"The Russians are leaving" Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Cross-posted

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts included in the next Carnival, please email me: faustaw2 “at” gmail “dot” com.

Two big stories this week:

1. Hugo Chavez expelled the American ambassador and the US expelled the Venezuelan ambassador, while Russian bombers are flying out of Caracas. Going unnoticed: the news that PDVSA is $12billion in the red since last year.

2. Eastern Bolivia is now under martial law as it lapses into what can become a full civil war. 38 people died following rioting in northern and eastern areas of Bolivia in reaction to Evo Morales plans to re-distribute the country’s wealth. Bolivian troops fired into crowds. Bolivia also expelled the American ambassador.

The embassies in all the countries involved remain open and functioning, as of the writing of this post.

In today’s podcast at 10AM Eastern Monica Showalter of IBD talks about these stories.

LATIN AMERICA

Latin America wants free trade

The perils of US protectionism:

ARGENTINA

Argentina’s other drug problem

El FMI dejaria de usar las mediciones del INDEC - Perfil.com

BOLIVIA

La rebelion por la libertad ha comenzado

Bolivia declares martial law in protest hit region

Bolivia rivals ‘reach agreement’

Bolivia’s government has said it has reached a basic agreement with the opposition on ending the violence which officials say has left 28 people dead.

Interior Minister Alfredo Rada said a further 10 bodies had been found in Pando province following the “massacre” of pro-government farmers on Thursday.

Pando Governor Leopoldo Fernandez has been accused of ordering the attack.

La Guerra intestina

Fresh violence in Bolivia stokes civil war fears

El responsable y los complices

Anti-Morales protests intensify in Bolivia

BOLIVIANOS - EN BOLIVIA - TORTURADOS POR VENEZOLANOS Y CUBANOS

Enraged Bolivians burn Venezuelan flags

Here’s video of the military firing into a crowd

BRAZIL

Half the nation, a hundred million citizens strong: What the middle class plans to do with its money - and its votes

CHILE

Chile Calls for Summit to Discuss Bolivian Crisis

CUBA

Cuba and Russia: Together again

Open A GiTMO Relief Center for Cuba, Haiti Hurricane Victims

Yordis García Fournier and Izael Poveda Silva, Cuban Political Prisoners of the Week, 9/14/08

It’s simply criminal

ECUADOR

Death Threats [Against] Archbishop and HLI Leader in Ecuador for Opposing “Abortionist” Constitution

Chevron Lawyers Indicted by Ecuador in Oil-Pit Cleanup Dispute

Willfully Ignorant, Chevron Committing Suicide the Ecuadorean Way: UNASUR will Complete their Demise

HAITI

What Haiti needs

HONDURAS

Expulsions stoke US-LatAm dispute

MEXICO

Key gulf cartel leader captured

Mexico’s failure to sort veggies may have led to outbreak

PERU

Connecting to the world: A president goes to market

VENEZUELA

An Empty Revolution

The Unfulfilled Promises of Hugo Chávez

Pdvsa to get USD 1.2 billion loan from a Japanese bank

Morales, Chávez resort to tired tactics

OUR OPINION: UNCLE SAM BECOMES SCAPEGOAT FOR INTERNAL PROBLEMS

Mary Anastasia O’Grady on the Russian bombers:

This week in weapons

Venezuela Plays The Russia Card

Russia says to send nuclear warship to Caribbean

Venezuela’s interior minister, whose ideological sympathy with Colombia’s FARC guerrillas raised serious concerns, is resigning.

Drug flights operate out of Venezuela, U.S. report says

Bush Tightens Squeeze on Chavez With Rebel Aid Charge

Venezuela’s traffic: Jam today

The Russians are here

AMERICAN POLITICS

McCain Attacks Obama Over Venezuela

There is no US sphere

Mexicans vs. Muslims in Greeley

Efecto-Palin

THIS WEEK’S PODCASTS AND POSTS

Venezuela: Russian bombers going bye-bye

Pdvsa to get $1.2 billion loan from a Japanese bank

The US replies to Chavez and expels the Venezuelan ambassador to the US; Honduras joins in the fray. Oil drops.

Mexican Makes NY Times Investment No American Will Do

Venezuela throws out American ambassador, recalls Venezuelan ambassador to the US

Bolivia: Evo Morales Says He’ll Expel U.S. Ambassador From Bolivia

Following up on the Russian/Venezuela military maneuvers in the Caribbean story: Cold War II in time for the election

More on Chavez’s naval excercises with Russia

Special thanks to Eneas, GoV, Kate, Pat, Larwyn and Maggie.

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Chavez and Ceresole, and Hugo goes to Russia

Today's WSJ has an article by Travis Pantin, Hugo Chávez's Jewish Problem, which highlights the ideological connection between Hugo Chavez and Norberto Ceresole.

Norberto who, you ask?

Norberto Ceresole. Pantin explains,

As an alleged oppressor of the Palestinian Arabs, Israel has its own place of special infamy in Mr. Chávez's worldview. This latter theme has served him particularly well in his efforts to mobilize the sentiments of his rural constituents. Thus, during a 2005 speech marking Columbus's discovery of the Americas, Mr. Chávez likened the plight of Venezuela's Indians to that of Palestinians. Reminding his listeners of how their ancestors had been "murdered in their land" by "governments, economic sectors and great land estates," he thundered: "You were expelled from your homeland, like the heroic Palestinian people."

All of these elements seem entirely derivative of Marxist-Leninist theorizing, with a strong admixture of postcolonialism à la Franz Fanon and Fidel Castro. But Mr. Chávez is not just another Latin American leftist on the Castro model. While the Cuban dictator may be his most important political influence, his greatest intellectual debt is to the Argentinian writer and thinker Norberto Ceresole: a man not of the left but of the populist right, a Holocaust denier and a sworn enemy of Israel and the Jews.

