El loco Chavez goes nuts, sends troops to border with Colombia

I wont be surprised that Chavez might see this as a way to expand his "little" empire.

I can't imagine his his war drum beating rhetoric is going to help his perception among the populace, but I would never claim to understand the Venezualan peoples. Chavez seems to continually do the opposite of acting in the interests of his constituency.

Does FARC have any popular support among Latin America?

No.

Does this mean Chavez will have to put his CSI investigation into the "secret assassination" of Simon Bolivar on hold? We must know the truth!

This is like watching a meltdown thread in the real world.

"Kneel before the armies of liberation, imperialist lapdogs!"

Although violating a nation's sovereignty without going through the proper channels for whatever reason, is a very wrong thing, Chavez's reaction seems wildly out of proportion.

And just like that, my mom's country (ecuador) once again tops itself in "doh!" moments.
I feel awful right now...but not awful to say that Chavez needs to be stopped before he starts dragging South America into hell with him.

Warmongering is only okay if you're a Superpower. Otherwise you have to respect the laws and diplomacy that peaceful foreign relations are built on or you're a "bad guy." Not that Chavez is anything but a petty thug who twists real problems to his advantage and panders to the lower classes for "change" but I just find it funny that when he rattles his sabers everybody rushes to be the first to shout him down.

I'm sure if Chavez was some pro-US right wing puppet who wanted to fight those great myths of "narco-terrorism" or the "Red Menace" the outrage and indignation wouldn't be as palpable.

I'm not defending Chavez at all. He's an ass who craves power and manipulates the lower classes to achieve those ends. What I am pointing out is this:

South America lefty dictator rattles saber with intentions of expanding influence and empire: "This is wrong. We need to take a stand against this sort of aggression and exploitation of the poor 'insert Latin America nation' people by this petty thug who is meddling in the affairs of another sovereign nation for his own greedy ends."

America expands influence and empire through war and aggression against country half way around the world with the buzzwords like "freedom" "fighting them there instead of here" and "bringing democracy to an oppressed people": "Fuck yeah, America!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!!"

Chavez should be condemned, condemned for using the guise of real change that those in his nation truly want and need to satisfy his own thirst for power, but not for stuff the United States (or China, Russia, etc) regularly does as a matter of foreign policy.

So, the place where I get my coke might be invaded by the places where I get my gas and coffee from? Shit.

Of course, this is the most important thing. Hundreds of actors, actresses, Wall Street Yuppies, and Amy Winehouse will be affected by this crisis. We need to remember this and mourn appropriately.

She can't go hard on him, officially we are allies. Venezuela helped her a lot in her Campaign, even with some dirty money. It was a huge scandal here. They found a suitcase with almost a million dollars that Venezuela was smuggling into Argentina. The money was supposed to go to her Campaign treasure.

We'll see.

Funny thing is that She is actually going to be there today. She'll be on tour dealing an exchange. Food for Oil. We need more energy for the winter.

But, a month ago, She did blindsided the President of Guinea in the middle of an act on his behalf, by railing him in front of the press about Human Rights issues without warning.

Is there a right one?

That could have been part of the deal to release some of the hostages?

And Chavez would secure every mean possible to gain political and military power behind him. He's just that crazy.

Let's send Kevin Spacey and Sean Penn to calm Hugo down.

Nation states supporting revolutionary groups with questionable motives and methods! I'm shocked, utterly shocked.

What do you want me to say? Chavez bad, FARC bad, etc, etc, etc. I think those things are pretty self-evident don't you? What I decry, what I hate, is utter and complete hypocrisy. This is part of, whether you like it or not, modern statecraft. Is it despicable, horrible, deplorable? Of course! What it isn't is shocking or unexpected. Chavez is just so bad at this game it's almost comical.

I could honestly see Chavez having FARC leadership on his Skype Contacts list.

Bush can't wait for him to attack Columbia so we can finally get into the region and fuck it up more and carry out whatever plans Bush has for it. He should run pipelines from South America straight to his ass!

I agree. People should pay more attention to South America and it's sad that they don't but that's been the case for a long time-if it doesn't further U.S. interests or policy needs "we" don't care. The American people, for the most part, don't even care unless it directly affects their way of life or impacts them directly in some way.

Chavez will be replaced, sooner or later, through either internal or external means. Sadly, people suffer and die before that happens but the even sadder reality is that there will be more Chavez's (right wing, left wing, or Nightwing), more FARC's, and more horrible situations like these until real, populist change is implemented in these countries independent of the needs and interests of the United States or anybody else. That's the real issue at hand in all this: Manifest Destiny for the nations of South America.

