Hugo and Alex: Reuters' mavericks

To Reuters, the last European dictator and the latest South American dictator are mavericks:
Venezuela, Belarus seal "anti-imperialist" alliance (via SC&A; emphasis added)

MINSK (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday he had forged a strategic alliance to stand up to U.S. imperialism with fellow maverick Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"Our countries must keep their hands at the ready on the sword," Chavez, in ex-Soviet Belarus as part of a world tour, said on a visit to a military academy.

Hugo did not give details about what the alliance would involve. I have the impression it has to do with armaments and ideology:

Chavez leaves Belarus on Tuesday for Russia where he is to sign a deal to buy Russian fighter jets and helicopters. His tour will also take in Qatar, Iran, Vietnam and Mali.

Chavez, the wanna-be dictador, visits Lukashenko, the last European dictator, with a foot note of Carlos Fuentes.

Sepcifically, Fuentes -- who's definitely not one in the vast right-wing conspiracy -- says of Hugo (article in Spanish, translation here):

He is not a leftist. He is a fascist, not to be trusted, a passing phenomenon. He is ruining Venezuela, he is ill using the oil money. The main roads of the country are collapsing. He is a demagogue, a sort of tropical parakeet. He is trying to finish off Venezuelan democracy. He benefited from the void left by the political parties, but he Hill be removed by the Venezuelan society itself, one that I respect very much and that I cannot imagine ruled by this gorilla for ever.

In other travel news, Hugo's little friend was in Tajikistan talking tough while saying he was against any form of violence in the Middle East. I expect that Reuters will be calling him a maverick, too, as soon as Hugo arrives in Tehran.

Update Chavez, Ex-USSR: A New Axis? (prior related post here)

Update 2 Back in April I was posting about Venezuela's oil shortfall. Today Publius Pundit posts,

Citgo recently announced that it would end supply to gas stations in 10 U.S. states due to the fact that it no longer can internally access enough Venezuelan oil, and the effort to supply these stations with imported oil at world prices was a burden.

Read the rest of that post.
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(technorati tags Hugo Chavez, Alexander Lukashenko, Venezuela, Tajikistan, Iran)