Born in 1943, Ceresole was one of the leading spokesmen for the radical populist government of the Argentine president Juan Perón. Later, in the guise of a political theorist, he argued that the only appropriate leaders for Latin American nations were caudillos: nationalist, militarist and charismatic strongmen capable of ushering in a "postdemocratic" age in which the region's people would become effortlessly at one with the generals who would direct every aspect of society. Led by a group of such caudillos, a confederation of Latin American fascist states would then be in a position to beat back American global hegemony.

Ceresole reportedly traveled with Mr. Chávez during his initial bid for power. After the latter's 1998 victory, he published a celebratory volume, "Caudillo, Army, People: The Venezuela of President Chávez." The second chapter is entitled "The Jewish Question and the State of Israel." In it, Ceresole espoused a "new revisionism" that defined the Holocaust as a "myth" and Israel as a global menace:

The existence of this political enterprise—Israel: a power concentrated in the monopoly of monotheism and implemented through an army, police forces, jails, tortures, assassinations, etc.—seeks to consolidate itself through a series of ideological manipulations in the bosom of the hegemonic power of the United States, which seeks to be accepted as the ruler of the world by any means, even generalized terror, and dissuasive and persuasive practices.

It was for this reason, according to Ceresole, that one of the greatest threats to the Chávez regime lay in Venezuela's "Jewish financial mafia." Indeed, the Venezuelan Jewish community as a whole was to be considered guilty of race-based hostility to Chávez's redemptive nationalist movement.

* * *

The ingeniousness of Ceserole's doctrine, as filtered through the sensibility of Hugo Chávez, resides in its blending of Marxist economics with two venerable anti-Semitic traditions. The first, still powerful in South America, derives from Catholic teachings about the historic Jewish responsibility for the death of Jesus. The second, encapsulated most notoriously in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," has flourished in both rightist and leftist variations throughout modern European history, resurfacing in our own time in the fulminations of extreme anti-Zionists.

This is an ominous sign, and yet one more symptom of the illness that is Chavez's regime.

But caudillismo itself is nothing new: Latin America has suffered immensely by holding on to their tradition of caudillismo, and by staying away from true democratic institutions.

Will they ever change?


Hugo and Medvedev

In other Chavez news, he's talking big in Russia, pushing for a natural gas OPEC-like cartel and mutual investment protection.

Hugo was also saying that

if Russian military forces ever visited Venezuelan territory, they would be greeted "by flying colors, drum beats and songs, as this means the arrival of our allies with whom we share the same view on the world."

Worried that this might imply that Russia's welcome to build a military-technical base on its territory, the Venezuelan government was quick to correct that, saying that it only means that the Russian Navy would be welcome to dock at a Venezuelan port.

It's all so redolent of the Cold War it makes one want to send The Hunt for Red October's Jack Ryan to Caracas.

Crossposted



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Things I probably shouldn't be reading early on Sunday morning

Last night I went with some friends to see Mongol, which turned out to be excellent. "The untold story of Genghis Kahn", as the title tells us, is a Hollywood-type epic spoken entirely in Mongolian (or at least I assume it's Mongolian - it was some language I don't recognize at all) with English subtitles. It borrows at times from Lord of the Rings for the battle scenes, and from Kurasawa for the central character's development. Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano gives an extraordinary performance as the man who brought the thundering hordes to half the world. Asano has been compared to Toshiro Mifume, for good reason.

Please be warned that there's a lot of violence (as you can expect), and blood spurts wildly as if Sam Peckinpah himself had been doing the battle scene choreography.

Here's the trailer,


After the movie we had something to eat outdoors at Panera. It was a lovely summer night with an indigo blue sky, and lots of people were walking about. Unfortunately if I have dinner late in the evening I don't sleep well, so this morning I was totally awake by 6AM.

So I got up and checked Memeorandum, where the top story,
Inside a 9/11 Mastermind's Interrogation, tells us that the NYT has revealed the full name of the CIA man who managed to get Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to talk. Funny how the Times and other media were full of outrage when Valerie Plame, who used to drive into the CIA parking lot every morning with the top down of her Mercedes, was "outed", but they have no problem in outing anyone else employed by the CIA.

I agree with Macsmind,

The identity of CIA employee is classified, and although illegal under the Intelligence Identities Protections ACT, the CIA did ask that his name not be published. Therefore the Ny Times is in legal jeopardy for publishing his name.

The CIA should immidately ask the DOJ to look into it.

By the way, I wonder if these clowns who rallied in defense of Plame will speak up now?

More at Pirates' Cove

After that one needs something lighter, so of course I went to Denny's, who always has wonderful music, and came across (language probably NSFW) Mashuk-Akva Term spa story:

Hey honey, let's go to the spa and have a few enemas. What a vacation!

Denny managed to beat Charles to an enema.

I checked my email and found that Maria, who spent many years in Russia, had sent me pictures of toilet signs from around the world. I like this one:


This is the second day in a row that I have posted on scatological items. I blame the lack of sleep.

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The WSJ's Five Best Books on sailing, selected by Sir Robin Knox-Johnson, the first person to sail solo and nonstop around the world:




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Today's shoes: Coach Josie Signature Ballet Flat Shoes in black.



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"It's a bird! No, it's a plane!..."

... No, it's not!

Let's go to the videotape (probably not suitable for work):


(h/t Beth)

Hugo taxes his own oil profits

If you can't blind them with brilliance, baffle them with bull....

Hugo nationalized the oil producers, and now he's raising the tax on oil.

You read it right.

Venezuela 'to tax oil windfall'

Venezuela is planning a windfall tax on what it calls "excessive" profits of energy firms to allow state revenues to benefit from high oil prices.

The tax will take 50% of oil revenues above $70 per barrel, and an additional 60% of revenues over $100 per barrel, legislator Angel Rodriguez said.

He told state news agency ABN that oil firms had surpassed "reasonable levels of profitability".

The move will affect foreign oil firms operating in Venezuela such as Chevron.

Indeed it will, but

The tax will also apply to state oil company PDVSA, which now controls all of Venezuela's oilfields.

