scoutsout80
02-09-2010, 11:00 AM
Venezuela heads toward disaster
Honduran elections pass important test
T he people of Honduras made it clear on Sunday that they fully supported the electoral process that produced a presidential victory for Porfirio Lobo, the candidate of the opposition National Party.
The turnout of more than 60 percent signals that most Hondurans were unwilling to heed the call of ousted president Manuel Zelaya, who had called for a boycott of the process to strengthen his claim that the elections were not legitimate because he was improperly removed from power back in June.
In fact, the elections easily passed the most important test of all in any democracy by attracting popular support. That, along with an absence of reported irregularities at the polls and a generally peaceful atmosphere around the country, helps to make the case that the results of the election should be respected by other countries, even though Mr. Zelaya himself remains holed up in the Brazilian Embassy in an increasingly futile effort to win back his old job.
Venezuela freezes ties with Colombia
President Hugo Chávez has put relations with neighboring Colombia in the deep freeze again, sparking concerns about the mercurial leader's next moves.
Chávez withdrew his ambassador from Colombia and threatened to break diplomatic relations to protest complaints by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that three grenade launchers found in the hands of Colombia's biggest guerrilla group had been sold by the Swedish government to Venezuela in 1988.
Chávez denied Uribe's charge, which seems to provide more evidence of ties between Chávez and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which has been waging a 45-year battle to overthrow Colombia's democratically elected government.
MEXICO CITY -- In early September, Colombia's biggest businesses surprised everyone by declaring their wholehearted support for the country's president, Alvaro Uribe, in his deepening conflict with Venezuela. If they lost the huge export market next door, well, that would simply be too bad.
For the first time, Colombian exporters of just about everything Venezuela buys, from toilet paper to gasoline, fruit and vegetables, and milk and meat, gave their president the green light to confront Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez instead of continuing to turn the other cheek, as they had been pressing him to do in the eight years since Uribe took office.
Venezuela had become a magnificent business opportunity for Colombian exporters. It produces next to nothing anymore (except oil), has a highly subsidized official exchange rate and wields huge sums of petro-dollars with which it can buy up everything in sight. While Colombia's authorities were forced to deal with Chávez's frequent insults, interventions
Hugo Chavez says Venezuela-U.S. relations will improve
Closer relations between Venezuela and the United States are no doubt coming soon, President Hugo Chávez said Saturday, adding that the two countries may soon return each other's ambassadors to their posts.
Chávez made the statement after a dozen South American leaders met with President Barack Obama Saturday morning at the Fifth Summit of the Americas. Chávez called the meeting ``extraordinary.''
''I feel great optimism and the best of good will to advance. We have started off on the right foot,'' Chávez said in a statement released by his office, which noted that he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed renewing each other's ambassadors.
Obama's confidence-building moves good -- to a point
U. S. officials have long pooh-poohed claims that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is a threat to U.S. national security. But now that Chávez openly says that he is working with Iran in a joint nuclear program, Venezuela watchers are wondering whether the U.S. perception is changing.
I asked about the Venezuela-Iran nuclear ties in a rare interview with Dan Restrepo, senior White House National Security Council advisor on Latin American affairs.
Restrepo was in Miami last week to address the Americas Conference organized by The Miami Herald, the World Bank and Florida International University.
What little is left of Venezuela's democracy has taken a literal beating from President Hugo Chávez's uniformed goon squads -- again.
Police used a variety of weapons, from water cannons to plastic bullets, last week to disperse hundreds of student protesters who refuse to knuckle under to an increasingly desperate and unpopular president determined to remain in power at all costs.
While the president and his followers were celebrating the anniversary of the failed 1992 coup that first brought him to national attention, the students were protesting the deterioration of their country. It wasn't the first time that Mr. Chávez has resorted to force to quell peaceful political opponents, but the frustration level inside the country is rising as Venezuela's political and economic situation goes from bad to worse.
Rolling blackouts, currency devaluation and price inflation (the worst in Latin America), water shortages and scarce commodities -- this is what 11 years of a Chávez presidency have produced.
Dismal energy program
As if to underline the utter befuddlement of Mr. Chávez's inept government, an advisory team from Cuba, of all places, was brought in to improve the dismal energy program. Cuba? That's like asking Scott Rothstein for advice on legal ethics.
The problem with PDVSA, the oil company, as Venezuelans well know, is that Mr. Chávez turned it into a sinecure for political cronies, destroying its once admirable efficiency and productive value. Only by putting the experts back in charge can it hope to recover, but President Chávez is not about to hand authority over to anyone who is not a known loyalist.
The problems at PDVSA are emblematic of what's wrong with Venezuela and why his Bolivarian revolution is in trouble. Mr. Chávez has run the economy, and the country, into the ground, but that hasn't stopped him from making trouble wherever he can.
As the streets of Caracas were in turmoil, the U.S. director of national intelligence, former Admiral Dennis Blair, was giving Congress an unvarnished assessment of Mr. Chávez's presidency that underlines the danger he represents to the entire region.
He has cultivated friendships in all the wrong places, beginning with Iran, spent $6 billion to buy weapons from Russia, and provided covert support to the terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Pressure Chávez
All of this spells disaster for the people of Venezuela -- and the hemisphere. It can be avoided only by the concerted effort of other countries in the region to pressure Mr. Chávez to moderate his behavior and adhere to the rules of democracy.
Isn't that what the Organization of American States is for? Mr. Chávez has undermined, if not destroyed Venezuela's once vibrant, if imperfect, democracy. He has bullied his neighbors, fueled a regional arms race and brought political tensions inside the country to a boiling point. The region's leaders shouldn't wait for domestic bloodshed or a cross-border conflict to move them to act.
