Five years ago, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez woke up the somnolent delegates to the United Nations General Assembly with his rude and undiplomatic President George W Bush is the Devil speech. This week, when the General Assembly meets in New York City and the focus falls upon President Obama and other world leaders, Chavez will be absent. He is forced to skip the U.N. event in order to undergo a fourth round of cancer chemotherapy in Havana. His presence will not be missed. At the General Assembly, world leaders hope to …
Venezuela’s authoritarian populist President Hugo Chávez announced that presidential elections will take place on October 7, 2012. Chávez, who continues to battle an unspecified cancer, is convinced he will win. In office since 1999, Chávez argues he must have another six years in order to install Socialism of the 21st Century, i.e. a slightly modernized version of Cuban communism. Chávez remains the Western Hemisphere’s most active backer of Iran, the world’s most dangerous sponsor of terrorism. As Muammar Qadhafi’s No. 1 friend in the Americas, Chávez continues to side with the …
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe. The Year of School Choice – Ed Feulner, The Washington Times Beware: New Obamanomics Plan Ahead – Brian Darling, Human Events Health insurance mandates threaten everyone’s freedom – Chuck Donovan, Daily Caller More Regulation Is the Last Thing Economy Needs – Ramesh Ponnuru, Bloomberg DOJ’s Expanding Power to Seize Assets Sparks Concerns – Nathan Koppel, Wall Street Journal Hugo Chavez Goes for the Gold – Ray Walser, FoxNews.com America is forfeiting …
As jubilant Libyans take to the street to celebrate the imminent fall of Muammar Qadhafi, the fate of Libya’s leader remains uncertain: trial or exile? Press resources speculate that he may be headed to a friendly country. Russia, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela are mentioned. Richard Spencer of The Telegraph reported that “the main possibility of exile outside the Arab world is in Venezuela, whose leader Hugo Chavez is an old friend. Last week a Venezuelan envoy was in the Tunisian resort island of Djerba, talking to Qadhafi representatives.” Throughout Libya’s civil …
The future stability of Venezuela and the survival of the “Bolivarian Revolution” increasingly focuses on the health of Venezuela’s indispensable but stricken autocrat. Before June, the scenario called for Hugo Chavez to rule in Venezuela until 2031. Suddenly, a post-Chavez era in Venezuela, which seemed unimaginable weeks before, moved immediately closer. While the Chavez has not leveled entirely with his nation, the international press is now reporting the diagnosis: colon cancer. “President Hugo Chávez appears to be suffering from colon cancer.” “One source close to Chavez’s doctors told Reuters he …
In a hospital room in Havana, Hugo Chavez sits in a track suit wanting people to believe that he is fit to lead, unaffected by a recent slippage of health. Yet, reading between the lines, Venezuela’s elected authoritarian is not in the pink. On June 10, Chavez checked into a Cuban hospital to have an abscess in his pelvis removed. As he recovers, the ailing Chavez is pictured fraternizing with his best friend and mentor, Fidel Castro, and current Cuban dictator Raul Castro. The official press in Venezuela has offered …
With considerable prodding from Congress—especially from the new Republican majority in the House—the Obama Administration and Department of State announced on May 24 that it is placing Venezuela’s national oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) on its list of companies sanctioned for their work in helping expand Iran’s petroleum and gasoline production. The action followed PDVSA’s sale of $50 million in petroleum products in late 2010. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, moreover, has not backed down on his promise to supply Iran with 20,000 barrels of gasoline per day.
The Berlin-based daily Die Welt published a news story on May 13 citing “Western security sources” who reported that Venezuela’s authoritarian strongman Hugo Chavez secretly met in February 2011 with the chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Air Force, Amir al-Hadschisadeh. The pair, according to Die Welt, finalized the location for a missile base, said to be located on the Peninsula de Paraguana, a jut of land 120 kilometers from the Colombian border. Engineers from the Iranian state-owned construction agency Khatam al-Anbia, Die Welt added, have already begun preliminary work …
The record will show that the May 9 extradition by Colombia of Walid Makled Garcia to Venezuela constitutes a major lost opportunity for the Obama Administration to interrogate and prosecute a Venezuelan drug kingpin with close ties to high-level Venezuelan officials and to expose the depth of narco-corruption within the Hugo Chavez regime in Venezuela. Makled’s extradition follows the decision by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the Colombian courts to honor the Venezuelan request for extradition over a similar request made by the U.S. In exchange for Makled, the …
The decision of an Argentinean university to award Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with a prize for promoting freedom of the press prompted an international outcry of disbelief and criticism. On March 29, Chavez visited the University of La Plata to accept the journalism department’s Rodolfo Walsh prize for “his unquestionable and authentic commitment” to expand media access for those in Venezuela without a voice. Indeed, Chavez has improved media access for those who are anxious and patient enough to listen to his interminable Sunday discourses on Alo Presidente or follow …