If that makes sense to you, then come and explain it to me in the comments section.

More Bolivarian brilliance at Ace's: Hugo Chavez Nationalizes Cement Industry, Eats Sandwich Bigger Than His Own Head

I guess he needs money to pay for the subs (and not the sandwich kind but they are bigger than his head). Putin doesn't look like the kind of guy who takes MasterCard.



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The "who are they fooling" headline of the day:

Russia sells weaponry and nuclear technology to the Iranians, and now we're supposed to believe the Russians are surprised that Iran can do the sum 1 + 1 = 2:
Russia suspicious over Iran test

Russia thinks the launch of an Iranian rocket into space raises suspicion over the true aim of its nuclear programme, a foreign ministry official has said.

Well, slap me sideways with a feather.


Maybe Putin was taken by surprise that the Mullahs inagurated their own space program on Monday, after the Mullahs went shopping at Arms-R-Us.

'Jad wore special goggles for the ocassion (h/t Larwyn).



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The Soviet Union coudln't have produced a Chuck Yeager

At Instapundit

PRAVDA: Yuri Gagarin was not the first cosmonaut.

Just the first who lived.

Glenn is referring to this,

According to Rudenko, spacecraft with pilots Ledovskikh, Shaborin and Mitkov at the controls were launched from the Kapustin Yar cosmodrome (in the Astrakhan region) in 1957, 1958 and 1959. "All three pilots died during the flights, and their names were never officially published," Rudenko said. He explained that all these pilots took part in so-called sub- orbital flights, i.e., their goal was not to orbit around the earth, which Gagarin later did, but make a parabola-shaped flight. "The cosmonauts were to reach space heights in the highest point of such an orbit and then return to the Earth," Rudenko said. According to his information, Ledovskikh, Shaborin and Mitkov were regular test pilots, who had not had any special training, Interfax reports.

Contrast with this from Chuck Yeager's website:

TO NEW HEIGHTS
Now, a full colonel, Yeager returned to Edwards as deputy director of flight test in 1961. The following year he took over as commander of the new USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS), where he presided over the development of a first-of-its-kind institution designed to prepare U.S. military test pilots for spaceflight. Building on the existing test pilot school curriculum, ARPS offered rigorous, graduate-level training in subjects such as astrophysics and orbital mechanics, and it employed a one-of-a-kind flight simulator and other state-of-the-art training systems that prepared students to master an entirely new frontier beyond the atmosphere. The school was swamped with applicants and only the best and brightest—1% by Yeager’s estimate—were granted admission. The excellence of the training provided during the school’s ten-years of operation (1961-71) can be surmised by the fact that 37 graduates were selected for the U.S. space program and 26 earned astronaut’s wings by flying in the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. Although Yeager never got a chance to fly in space, in his role as mentor to a whole generation of spaceflight pioneers, he made an important contribution to its exploration. It remains one of his proudest achievements.

Chuck Yeager, an individual, could have never been allowed to inspire others in the Soviet space machine. The absurd notion that untrained men would be shot into space from a rocket was the sort of thing that inherently would bring about the Soviet's failure in the space race.

I highly recommend Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff for an exciting account of the men and the times.



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Very Good, Jeeves!

Russians are going wild for P G Wodehouse

Outlawed by Stalin in 1929, P G Wodehouse - or Pyelem G Vudhaus as he is known - has undergone a remarkable revival since the ban on his books was lifted in 1990.

There can be few fans as dedicated, however, as Mr Kuzmenko.

As president and founder of the Russian Wodehouse Society he has attracted over 3,000 members, some from as far away as Cheliabinsk and Omsk, thousands of miles to the east. His monthly Wodehouse dinners at the Cleopatra and elsewhere are always sold out.

The actors Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie have played their part. Ever since their acclaimed television portrayal of Jeeves and Wooster was dubbed into Russian, young fans have started flocking to the club.

Wodehouse translations have mushroomed and even a souring of Anglo-Russian relations has done little to dim the enthusiasm for this quintessentially English author.

Is it because Kristol Talks, Ivan Listens?

Or is it due to a secret streak of Anglophilia?

"The reader is lifted into an English paradise, which many Russians believe is the best paradise of all."

I ask, you decide.

John O'Sullivan says there's a Drones Club in New York. I wonder if they accept women?

You, too, can do as the Russians and enjoy the whole Fry/Laurie Jeeves & Wooster series on DVD:


And of course, there are the books,


But if you become a Hugh Laurie fan (who, moi?)


I don't know about you, but I find it comforting to think that Bertie Wooster grew up to be Dr. House...

More blogging later.


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Today's story on TIME's Person Kleptocrat of the Year

Vlad, sitting on a huge fortune
Putin, the Kremlin power struggle and the $40bn fortune

An unprecedented battle is taking place inside the Kremlin in advance of Vladimir Putin's departure from office, the Guardian has learned, with claims that the president presides over a secret multibillion-dollar fortune.
Rival clans inside the Kremlin are embroiled in a struggle for the control of assets as Putin prepares to transfer power to his hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, in May, well-placed political observers and other sources have revealed.

At stake are billions of dollars in assets belonging to Russian state-run corporations. Additionally, details of Putin's own personal fortune, reportedly hidden in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, are being discussed for the first time.

I highlight "for the first time": certainly Putin's not the first Russian ruler to have socked away millions here and there, and used Zug, Switzerland as a business base. What is interesting is that this is being revealed at all.

Is it because of the amounts involved?

Putin "effectively" controls 37% of the shares of Surgutneftegaz, an oil exploration company and Russia's third biggest oil producer, worth $20bn, he says. He also owns 4.5% of Gazprom, and "at least 75%" of Gunvor, a mysterious Swiss-based oil trader, founded by Gennady Timchenko, a friend of the president's, Belkovsky alleges.

Asked how much Putin was worth, Belkovsky said: "At least $40bn. Maximum we cannot know. I suspect there are some businesses I know nothing about." He added: "It may be more. It may be much more."

