Venezuela’s populist authoritarian President continues to battle a slumping economy, high inflation and faltering popular approval ratings. With the national oil company (PDVSA) the chief lifeline of his regime, Chavez will literally beg, borrow or steal to keep pumping oil. Chavez’s nationalization mania took off in earnest in 2007. Last year, …
While hosting Syria’s President-for-life Bashar al-Assad on June 25-26, Venezuela authoritarian populist and aspiring president-for-life Hugo Chavez was quick to promise ever-closer ties with Syria. Assad’s Syria is the longest running country on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Chavez described the Syrian leader’s visit as part of a “strategic …
Washington’s ability to manage multiple challenges continues to be tested in the Western Hemisphere, where Venezuela’s anti-American leader Hugo Chavez is working to destabilize the region and support international terrorist organizations. The Washington Post’s Juan Forero reported on May 20: Now, based on documents and witness testimony, Chávez is facing …
In his most recent congressional testimony the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela successfully managed to outline Obama Administration policy for Latin America without once mentioning Hugo Chavez or Iran. Such a glaring omission speaks volumes about the Obama readiness to “speak no evil” and bury …
Almost a year ago, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez told President Obama, “I want to be your friend.” Today the much-photographed handshake at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad has become a cold shoulder. Sadly like much of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, relations with arch-anti-American Hugo Chavez have fallen …
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rose to power by tapping into populist and nationalist sentiment. Blaming the problems facing his country on western superpowers, Chavez portrayed himself as a man of the people who would bring the wealth of Venezuela to the people. The pie-in-the-sky rhetoric does not jive with cold, …
In the wake of a devastating report on his presidency by the Organization of American States’ (OAS) Inter-American Commission, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s loudest defense has come from actor Sean Penn, known most recently for his roles in Milk and Mystic River. In the OAS report, Chavez is accused of …
In a recent letter to Speaker Pelosi, President Obama stated that North Korea does not fit the criteria for being listed as a state sponsor of terrorism, which would automatically impose sanctions. That leaves four countries on the list: Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria. But given testimony this week from …
In publicizing the President’s State of the Union address, Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett announced that one of the achievements of which the administration was most proud in its first year in office was its action to repair “badly frayed global alliances” and “to restore America’s leadership in the world.” That …
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez took another step aimed at consolidating his authoritarian choke hold on Venezuela by forcing cable providers to dump Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) from their broadcasting lineups. The popular, anti- Chavez channel first ran afoul of the populist leader for its critical programming back in 2007. At the …
