Chavez is a master manipulator, deep in bed with the tyrant Castro regime. His condemnation of Obama, before we have even see how closely Obama's foreign policy may/will resemble Bush's, is evidence of Chavez's general hatred of the United States, irrespective of who our Chief Executive may be.
Let's hope that Obama, maybe somewhere down the road, realizes that America's insane drug prohibition policies, and the massive black narco-trafficking to which they have given rise, are just as, if not more, responsible for the success of organizations like FARC as the Chavez's of the world.
The forces of narco-trafficking and leftist revolutionaries go hand-in-hand, both intent on destabilizing social order and debilitating even just basic governance, in order to achieve their ends.
Irrespective of Chavez's tyranny and regional meddling, he is but a minor factor in the big picture puzzle of narco-terrorism and "revolutionary" chaos in countries like Colombia.
Obama is right about Chavez as a terrorist-funder, but Obama would be wise to consider real changes in U.S. policy that would put Chavez and those like him in perspective...or better yet, make such tin-horn dictators and narco-traffickers irrelevant.
Frankly, our own interventionist policies, whether drug war driven or otherwise, are as a general statement no more morally-justifiable than Chavez's, given the results.
Chavez Likens Obama's 'Stench' to Bush's
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez apparently doesn't appreciate Barack Obama's classifying him as a supporter of the Colombian terror group, FARC, likening the president-elect's odor to that of Chavez's nemesis, President Bush.
In an interview airing on Venezuelan television and reported by The Washington Post Monday, Chavez said Obama has "the same stench" as Bush. The comment harkens back to September 2006, when Chavez addressed the United Nations General Assembly after Bush and said he could still smell the "sulfur" the U.S. president left behind at the podium.
In an interview that aired on Univision last week, Obama said his administration would try to improve relations with Chavez, but Venezuela has to stop aiding FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which is recognized as a terror group by the United States and loathed by Colombians who have been victims of assassinations and kidnappings for the past 45 years. Internal FARC documents captured by Colombian soldiers last year purportedly demonstrated the link between Chavez and the terror organization.
The Post reported that Obama told Univision: "We need to be firm when we see this news, that Venezuela is exporting terrorist activities or supporting malicious entities like the FARC."
Chavez, who is trying to consolidate power by getting voters to agree to abolish term limits, a ploy rejected in a previous effort, was quoted saying that if Obama thinks that Chavez is an obstacle to progress then he must be following orders from certain corners of "the empire."
"If he doesn't obey the orders of the empire, they'll kill him," Chavez said, without naming who "they" are.
Comments
Nice try, though. Since when am I obligated to extend Obama gratuities? I certainly gave Bush none.
I think I'll avoid your solipsistic urgings that I should suspend my reservations to slobber over Obama along with the rest of you.
No thanks.
Solipsism has nothing to do w/ what I said. You should really look up words you don't understand before you use them. It embarrasses you. Friendly advice.
They despise Chávez with a passion. They understand that Hugo is popular with the poor and has a desire to help them. But he's doing so by alienating everyone else. IOW, he'll end up turning VZ into another Cuba -- an economic basket-case with a megalomaniac holding onto perpetual power.
Ahhhh, more sense and sensibility from the Obamania quarter.
Tyler, your rhetoric about Obama is like Hitler's rhetoric about the Jews! Shame!
"sol⋅ip⋅sism - extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption"
Sorry, Dana, but your implication that I somehow owe Obama a free blow job somewhere along the way, to indulge your desire that we all join in blowing Obama like you, is solipsism defined.