I doubt that the investigation has to do with the oil-for-food connection:

>Now just where would Putin come in such wealth? The Senate investigated the Oil for Food Scandal back in 2005 and found direct ties to Saddam and Putin - among other world leaders - a relationship which enriched both despots.

But back to the Guardian article and why there is an investigation at all, is it because of a power struggle?

Discussion of Putin's wealth has previously been taboo. But the claims have leaked out against the backdrop of a fight inside the Kremlin between a group led by Igor Sechin, Putin's influential deputy chief of staff, and a "liberal" clan that includes Medvedev.

The Sechin group is made up of siloviki - Kremlin officials with security/military backgrounds. It is said to include Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia's KGB successor agency, his deputy Alexander Bortnikov, and Putin's aide Viktor Ivanov.

Those associated with the liberal camp include Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch and owner of Chelsea football club who is close to Putin and the Yeltsin family. Other members are Viktor Cherkesov, the head of the federal drug control service, and Alisher Usmanov, an Uzbek-born billionaire.

Ideology has been ruled out:

Insiders say the struggle has little to do with ideology. They characterise it as a war between business competitors.

But Putin, like Fidel (and like Hugo, if he lives long enough) has a practical problem:

"There's no point in having all this money if you can't travel to the Maldives or Paris and spend it," Elena Panfilova, the director of Transparency International in Russia said.

Maybe that other famous oil-trading denizen of Zug, Marc Rich, will help Putin find a way out of that dilemma.



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Putin: Time's Person of the Year

Vlad, looking cadaverous

Jeremayakovka just sent it:

A Tsar is Born.

Putin named Time 'Person of the Year'

Russian President Vladimir Putin was named Time magazine's "Person of the Year."

The 2007 honor went to the Russian leader because of Putin's "extraordinary feat of leadership in taking a country that was in chaos and bringing it stability," said Richard Stengel, Time's managing editor.

Stability counts for a whole lot among some. Look how stable Cuba's been all this time.

Putin named 'Person of the Year'

President Putin will be legally obliged to step down as Russian president next year, but is likely to become prime minister if his ally, Dmitry Medvedev, wins the presidential election in March.

He's ready, alright:


Update: Putin, Biped of the Year



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Saving the planet, one vacuum bomb at a time

Yesterday I posted about Putin's new bomb, which is four times bigger than any non-nuclear bomb now in existence, and said that I wouldn't be surprised if the "dad of all bombs" turns up at a Caribbean nation near you, along with the Russian subs

But, hey, there's no need to worry, because da bomb is green (italics added): Russia drops 'dad of all bombs'
Environmentally friendly weapon four times bigger than U.S. non-nuclears

And how do we know it's "environmentally friendly"? Because a Russian general says so, of course:

"The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability," Col.-Gen. Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, said in televised remarks.

Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment, he added.

Yessiree, we've got the ultimate in eco-friendliness served right here, and in full color:

Pictures showed what looked like a flattened multi-storey block of flats surrounded by scorched soil and boulders. "The soil looks like a lunar landscape," the report said.

Because there's "environmentally friendly", and then there is really "environmentally friendly".

(h/t Copious Dissent)

UPDATE, Friday 14 September:
Behold, the penetrator.
I think this is a slap at Russian manhood, actually. It's the military equivalent of accusing someone of premature ejaculation.



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'Fidel' is now a truther; Putin dissolved the government

I was about to post on this earlier this morning when my internet connection was rudely interrupted:

Fidel Castro says U.S. fooled world over 9/11

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said the U.S. government misinformed Americans and the world about 9/11, echoing conspiracy theories about the terror attacks against the United States six years ago.

In an essay read by a Cuban television presenter on Tuesday night, Castro said the Pentagon was hit by a rocket, not a plane, because no traces were found of its passengers.

"Fidel" or his amanuensis have now officially joined the Truthers.

In other "Fidel" news, the Cuban Culture Minister says Castro's not dying.

Which is probably true.

Moving right along,
Vlad is taking time off from his modeling job to dissolve the government and name a new prime minister,

Russia President Vladimir Putin has dismissed his entire cabinet and replaced his prime minister in a bid to pave the way for his successor. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov submitted his resignation, and the speaker of the State Duma later announced he was being replaced by the relatively unknown Victor Zubkov, head of the country's money-laundering watchdog agency.

He probably won't stay there for long.

Though it's no safe bet, many analysts have their money on Putin ally and KGB veteran Sergei Ivanov to be voted in as the new president in the March 2008 election. It is probable that Putin will put him in the place of Zubkov at the last minute, since Russian presidents usually come from the post of prime minister, as Putin did himself to succeed Boris Yeltsin.

UpdateZubkov seems to want to run for president next year.

Those of us old enough to remember the Cold War days find no joy in reading that Vlad's also embarking on a new arms race.

What does this all mean? Pajamas Media has an article by Sean Guillory that sheds light on the subject.

But don't be surprised if the "dad of all bombs" turns up at a Caribbean nation near you, along with the Russian subs.



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Disquieting thought of the day, in two parts

Part 1: Another Russian sub blows up, while Putin spreads his brand of charisma in Guatemala and sells nine subs to Venezuela.

Part 2: US 'plans huge Saudi arms deal'.

Sports, drugs, oil, and networks: all in Hugo's trip

UPDATED
While I was away on vacation Hugo's been touring, so it's time for the freshest news on Latin America's biggest tinpot tyrant:

Sports
Venezuelan Fans Embarrass Hugo... Chant "Freedom" at US Match. Let's go to the videotape:

Not Sitting Still For Dictatorship

Drugs
Venezuela Becomes Cocaine Conduit

Of 46 suspected drug flights detected in the Caribbean by U.S. surveillance in the first four months of 2007, all but six originated in Venezuela.
...
But as Mexico cracks down on land shipments, and authorities get better at high-seas interdiction - the helicopters in the May 12 bust came off a British ship in the area - Venezuela is increasingly providing an alternative, counter-drug officials say.

