Chavez Government to Finance Glover Film

Here's the story:

Venezuela's Congress says it has approved financing for two films by actor Danny Glover, a close supporter of President Hugo Chavez.

The lawmaking body, which is closely allied with Chavez, said in a statement on its Web site Thursday that it approved $20 million for two Glover productions.

They include "The General in His Labyrinth," which deals with the life of South American liberator Simon Bolivar. It is based on a novel by Colombian Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez and will be directed by Venezuela-born director Alberto Arvelo.

The other is "Toussaint," which the statement said Glover plans to direct documenting the life of Haitian revolution leader Toussaint Louverture.

Government officials and Glover's representatives were not immediately available for comment.

The statement said that the funds will come from proceeds Venezuela obtained from a recent bond sale with Argentina.

Glover is among a number of high-profile U.S. supporters of Chavez. The group also includes singer Harry Belafonte and Princeton University scholar Cornel West, who have defended the Venezuelan president against accusations of democratic abuses.

Glover has met Chavez during visits to Venezuela and even appeared on his television and radio talk show, "Hello, President."

Giuliani pounds Chavez

I haven't endorsed any presidential candidate over at my blog, but I like hearing comments like this from those that are seeking the highest seat in the land:

"Isn't it annoying, upsetting and even in some cases a matter of national security that we have to send money to our enemies?" Giuliani asked. "We need a president who knows how to get things done so we don't have to be sending money to Chavez."

Giuliani called for the United States to develop alternative energy sources and take advantage of oil already in its control. He said that antagonistic leaders of oil-rich nations, like Chavez, would have "little power" if the United States could stop buying oil from them.

Too true, and most likely there would be no need for such blogs as these if we stopped giving money to countries that hate us.

Chavez: "No possibility" of understanding with Washington

It's been a long time since an update here at Hugo Chavez Watch, but fortunately Chavez keeps making the news waves.

Chavez has said there is no possibility of diplomatic understanding between him and the United States. Does this extend to a Washington ruled by Democrats? My instinct says it does, because none but the most left-wing Democrats will make moves to "spread the revolution," as Chavez would put it.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, threatening to cut off oil shipments to the U.S. if its government supports any efforts to oust him, said that reconciliation with Washington was impossible.

Chavez said a thirst for oil motivated both the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and a failed 2002 coup against him. The outspoken leader has often accused the U.S. of being behind the coup, and Washington has repeatedly denied the allegation.


A young supporter of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez cheers as she waves a flag reading in Spanish "The people are still in the streets, now on the path to socialism" outside Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Friday, April 13, 2007, during a rally to celebrate the fifth year anniversary of Chavez's return to power after a coup that briefly toppled him in 2002.

"There is no possibility of understanding for our revolution with the government of the United States, with U.S. imperialism," Chavez said during a news conference to mark the fifth anniversary of his return to power two days after the coup.

Venezuela's National Animal, Two Versions

Got this neat little comparison from Michael Medved's weekly e-mail newsletter. Good way to end the week. On the left, the Capybara, the world's largest rodent. And on the right, President Hugo Chavez, an even larger rodent.

Full 20/20 interview with Chavez

Hugo Chavez on 20/20

In a couple minutes at 10:00, Hugo Chavez will be interviewd by Barbara Walters. To my knowledge, it's the first major American interview (aside from super-left outlets like Democracy Now!) that Pirate Boy's done.

Watch this space for update and analysis an hour from now.

UPDATE: Alright, so Hugo showed alot of his soft and tender side, knowing full well who the audience would be for an ABC News Interview. When asked about his calling President Bush a "donkey," a "devil" and other such epithets, he said that those comments may have excessive, and even that he "may apologize." Without batting an eye though, he referred to Bush as a "political corpse" when answering the very next question. Talk about diarrhea of the mouth.

After a whole waste of time with Walters asking him about marriage and coffee, the interview ended and we saw her rain him with the compliments in the ABC studio. Like Mike Wallace after his interview with Iranian President Ahmadinejad, where Wallace espoused that Ahmadinejad would be a harbringer of world peace if it weren't for the "Zionist entity," Walters become doughy eyed and swallowed the notion that this tyrannical madman would turn into a dove if only the Democrats were back in office.

Watch the video for yourself.

