billion.
"That way we can guarantee Venezuela's sovereignty, which is now threatened by the United States," Chavez was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.

Now, I don't know if the new Russian President was just being polite or if he really needs the Venezuelan cash that bad but he stated:

While welcoming Chavez at his castle resort in the Moscow region, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russian-Venezuelan relations "are one of the key factor of security in the (South American) region."

Chavez is and has always been more paranoid than a crack addict living next to a police station and it obviously is getting worse. I guess that's what happens when you run a dictatorship in the middle of democratically run countries. Perhaps that's why Chavez has to travel to the other end of the world to try and find an ally.

Either way, Chavez would sign a pact with the devil if he thought it would keep him in power for another decade. My prediction stands in that I see Chavez taken out of power within two years - not by the Americans, but by his own people.

Chavez says Venezuela needs Russia for protection

MEIENDORF CASTLE, Russia (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on Tuesday for a strategic alliance with Russia to protect the South American country from the United States.
Chavez is expected to reach a number of agreements for purchasing military hardware while in Russia, according to Russian news media reports. One newspaper reported that the deals could be worth up to $2 billion.
"That way we can guarantee Venezuela's sovereignty, which is now threatened by the United States," Chavez was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.
While welcoming Chavez at his castle resort in the Moscow region, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russian-Venezuelan relations "are one of the key factor of security in the (South American) region."
Medvedev and Chavez are meeting for the first time since Medvedev became president in May. Chavez also will meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Russian military and business leaders, Chavez spokesman Tomas Ramirez said.
Russia's daily Kommersant reported Tuesday that Chavez is looking to order up to $2 billion worth of Ilyushin jets, diesel-powered submarines, TOR-M1 air defense systems and possibly tanks.
Rosoboronexport, Russia's state-owned arms trader, declined to comment on potential deals.
"We want peace, but we are forced to strengthen our defense," Chavez said when asked about the potential deals.
Venezuela, which spent $4 billion on international arms purchases between 2005 and 2007, mostly from Russia and China, has a defense budget of $2.6 billion, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The U.S. stopped supplying arms to Venezuela in 2006.
Chavez also wants to discuss the possibility of creating a joint bank, according to Alexis Navarro, Venezuela's ambassador to Moscow.
In addition, the two sides are expected to discuss three energy deals involving three Russian companies—Gazprom, Lukoil, and TNK-BP—and Venezuela's state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the Kremlin said.
Lukoil is already helping Venezuela quantify heavy crude oil deposits in its Orinoco River basin—one of the world's largest petroleum deposits. Russia's Gazprom has two natural gas exploration and production licenses in Venezuela.
Commercial trade between Venezuela and Russia reached $1.1 billion last year, up more than 200 percent from the $517 million in trade during 2006, according to statistics cited by Venezuela's state-run news agency.

Freedom 1 Chavez 0

Hugo Chavez's bid for unlimited power forever was narrowly defeated in a vote estimated to be as close as 51% to 49%!

Okay, so that is great news! But, and with Chavez there is always a but, I doubt this will be the last attempt by Chavez to hang on to power - I'm sure he is already studying Putin's latest examples of power retention.

But for the moment, let us all rejoice for the Venezuelen people - they've been through so much and this was a tremendous moment of courage for them.

Full election story here from Breitbart.

Chavez Loses Constitutional Vote

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez suffered a stunning defeat Monday in a referendum that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely and impose a socialist system in this major U.S. oil provider.
Voters defeated the sweeping measures Sunday by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, said Tibisay Lucena, chief of the National Electoral Council, with voter turnout at just 56 percent.
She said that with 88 percent of the votes counted, the trend was irreversible.
Opposition supporters shouted with joy as Lucena announced the results on national television early Monday, their first victory against Chavez after nine years of electoral defeats.

Some broke down in tears. Others began chanting "And now he's going away!"

Cecilia Goldberger, a 56-year-old voting in affluent eastern Caracas, said Venezuelans did not really understand how Chavez's power grab would affect them. She resented pre-dawn, get-out-the-vote tactics by Chavistas, including fireworks and reveille blaring from speakers mounted on cruising trucks.
"I refuse to be treated like cattle and I refuse to be part of a communist regime," the Israeli-born Goldberger said, adding that she and her businessman husband hope to leave the country