Most Europe-bound cocaine is believed to pass through Venezuela, sent aboard ships and jets - 727s, DC-8s and Gulfstreams - to west African nations where enforcement is often weak and easily bribed, Hathaway said at the command's headquarters in Key West, Fla.

Oil
Venezuela oil loss put at $4.5bn

The Chavez government is taking majority control of operations
US oil giant ConocoPhillips has said that a decision not to accept a minority stake in its operations in Venezuela may cost it $4.5bn.

The Economist: Exeunt Exxon and Conoco

Nevertheless, some Venezuelans worry that their country's oil industry is going the same way as that of Iran, whose government is one of Mr Chávez's closest allies. This week, as Venezuela's president was due to visit Tehran on a tour that also takes him to Russia and Belarus, Iran imposed petrol rationing. Admittedly, Iran faces sanctions, and Venezuela does not. But national sovereignty does not automatically fill the tank.

Investor's Business Daily focuses on how the markets took the news: Chavez's Anaconda Embrace

Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has expropriated $4.5 billion in assets from two U.S. oil firms. It's an ugly loss, but they will live. What's in doubt is Venezuela's future.
...
Markets Wednesday offered a hint of what's ahead, with Exxon's stock ending 2% higher, leading the market upward on a down day, and Conoco ending flat.

Bear in mind that Exxon lost nearly a billion dollars in Venezuelan investments, and Conoco lost four times that much, amounting to 10% of its proved reserves.

Yet credit agency Standard & Poor's declared Conoco's rating undented by the move, and Exxon said it would "move forward," probably signalling a bid to recover some of the value of its assets in U.S. courts.

Suddenly, Venezuela's U.S. Citgo refining and marketing network has become a juicy target.

But Venezuela is another story. Its currency, the bolivar, and its sovereign bonds both plunged as Exxon and Conoco announced they're leaving.

Most Venezuela watchers saw a link. Standard & Poor's, for instance, downgraded the country's outlook, citing "a highly negative climate for investment, which results in virtually no foreign and private investment."

Venezuela has strict capital controls on its currency, so the bolivar trades only in the local black market. Its value to the dollar fell from 4,050 to 4,180 yesterday as dollar demand for capital flight rose, Bloomberg reported.

Even the "official" rate of 2,150 bolivars to the dollar signals ruinous inflation, likely well above the most recent inflation rate of 19%. A lack of dollars has emptied store shelves of imported goods, causing food prices to shoot up.

This is a bad sign for Venezuela. Markets basically shrug when two major investors leave, while brutally punishing Venezuela's government for its treatment of its U.S. investors. Chavez's regime is like one of the country's anaconda snakes, squeezing the very life out of Venezuela itself. Sadly, it's part of a long downward slide that shows no end.

Indeed, Venezuela's Citgoing Nowhere.

And yes, I have mentioned before that the Venezuelan economy collapsed a couple of decades ago when the oil prices dropped.

Hugo's network
Chavez in talks with Iranian ally

This was Hugo's third visit to Iran during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but he also visited old friends,

During his latest visit, which kicked off on Wednesday, Chavez met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko and urged a global revolution against Washington.

He has also discussed possible purchases of submarines and other defence equipment from Russia, arguing that these are needed to defend his oil-rich country against the United States.

Earlier this month Iran welcomed Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a Cold War foe of the United States. Tehran has also boosted ties with other countries which have frosty ties with Washington, notably Belarus, whose president has been condemned by the European Union for rights violations.

More on the Iran visit:
Iran seeks stronger ties with Latin America
Hosseini says Iran, Venezuela to sign 20 agreements, MoUs
Chavez Prefers Russian Oil and Lenin

Both Venezuela and Russia have revisited contracts signed in the 1990s with major oil companies, and slapped back tax claims on private companies.

While we ponder that, read Austin Bay's post on Putin's anti-missile tantrum - expect to hear similar rumbles from Hugo sometime in the future. It would get him the attention he craves.

Publius Pundit's posts on Russian Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds has a whole photo gallery of Hugo's buddies. Start with this one:

Yup, that's Hugo Chavez and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov laughing and holding hands like lovers whilst they gaze upon a spectacle of Russian folk dancing as part of Chavez's state visit to Moscow.

Meanwhile, The Devil's Excrement posts that the Putin dominated Duma voted against receiving Chavez.

And then there's this
Via Sigmund, Carl and Alfred, Middle East should look to Latin America: Tariq Ali

The Middle East lacks the social vision of Latin America which is currently undergoing a political revolution and successfully challenging American foreign policy, Tariq Ali told a sold-out audience at Sydney Ideas on Tuesday night.

Pointing to the success of Venezuela's leadership under the seven-times elected President Hugo Chávez, the London-based historian, political campaigner and prolific author said: "Solidarity outside Venezuela is as important as solidarity inside Venezuela."

According to the author of Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope (2006), a new level of unity lead by radical new leaders has had a "massive impact" on South America, and the region has broken down the isolationist policies driven by the United States through its ban on Cuba.

(For background on Tariq Ali, here's a transcript of his debate with Christopher Hitchens from December 4, 2003.)

Will Hugo outdo his own $1,000,000,000 shopping tour from last year?

We'll find out soon enough.

For now, he's not going to Mercosur, and is even saying Venezuela may withdraw its bid to join the Mercosur trade bloc due to objections from congressmen from Brazil and Uruguay.

Update
Gustavo Coronel writes in Petroleum World,

This situation in Venezuela could trigger other, even more dangerous developments. Hugo Chavez has been losing much ground lately, both inside and outside Venezuela. His “revolution” is doing badly at home and abroad, due to his numerous errors and his undemocratic style of ruling. In Spain, Chile and Brazil he has lost most of the goodwill he had been able to accumulate in the past. The Democratic Party leaders in the United States have recently supported a resolution condemning his aggressions against freedom of expression. He is aligning his regime, more and more, with failed states, such as Cuba, Iran, Belarus, Zimbabwe and Syria. Right now he is in Russia, trying to recruit Putin to form a global alliance against the United States. I consider that Hugo Chavez is, at this moment, one of the most dangerous political leaders in the planet. If he sees that his political situation becomes untenable he could well resort to a Plan "B".