Terry McAulliffe on Pirate Boy

According to the account of Bryan Preston, McAulliffe blamed the rise to prominence in the South American continent of Hugo Chavez on - well, you guess:

Also during Q&A, several liberals in the audience came at McAuliffe from the left, giving him the chance to burnish his nutroots credentials. He took the opportunity and ran with it. One asked him why the US is so unpopular with Hugo Chavez, prompting McAuliffe’s BDS affliction to come out in full glory. Keep in mind that Chavez is turning all of Venezuela into an armed camp as he cozies up to the Iranian mullahs and turns himself into a clone of Fidel Castro. Keep in mind that Chavez calls himself an enemy of the US, and keep in mind that Chavez currently rules Venezuela by dictatorial decree as he nationalizes (a fancy way of saying “steals”) private companies. Keep in mind that Chavez was kept in power, in all likelihood, by a sham election certified real by Jimmy Carter. Keeping all of that in mind, McAuliffe actually blamed Chavez’s actions and attitudes on George W. Bush.

Which, if he’s being logically consistent, means Castro is entirely the fault of John F. Kennedy.

Read the rest of the article, which is a bit lengthy but worth it nonetheless.

Oh, and just because I feel like it, the best book cover ever:

Giuliani Law Firm Lobbies in Texas for Chavez-Controlled Citgo

If it weren't enough that he has a record of being more socially liberal than Bill Clinton, it has now been revealed that presidential candidate and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has ties to Venezuela's Pirate Boy:

March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Rudolph Giuliani's law firm lobbies for Citgo Petroleum Corp., a unit of the state-owned oil company controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the U.S.'s chief antagonist in the Western Hemisphere.

Bracewell & Giuliani LLP registered to lobby for Citgo in Texas on April 26, 2005, less than a month after the former New York mayor joined the firm and became a name partner, state records show. Citgo renewed the contract in 2006 and 2007 and pays the firm $5,000 a month to track legislation. Giuliani doesn't lobby, the firm says.

The law firm's representation of Citgo comes as Chavez's relations with the U.S. have grown increasingly hostile. He has called President George W. Bush a ``devil'' and a ``madman'' and staged a mass, anti-American rally in Buenos Aires during Bush's trip to Latin America, which ends today.

Not earth-shattering, I know, but hey. We've been running low on Hugo news lately.

Chavez's buying spree

Guess which nation is the largest weapons buyer in Latin America?

Venezuela?

I have nothing against a nation properly supplying a well-trained military, especially in a region of the world constantly battling Marxist guerillas, narcotics cartels, and reactionary death squads. The problem I see is Venezuela's, I mean, Chavez's irresponsibility. Chavez is friendly with WMD proliferators and subsidizes brutal tyrants from Cuba to Massachusetts.

The scorecard:

...more than $US4 billion ($A5.05 billion) over the past two years...
...dozens of fighter jets and attack helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov
assault rifles...
...Venezuela's escalation of arms spending, up 12.5 per cent in
2006...
Since 2005, Venezuela has signed contracts with Russia for 24 Sukhoi
fighter jets, 50 transport and attack helicopters, and 100,000 assault
rifles.

Private propety is safe (for now)

Chavez has no plans to eliminate private property.

In a normal country that is not a denial that needs to be made.

"While preserving private property, a revised Constitution would also protect
"social" and "collective" property, like the country's large oil reserves,
Chávez said, without giving further details."

There are multiple kinds of property, according to Chavez. These include, in addition to private property are, social and collective property.

In other news, Chavez questions the Venezuelan Central Bank's method of determining inflation and disputes the rate of poverty for his country (18.4% last month and 39.7% at the end of 2005, respectively). Such numbers aren't valid in Venezuela, you see. In the fantasy realm of Chavez, poverty rates are fictitious numbers created to denigrate his country and his "socialism". Inflation numbers are tools of evil capitalists to harm the "revolution".

Hugo Chavez Watch Official Video Spot

Please spread this around!

From student to master

It certainly does appear that Hugo Chavez’s visits to Fidel Castro’s beside have involved more than changing bed pans and wheeling the old guy out for some sun. Clearly there has also been some Master-Grasshopper tutelage going on, perhaps while swabbing the bed sores. Why, in just the last few weeks we’ve seen Hugo clamp down on political opposition, start issuing laws by decree, appoint himself Grocer in Chief, nationalize the red shirt manufacturing industry, etc., etc. We’ve also witnessed him use the time-honored commie rationalization of declaring that his thuggery is for the “people” and/or the “revolution.”

Well yesterday he further showed off his dictatorial chops with some old-school paranoid ranting. From the AP:

Hugo Chavez Accuses U.S. of Plan to Wreck Venezuelan Economy

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez warned that the U.S. government, allegedly frustrated by failed assassination plots against him, was now planning to sabotage the oil-producing country's economy.Chavez, speaking Thursday on his newly scheduled prime-time TV talk show, predicted that "one of the fiercest battle fronts" was coming ahead as Washington readied to destroy Venezuela economically.