Chavez and his ilk only exist because there's always a new asshole ready to take the place of an old one, to offer scraps to the poor and hungry (or the status quo to the upper classes or elite if you're so inclined), in exchange for a mandate to power. That actually pisses me off and based on your postings I assume it does you as well. I will decry these things all day long. I will throw rhetorical stones at the Chavez's of the world. I will march with you, I will write letters to Senators, and inform more people of the things going on.


What I will not do is give free passes to anyone. My feelings on this subject don't absolve Chavez or FARC. My own nation is just as guilty of the same things and maybe even greater travesties when one examines the last 150 years of U.S. history. That doesn't make what they do right, just a sad matter of fact. Perhaps if my nation set a better example and actually led on the principles that are the foundation of this democracy (or what I hope is the foundation) and stopped using all of Latin America like a commodity meant to be used, controlled, and exploited than the Chavez's would never get that mandate I talked about earlier.


I think all this is relevent to the discussion. It's a lot more complex than "Chavez is the new Hitler!" If you happen to take an opposing viewpoint you and I will just have to respectfully disagree.

Jimmy Carter started the ball rolling on the Contras. Serious efforts to annex large swaths of Central America to the U.S. were spearheaded by Teddy Roosevelt. The "Monroe Doctrine" ring a bell?

This has nothing at all to do with Bush. It's systemic of this country's foreign policy since almost the founding of the Republic to fuck around with South America like it's an inalienable right than any one particular administration. Besides, Bush is a lame duck who doesn't have the political support to pull something like that off. I doubt he even has an inkling of what's going on anyway. Smarter men know that Chavez's time will eventually run out. Castro has/had survived so long because a. The Cold War and it becoming a virtual step-child of the Soviets and China and b. No real natural resources. Ironically, it'll be Venezuela's natural wealth that will be his downfall if he continues down this insane path.

Smarter men being those that actually know what they are talking about? Venezuela's constitution has a 2 term limit and Chavez is on his second term, he's out in 2013. He tried to end term limits but it was voted down at the end of last year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Chavez

Until he pulls a Putin and gets his puppet elected as his successor while Hugo fills the role of Prime Minister or some special office he creates for himself.

He doesn't have the stones Putin has, that being said anything is possible but if nothing else the "Term Limit" election not going his way shows he doesn't have that level of power or corruption, yet.

I'm aware of those but I'm also aware of how power hungry this ass clown is. Democracy to him is nothing but a means to an end. He'll stay in power as long as he chooses. War with Colombia? Perfect. Nothing says dictatorship like one of those classic "national emergencies."

Or everybody is wrong about Chavez and he's actually a populist reformer who respects the rule of law while looking out for the best interests of the poor and working classes of his nation.


My money is still on military coup within 6-8 years. Then what happens? Another jackboot takes his place, probably with covert U.S. assistance, and the people get fucked again. Assuming this is all true (and not a huge leap at all to assume that it is.) you don't try to de-stabilize a region/sovereign nation by funding those funny "counter-revolutionary" types if you don't intend to be around to reap the benefits of said de-stabilization.

I need my coffee. Canada will invade to Support Columbia in order to supply Tim Horton's with coffee.

Juan Valdez isn't going to take this lying down.

This wouldn't have happened had we let this guy continue to be in charge:

That's interesting. I don't think (actually based on what I've read I have to say that they most certainly don't) FARC has enough popular support to justify that line of thinking though.

I'm sorry, this year we only fear terrorist organizations that start with the letters A, T or Q. F's fall on non-election years.


Oh, sorry forgot I'm a Republican... rabble rabble rabble... Obama supports terrorists ... rabble rabble rabble.

Yeah but I'm hoping the American people have a little bit more sense than that. There's a difference between creating dialogue with a nation like Iran and sitting down with Narco-terrorists like FARC who are so far removed, in my opinion, from the ideology they were supposedly founded on that they're nothing more than thugs disguised as "revolutionaries" these days.

In all seriousness, I doubt anyone will use this against Obama as a friend of mine pointed out that this is released from the Columbian government and is heavily censored (I take him for his word) all the .. is censorship apparently. So, it reads the way the Columbian government wants you to read it.

Chavez mobilized over 85% of his military to the border. This is still just a Show Off.

And to answer your previous question, our President has said that she wishes for peace in the region. But, that Colombia's incursion on foreign territory can not be taken lightly.

Technically siding with Chavez.