What could this Plan "B" look like? It could consist of provoking a global political crisis by starting a violent, military action against a neighbor or against a U.S. aircraft or ship in the Caribbean area. This could be followed by a cut of oil supplies to the United States, which could be particularly dangerous if Iran decided to join him in a boycott against the U.S., while Russia sat on the fence in apparent neutrality and vetoed or delayed any action in the Security Council of the United Nations. I believe Hugo Chavez is determined to go down in history as someone who went well beyond the limits of his native state of Barinas and made a big impact in the world, and he no longer cares if this impact will be good or bad.

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Puerto Rico and Hugo's subs, in today's round-up

No, not these subs; the Russian subs: Mora writes,

Chavez is heading to Russia in the next few days, to discuss the purchase of five kilo-class submarines, and possibly four more advanced amur-class subs. There are questions as to how he would be able to finance them as well as how obtain the advanced training to bring them online, but there is no question from his statments that he wants them.

The financing might involve not only oil, but also drugs. As I have pointed out, Hugo needs money for financing his "Bolivarian Revolution", i.e., his desire to control all of Latin America's politics. For that he needs money. A huge amount of money. The drug trade is one source.

As for the advanced training, I'm sure Putin will provide the personnel as part of the deal. Don't believe for a moment that Vlad's going to hand Hugo valuable war weapons without keeping a firm hand in the works.

Mora also points out,

Although there are many islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf Of Mexico, and many colonial powers, it's significant that Chavez alluded to the U.S.'s and France's prime presences there. In the past he's threatened Netherlands and its overseas territories, and he's always hated Britain, but now he seems to have singled out France. While Chavez's antipathy to the U.S. is well-known, what's less well-known is that France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has an interest in the region and a clear understanding about Chavez. He's stepped up his ties to Venezuela's battered neighbor, Colombia, and probably will become more active in the region as Chavez's aggression steps up. Chavez knows this, and wants to throw out a few threat to France and the U.S. now.

This segues well with my theory on the drug trade: France has repeatedly caught tons of cocaine proceeding from Caracas in the past (including the seizing of a vessel carrying 18 tons of cocaine on March last year. I explored this connection between Chavez and the drug trade on my post of April 13, 2006 (scroll down).

Hugo may be fooling some, but he's certainly not fooling Lech Waleska: Via Gateway Pundit

"I believe Chávez is a huge demagogue and populist who says one thing and does a quite different thing. He likes giving away what does not belong to him and tries to take advantage of people's dissatisfaction," he added.

One thing for sure, Hugo's not fooling Newton---------------------------------------------------------
Immigration and Terrorists in the US: Connect the Dots

In a nutshell - terrorists flew under the radar in 1986, over-stayed visas, and rode the curtails of illegal Mexicans who had crossed the border all the way to citizenship. Do we want to do that again? Can we afford it?

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In other, totally unrelated news, Hitchens asks, Let's stop channelling angry Muslims

Look Forward to Anger
It's impossible to satisfy "Rage Boy" and his ilk. It's stupid to try.
...
The lives of Shiite Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Christians—to say nothing of atheists or secularists—are considered by Sunni militants to be of little or no account. And yet they accuse those who criticize them of bigotry! And many people are so anxious to pre-empt this accusation that they ventriloquize the reactions of Sunni mobs as if they were the vox populi, all the while muttering that we must take care not to offend such supersensitive people.

This mental and moral capitulation has a bearing on the argument about Iraq, as well. We are incessantly told that the removal of the Saddam Hussein despotism has inflamed the world's Muslims against us and made Iraq hospitable to terrorism, for all the world as if Baathism had not been pumping out jihadist rhetoric for the past decade (as it still does from Damascus, allied to Tehran). But how are we to know what will incite such rage? A caricature published in Copenhagen appears to do it. A crass remark from Josef Ratzinger (leader of an anti-war church) seems to have the same effect. A rumor from Guantanamo will convulse Peshawar, the Muslim press preaches that the Jews brought down the Twin Towers, and a single citation in a British honors list will cause the Iranian state-run press to repeat its claim that the British government—along with the Israelis, of course—paid Salman Rushdie to write The Satanic Verses to begin with. Exactly how is such a mentality to be placated?

We may have to put up with the Rage Boys of the world, but we ought not to do their work for them, and we must not cry before we have been hurt. In front of me is a copy of this week's Economist, which states that Rushdie's 1989 death warrant was "punishment for the book's unflattering depiction of the Prophet Muhammad." There is no direct depiction of the prophet in this work of fiction, and the reverie about his many wives occurs in the dream of a madman. Nobody in Ayatollah Khomeini's circle could possibly have read the book for him before he issued a fatwah, which made it dangerous to possess. Yet on that occasion, the bookstore chains of America pulled The Satanic Verses from their shelves, just as Borders shamefully pulled Free Inquiry (a magazine for which I write) after it reproduced the Danish cartoons. Rage Boy keenly looks forward to anger, while we worriedly anticipate trouble, and fret about etiquette, and prepare the next retreat. If taken to its logical conclusion, this would mean living at the pleasure of Rage Boy, and that I am not prepared to do.

Interesting to see that The Economist is referring to the Prophet Mohammed; I've been subscribing to The Economist for decades now and never once have I seen them refer to Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fred Thompson has more to say about Rushdie.
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GreenMountain politics posts on Giuliani.

Go, Pundit, Go has a video on the Dems and the unions

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Side note:
We've been on the road, and I'm happy to recommend the Subway franchise for a fast lunch. You can get a freshly-made salad with as many or as few toppings as you like, without having to put up with greasy burgers or overfried, overseasoned chicken.