Honduran elections pass important test
T he people of Honduras made it clear on Sunday that they fully supported the electoral process that produced a presidential victory for Porfirio Lobo, the candidate of the opposition National Party.
The turnout of more than 60 percent signals that most Hondurans were unwilling to heed the call of ousted president Manuel Zelaya, who had called for a boycott of the process to strengthen his claim that the elections were not legitimate because he was improperly removed from power back in June.
In fact, the elections easily passed the most important test of all in any democracy by attracting popular support. That, along with an absence of reported irregularities at the polls and a generally peaceful atmosphere around the country, helps to make the case that the results of the election should be respected by other countries, even though Mr. Zelaya himself remains holed up in the Brazilian Embassy in an increasingly futile effort to win back his old job.
Venezuela freezes ties with Colombia
President Hugo Chávez has put relations with neighboring Colombia in the deep freeze again, sparking concerns about the mercurial leader's next moves.
Chávez withdrew his ambassador from Colombia and threatened to break diplomatic relations to protest complaints by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that three grenade launchers found in the hands of Colombia's biggest guerrilla group had been sold by the Swedish government to Venezuela in 1988.
Chávez denied Uribe's charge, which seems to provide more evidence of ties between Chávez and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which has been waging a 45-year battle to overthrow Colombia's democratically elected government.
MEXICO CITY -- In early September, Colombia's biggest businesses surprised everyone by declaring their wholehearted support for the country's president, Alvaro Uribe, in his deepening conflict with Venezuela. If they lost the huge export market next door, well, that would simply be too bad.
For the first time, Colombian exporters of just about everything Venezuela buys, from toilet paper to gasoline, fruit and vegetables, and milk and meat, gave their president the green light to confront Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez instead of continuing to turn the other cheek, as they had been pressing him to do in the eight years since Uribe took office.
Venezuela had become a magnificent business opportunity for Colombian exporters. It produces next to nothing anymore (except oil), has a highly subsidized official exchange rate and wields huge sums of petro-dollars with which it can buy up everything in sight. While Colombia's authorities were forced to deal with Chávez's frequent insults, interventions
Hugo Chavez says Venezuela-U.S. relations will improve
Closer relations between Venezuela and the United States are no doubt coming soon, President Hugo Chávez said Saturday, adding that the two countries may soon return each other's ambassadors to their posts.
Chávez made the statement after a dozen South American leaders met with President Barack Obama Saturday morning at the Fifth Summit of the Americas. Chávez called the meeting ``extraordinary.''
''I feel great optimism and the best of good will to advance. We have started off on the right foot,'' Chávez said in a statement released by his office, which noted that he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed renewing each other's ambassadors.
Obama's confidence-building moves good -- to a point
U. S. officials have long pooh-poohed claims that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is a threat to U.S. national security. But now that Chávez openly says that he is working with Iran in a joint nuclear program, Venezuela watchers are wondering whether the U.S. perception is changing.
I asked about the Venezuela-Iran nuclear ties in a rare interview with Dan Restrepo, senior White House National Security Council advisor on Latin American affairs.
Restrepo was in Miami last week to address the Americas Conference organized by The Miami Herald, the World Bank and Florida International University.
What little is left of Venezuela's democracy has taken a literal beating from President Hugo Chávez's uniformed goon squads -- again.
Police used a variety of weapons, from water cannons to plastic bullets, last week to disperse hundreds of student protesters who refuse to knuckle under to an increasingly desperate and unpopular president determined to remain in power at all costs.
While the president and his followers were celebrating the anniversary of the failed 1992 coup that first brought him to national attention, the students were protesting the deterioration of their country. It wasn't the first time that Mr. Chávez has resorted to force to quell peaceful political opponents, but the frustration level inside the country is rising as Venezuela's political and economic situation goes from bad to worse.
Rolling blackouts, currency devaluation and price inflation (the worst in Latin America), water shortages and scarce commodities -- this is what 11 years of a Chávez presidency have produced.
Dismal energy program
As if to underline the utter befuddlement of Mr. Chávez's inept government, an advisory team from Cuba, of all places, was brought in to improve the dismal energy program. Cuba? That's like asking Scott Rothstein for advice on legal ethics.
The problem with PDVSA, the oil company, as Venezuelans well know, is that Mr. Chávez turned it into a sinecure for political cronies, destroying its once admirable efficiency and productive value. Only by putting the experts back in charge can it hope to recover, but President Chávez is not about to hand authority over to anyone who is not a known loyalist.
The problems at PDVSA are emblematic of what's wrong with Venezuela and why his Bolivarian revolution is in trouble. Mr. Chávez has run the economy, and the country, into the ground, but that hasn't stopped him from making trouble wherever he can.
As the streets of Caracas were in turmoil, the U.S. director of national intelligence, former Admiral Dennis Blair, was giving Congress an unvarnished assessment of Mr. Chávez's presidency that underlines the danger he represents to the entire region.
He has cultivated friendships in all the wrong places, beginning with Iran, spent $6 billion to buy weapons from Russia, and provided covert support to the terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Pressure Chávez
All of this spells disaster for the people of Venezuela -- and the hemisphere. It can be avoided only by the concerted effort of other countries in the region to pressure Mr. Chávez to moderate his behavior and adhere to the rules of democracy.
Isn't that what the Organization of American States is for? Mr. Chávez has undermined, if not destroyed Venezuela's once vibrant, if imperfect, democracy. He has bullied his neighbors, fueled a regional arms race and brought political tensions inside the country to a boiling point. The region's leaders shouldn't wait for domestic bloodshed or a cross-border conflict to move them to act.