He said that recent comments by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accusing Chavez of "destroying" his country's economy meant that "the imperialist plan of the moment" had turned to economic sabotage."

(That's) one of the plans. The other is assassination," he said, reiterating past claims that the U.S. government is plotting to kill him. "We've neutralized various attempts, and I have faith we will continue neutralizing them. But they won't rest."

Chavez said that recent urgings by President Bush for his country to reduce its oil dependency on unfriendly nations, including Venezuela, meant that Venezuela was already on "the drawing table" and Washington was laying its plans.

Great stuff, huh? To summarize…By offering the opinion that Hugo is ruining Venezuela’s economy, Secretary Rice was really stating that the US will do the wrecking with its “imperialist plan of the moment” because so many assassination attempts have failed. And this sabotage plan is laid bare through President Bush’s goal of reducing oil purchases from countries which hate the US. Or more concisely, Hugo is in effect saying, “You can’t buy oil elsewhere! I need your money to keep calling you the Devil and fly first class to Tehran!! Imperialist jackals!! Buy Venezuelan!!” Or something to that effect.

Fidel must be so proud of his little grasshopper.

Did Chavez rig elections?

From a New York Sun article:

Hugo Chavez may have lost both the recall referendum in 2004 and the December 2006 presidential election, according to studies conducted by a distinguished multidisciplinary team in Caracas, Venezuela. The team includes the rector of Universidad Simon Bolivar, Frederick Malpica, and a former rector of the National Electoral Council, Alfredo Weil.

Astonishing as it may seem to Americans who believe the contention by Mr. Chavez that he won both elections by a landslide - 58% to 42% in the recall and 61% to 39% in the presidential election - the studies show that since 2003, Mr. Chavez has added 4.4 million favorable names to the voter list and "migrated" 2.6 million unfavorable voters to places where it was difficult or impossible for them to vote.

There was a report during the campaigning in Venezuela of Chavez's state run petroleum company blacklisting those that didn't support him. If it were to come out that his re-election were rigged, it would only be par for the course.

H/T: Greg Reeson

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I'm making a few changes on the blog, so things might look a little different. Don't fret.

Chavez on Al Jazeera: America is "Count Dracula"

The video is a couple of months old and was translated by the wonderful guys over at MEMRI. Make sure to check out their blog.

Kennedy a prop for Venezuela and Chavez?

What's the price of a gallon of milk? Ask Hugo!!

Feeding (as it were) off mgraves' last post....

Here are the AP's lead graphs on the supermarket story:

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez threatened Wednesday to nationalize any privately owned supermarkets and food storage facilities caught hoarding inventories or violating price controls imposed on basic goods.

Accusing private companies of hoarding beef and other foods, Chavez warned supermarket owners and distributors that he would nationalize their facilities as soon as they gave him "an excuse."

If they remain committed to violating the interests of the people, the constitution, the laws, I'm going to take the food storage units, corner stores, supermarkets and nationalize them," Chavez said during a televised broadcast. "So prepare yourselves!"

You know the first thought I had when I read that? Kulaks. What, or who, are they? The Wiki entry is here. The short answer is that they were Russians in the 1920s-30s who grew food and ate it. So they were killed. Why? Because they were hoarding and thereby violating the interests of the people. At least that's what the forebears of Hugo Chavez said.

Grocery stores up next

Chavez now wants to nationalize grocery stores. Not exactly a high profit industry.

Venezuela continues to spiral down, under the jackboot of Chavez.

Middle Class flight

Venezuelans capable of fleeing the country are starting to do so amid fears of a Chavez dictatorship. U.S. visa inquiries have doubled over the last several weeks. The U.K. reports a similar rise.

...
A website for would-be emigrants — mequieroir.com (I want to leave.com) —
reports that since Mr Chavez's December 3 election win, and his announcement
last month that he would nationalise the telecommunications and electricity
industries, its daily visits have soared from 20,000 to 60,000.
...
"Older people leave because they are concerned about the future of their
families," said Mr Barreiro, a graphic designer, "and younger people like us
leave because there is no future."
...

Chavez's promise of a perfect socialism is apparently not embraced by everyone.

Nationalization in Latin America

Bolivia's little Chavez moves ahead of Venezuela's Chavez in the industry nationalization race.

Chavez felt the need to pay for his first acquistion, but while the terms of Morales' appropriation haven't been disclosed as of yet, they are likely not as generous as those Chavez granted to the American company he "bought" out.

There is something to be said for being a nation willing to use force: when flea-bitten dictators take your property, they feel compelled to pay for it (0n occasion).