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Today we celebrate 20 years of President Reagan's speech

President Ronald Reagan gave this speech at the Brandenburg Gate twenty years ago on June 12, 1987:

The Reagan Foundation has the entire text of the speech, Tear Down This Wall.

Here's the part that Pres. Reagan reads in the video clip:

And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control.

Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it? We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent-- and I pledge to you my country's efforts to help overcome these burdens. To be sure, we in the West must resist Soviet expansion. So we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength. Yet we seek peace; so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides.

Beginning 10 years ago, the Soviets challenged the Western alliance with a grave new threat, hundreds of new and more deadly SS-20 nuclear missiles, capable of striking every capital in Europe. The Western alliance responded by committing itself to a counter-deployment unless the Soviets agreed to negotiate a better solution; namely, the elimination of such weapons on both sides. For many months, the Soviets refused to bargain in earnestness. As the alliance, in turn, prepared to go forward with its counter-deployment, there were difficult days--days of protests like those during my 1982 visit to this city--and the Soviets later walked away from the table.

But through it all, the alliance held firm. And I invite those who protested then-- I invite those who protest today--to mark this fact: Because we remained strong, the Soviets came back to the table.

The Victims of Communism Memorial is being dedicated today in Washington:

The Victims of Communism Memorial will be dedicated on Tuesday morning, June 12, 2007, in Washington, D.C. Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, will give the keynote address while Rep. Dana Rohrabacher will deliver remarks. President George W. Bush has also been invited to speak. A crowd of 1,000 including Congressional leaders, members of the diplomatic corps, ethnic leaders, foreign dignitaries, and Memorial supporters, is expected to attend the historic event.

John Fund writes about the Memorial:

The memorial is a 10-foot bronze replica of the "Goddess of Liberty" statue, which Chinese dissidents erected in Tiananmen Square before tanks crushed both it and their movement in 1989. The statue's inscriptions will both mourn the "more than 100 million victims of Communism" and call for the freedom of "all captive nations and peoples." Marking the bipartisan nature of the U.S. effort during the Cold War, the site on Capitol Hill was donated through a bill signed by President Clinton, and the keynote address will be made by Democrat Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a native of Hungary who escaped the Holocaust thanks to Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.

Fund also writes about Pres. Reagan, (emphasis added)

Reagan first saw the Berlin Wall in 1978, when he told his aide Peter Hannaford, "We've got to find a way to knock this thing down." After Reagan became president, he returned in 1982 and enraged the Soviets by taking a couple of ceremonial steps across a painted border line. Then, in 1987, he overruled his own State Department by giving the momentous speech in which he implored the general secretary directly to tear down the wall.

Reagan liked to refer in his speeches to the "tide of history," and that idea must have been on Mr. Gorbachev's mind two years later when he visited East Berlin and informed the comrades there that they needed to change. He told reporters who asked about the wall, "Dangers await only those who do not react to life." The signal was sent that Moscow would no longer prop up a corrupt system.

The Berlin Wall's fall was both a vindication of the West's refusal to kowtow to the Soviets and a tribute to the spirit of dissenters behind the Iron Curtain. Today pieces of the wall exist as mere souvenirs on mantelpieces. Sadly, today Russia itself is slipping back into authoritarianism.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Russia has resisted efforts to erect memorials about the communist era. In 2005, Vladimir Putin, Russia's autocratic president, let slip in a speech that "the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." Under Mr. Putin's leadership, Russian officials are conspicuously re-creating some of the institutions of oppression. Their frosty silence about three-quarters of a century of communist oppression does not augur well for Russia's future.

In the news last Saturday, Russia warns US on missile plan. Here's a BBC video report. Today Russia celebrates itself with Kremlin awards ceremony on Day of Russia:

The June 12 holiday is one of several that have been shifted or renamed as Putin's Kremlin seeks to shape Russians' perception of their country and its history.

It was introduced by Putin's predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, to commemorate Russian lawmakers' 1990 declaration of sovereignty and was long known to most Russians as Independence Day. However, millions of Russians regret the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union _ which was dominated by Russia _ and blame Yeltsin for its disintegration.

That means there is little political capital to be captured from celebrating Russia's independence, and the holiday's name was officially changed to the Day of Russia in 2002, under Putin.

Coincidence?

Update:
Via Real Clear Politics, The Speech That Brought Down a Wall and Seizing the Moment
Memorable presidential speeches are few and far between. But Ronald Reagan's words in Berlin two decades ago will live on

Others blogging about it:
Babalu
Betsy posts about a book, whose author, Robert Service, asks, Communism destroyed millions of lives, but its critics are now branded "neocons". Why has the left's poisoned love affair with it endured?
CatHouse Chat

(h/t my friends Moe Lane and Maria)



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Traveling bloggers, and today's items

Heading to the Middle East:
Jeff Emanuel and Academic Elephant are on their way to Iraq, and Judith and Mary are on the way to Israel.

Saturday afternoon I had a delightful time with Mary and Judith. Among the topics we discussed was the Vanilla Jesus (read the comments). Thank You Mary!

Does Al know that Greenland just had a baby? Or is the baby a reincarnation?
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3 TRACTOR TRAILERS, 4 BUSES, 6 CARS - and ONE SHEET, along with 12 bottles of Grolsch beer, 6 bottles of "local" beer, and a bottle each of "good Australian Cabernet" and "good Merlot."

Lord knows a "bad Merlot" can ruin one's carbon footprint.
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Speaking of drink,

The Beeb says, When rulers die, Russians keep shopping. At least now there's merchandise in the stores.
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From Larwyn,
Cartoons Condemning the Terrorist Attacks in Algeria and Morocco

Road to Nowhere from the Dem Cong.

What Would It Take for Joe Lieberman to Fire Harry Reid? If he can find him, that is.
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After all this talk about the Dem Cong, I made an appointment for a facial
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Bob has the post on Alec Baldwin.
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When I first met Ed, I hugged him - which is a capital offense in some parts.
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In other news,
"Would you like another schnitzengruben?"
Man cuts off his own penis in busy restaurant
And he didn't leave a tip:

The paper reported that police subdued the man with CS spray and recovered his severed penis, which surgeons at St Thomas's hospital in south London attempted to re-attach. It was not known if the operation had been a success.

{{shudder}}

Giuliani, Gagarin, and today's items

Giuliani writes about My four pillars of American prosperity

1. Reduced spending growth.
2. Lower Tax Rates.
3. Regulatory Reform.
4. Sound monetary policy.

Read it all.
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The Kremlin has vetoed a move to launch a fresh investigation into the death of Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin, the first man in space, died in 1968, and the Kremlin's still covering up.

I must remember to ask Maria if there's a word in Russian for "transparency".
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Following Second bloggers' conference call with Sen. John McCain, I found this article at Opinion Journal, McCain's Finest Hour
Leadership sometimes means bucking public opinion

The difference is not merely of consistency but of conviction. Mr. McCain is making clear he understands that leadership is often by nature unpopular. He has been equally clear about the consequences of U.S. withdrawal from Iraq--"chaos" and "genocide" were among the scenarios he painted for Mr. Pelley.

He has also shown that he understands the moral obligation his vote authorizing the war entailed, which was to see it through to victory, or at least until the conclusion becomes inescapable that victory is impossible. With General David Petraeus only recently installed in Baghdad and his surge strategy not yet fully under way, Mr. McCain realizes that we are nowhere near being able to draw that conclusion.

Betsy comments,

What struck me is how the media coverage is so set on framing McCain's speech as a political move. The first paragraph of the Washington Post article frames McCain's speech as an attempt to save his faltering campaign

The WaPo is wrong, and McCain is acting out of conviction.
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In a lighter mode,
You might be able to legally download Beatles songs; here's why.

And don't miss the WaPo's Peeps contest: "No more wire hangers!!" (#15)

Venezuela: Ken loves Hugo, Hugo loves subs

Just like Joe Kennedy, Ken Livingstone is fond of Hugo. It has been a rocky relationship, but they appear to have made up.

With a little help of a lot of money:


Mayor signs Venezuelan oil deal

Ken Livingstone has signed an oil deal with Venezuela - providing cheap fuel for London's buses and giving cut price travel for those on benefits.

V Crisis sums it up nicely: Dictator Hugo Chavez to give up to $32 million/year to Livingstone

Chavez is to give up to $32 million/year to Europe's richest city.

World Politics Watch reports on the ongoing Venezuelan arms race, Venezuela Preparing for 'Asymmetrical' Showdown With U.S.

Venezuela is beefing up its military capabilities by land, sea and air in preparation for what one senior official called a possible "asymmetrical conflict" with the United States.

Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States Bernardo Alvarez said that while his country is preparing for possible warfare with the United States -- a notion President Hugo Chavez has repeatedly asserted -- Venezuela is nonetheless in complete compliance with international and regional non-proliferation treaties.

By characterizing a warfare scenario with the United States as "asymmetrical," the ambassador was acknowledging the distinct firepower and personnel advantage of the United States, though he noted his country was preparing itself for defense nonetheless.
...
The ambassador's remarks follow a recent report that Venezuela's latest arms improvement will focus on the country's navy, which is said to be interested in purchasing nine additional submarines.

Having already spent $3.4 billion on Russian arms, including assault rifles and fighter jets, the Venezuelan Navy is planning to spend $3 billion more to create the largest submarine fleet in the region by 2012, according to Venezuelan Navy Vice Adm. Armando Laguna.
...
The submarines will be the "diesel-electric variety," said Laguna in a recent communiqué, quoted earlier this month by Brazil's leading newspaper, Estado de Sao Paulo, and will weigh in at approximately 1,750 metric tons apiece. The Venezuelan Navy is currently considering bids from German, France and Russia, the odds-on favorite, for the new vessel contracts.

The French must really know how to forgive and forget.

Meanwhile, Venezuela to Al-Qaeda: Do not menace us, we are anti-imperialists!! (h/t MNM)

Of course he isn't!, and today's items

Of course he isn't!,
Russian President Vladimir Putin has strongly denied claims that Russia is using its energy resources as a lever to put pressure on other countries

Update: Via Maria, Why are Vladimir Putin’s opponents dying?
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Cassandra posts on The Virtues of Gratitude, and she lets it rip.

Via Larwyn, It's Official: The Press Has Gone To War - with us.
Important Analysis

"U.S.-Iran tensions could trigger war," cautions an article by the AP, which appears to be just waking up to this possibility.

In a similar vein, this morning's BBCA newscast managed to blame the centuries-old, thirteen centuries, that is, Sunni-Shia rivalry on - you guessed it - Israel and the Americans:

"It's America and Israel who want trouble here," said another participant.

I kid you not.
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Must-see video: The Islamic Mein Kampf
The Terrorism Awareness Project

Don't miss Pamela's CAIR censorship round-up
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The French work only 35hrs/week, and now they're taking naps after lunch:

"Sleep must not be trivialised," Xavier Bertrand, the Health Minister, said.

But they're not lazy.

Obviously Cassandra's husband (see above) is not French.
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A little romance, a little sadness, from Siggy,

You'll find a line from the lyrics in today's Twitter box on the right sidebar.
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In a lighter mode,
I'm always amazed by what brings some people to my blog. The latest are two people doing google searches for "Bear Grylls naked picture." These two have been doing that search for the past couple of days but I guess they haven't given up on me yet. (For those of you who don't remember, Bear's one of the Discovery Channel guys.)

Sorry to disappoint you, folks, but this is a mostly PG-rated blog. However, You Tube has several videos of the fully clothed Bear. I might post one of those one of these days.

I watched the Discovery Channel the other night and they had Stephen Hawkins talking about black holes. I can't say I understood most of what he said, but I came out pondering the possibility that my long-lost pair of eyeglasses dropped into a mini black hole.

Back to Man vs Wild, then.