Coincidence?

A  blog reader has advised me that yesterday when Venezuela's El Commandante passed to wherever Marxist thugs go when they die, it was also the 60th anniversary of Joesph Stalin's death. File that under things that make you go hmmmm...

Venezuelan Strongman Hugo Chavez is Dead

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who went from a young conspiratorial soldier who dreamed of revolution to the fiery anti-U.S. leader of one of the world’s great oil powers, died March 5 in Caracas of complications from an unspecified cancer in his pelvic area.

He was 58 and had been president since 1999, longer than any other democratically elected leader in the Americas. Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced the death.

Read the rest here.

Venezuelan Strongman Hugo Chavez's Health Declines - VP Rushes to Cuba

CARACAS, Venezuela — Hugo Chavez has suffered “new complications” following his cancer surgery in Cuba, his vice president said Sunday, describing the Venezuelan leader’s condition as delicate.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro did not give details about the complications, which he said came amid a respiratory infection. Maduro spoke in a televised address from Cuba.

Maduro had arrived in Havana on Saturday in a sudden and unexpected trip to visit Chavez. He said Sunday that he had met with Chavez and he “referred to these complications.”

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Chavez faces tough reelection challenge

On Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, 58, will face the toughest election of his 14-year rule. Chavez and his oil-financed largesse are pitted against fresh-faced challenger Henrique Capriles' promise of jobs, safer streets and an end to cronyism.

Chavez staged a remarkable comeback from cancer this year and wants a new six-year term to consolidate his self-styled socialist revolution in the oil-rich nation.

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Facing election, Hugo Chávez ruthlessly consolidates his power

NOT FOR THE first time, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has declared himself cancer-free and ready to resume a full schedule. The announcement should be treated dubiously; the government has refused to release details of the strongman’s illness, and numerous reports have said he suffers from an incurable malignancy. But Mr. Chávez’s claim does make clear that he intends an all-out push to win reelection in an Oct. 7 vote.

Having the caudillo at the top of the ticket makes a big difference: While most polls show Mr. Chávez leading opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, they also indicate that the opposition would trounce any of Mr. Chávez’s potential successors. The president’s personal popularity lingers with some Venezuelans, who do not fault him for the soaring inflation, power and food shortages and world-beating murder rate that have emerged during his 13 years in office.

Read the rest here.

Hugo Chavez Facing Electoral Revolt

On Feb. 12, Henrique Capriles Radonski, a 39-year-old Venezuelan state governor, won a primary election to become the opposition’s candidate against Hugo Chavez in October’s presidential election. He won 1.8 million of an astonishing 3 million votes — double the turnout predicted by most analysts.

The next day, Capriles, a devout Catholic, was greeted by a commentary on the government-run Web site of Venezuelan National Radio titled “The Enemy Is Zionism.” Capriles, it explained, is the descendant of Jews. (In fact, his grandmother was a Holocaust survivor who emigrated from Poland to Venezuela.)

“In order to understand the interests embodied” by Capriles, the commentary declared, “it’s important to know what is Zionism, the Israeli ideology that he sneakily represents. . . . It is, without doubt, an ideology of terror, of the most putrefied sentiments of humanity; its supposedly patriotic impetus is based in greed.” And so on.

“Zionism,” it concludes, “is owner of the majority of the financial institutions of the planet, controls almost 80 percent of the world economy and virtually all of the communications industry, in addition to maintaining decision-making positions within the U.S. Department of State and European powers.”

Thus began the latest — and what will surely be the ugliest — political campaign by Chavez, a ruler who has served as a friend in need to Moammar Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — and who now is facing his own homegrown democratic uprising. But Venezuela’s spring differs from those of Libya, Syria or Iran: Instead of pouring into the streets, Venezuelans — fed up with the chaos and violence of Chavez’s 13 years in power — are marching to the polls and trying to restore the country’s crippled and compromised institutions.

The opposition Capriles now heads has learned lessons that might benefit some of the revolutionaries of the Middle East. It tried and failed to oust Chavez with mass demonstrations and strikes; it foolishly boycotted elections it believed would be unfair; it indulged in endless internal quarrels. The result was the entrenchment of a strongman who has thoroughly wrecked what was once Latin America’s richest country and who now presides over the highest inflation and murder rates in the Western Hemisphere, shortages of basic goods and power, and a drug-trafficking industry whose kingpins include the defense minister.

Read the rest here.

Quote of the day...

"I am more Christian every day.  Socialism is the road to Christ."

-Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez after telling his people that he had beaten cancer.  Source.

Doctor: Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez may be dying

Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is traveling to Cuba to undergo a series of "rigorous" medical tests as part of his cancer treatment. Chavez's former doctor said that the Latin American leader may only have two years left to live.

Over the course of the summer, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez revealed that he is suffering from cancer. In a television address, Chavez described his diagnosis and said that doctors had removed “cancerous cells” from his body. He then vowed to fight cancer.

Read the rest here.

Hugo Chavez warns capitalism may have destroyed life on Mars

Capitalism may be to blame for the lack of life on the planet Mars, Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday.

"I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet," Chavez said in speech to mark World Water Day.

Chavez, who also holds capitalism responsible for many of the world's problems, warned that water supplies on Earth were drying up.

"Careful! Here on planet Earth where hundreds of years ago or less there were great forests, now there are deserts. Where there were rivers, there are deserts," Chavez said, sipping from a glass of water.

Read the rest here.

Venezuela: Opposition parties gain in critical elections

Opponents of Hugo Chávez made major gains yesterday in legislative elections that could weaken the president's dominant power in Venezuela.

The opposition overturned Chávez's two-thirds majority in the national assembly, and claimed to have won most of the popular vote. If it were confirmed, the result would mark a milestone.

With most of the votes counted, the Democratic Unity coalition won at least 65 of 165 seats in the assembly – well short of a majority, but enough to inhibit Chávez's ability to appoint judges and other officials and to push through laws.

The opposition claimed that it had won 52% of the popular vote but argued also that changes in electoral rules favouring rural areas, where Chávez is popular, meant that this support had failed to translate into proportional seats.

Both sides claimed victory and momentum for the 2012 president election, in which Chávez will seek a third consecutive term. Turnout was 66%, high for a legislative election...

...The assembly has acted as a rubber stamp since the opposition boycotted the last legislative election in 2005, giving Chávez free rein to push through radical legislation and appoint judges and members of the electoral council.

By securing more than 58 seats, the opposition can in theory exert influence over appointments and legislation; if it gets 67 – which seems possible – it could block the president's requests for temporary decree powers. Aveledo warned the outgoing "moribund" legislature against rushing out radical laws before the new assembly starts, in January 2011.

Read the rest here.

Hugo Chavez's socialist dreams are facing economic reality

SAN CRISTOBAL, VENEZUELA -- Every day for the past three months, government-programmed blackouts have meant the lights flicker and go dark in a city that once bustled with commerce. And Fifth Street, with its auto parts stores and car repair shops, has ground to a halt.

"We just stop," said Jesus Yanis, who paints cars. "We don't work."

Neither does the rest of Venezuela, where a punishing, months-old energy crisis and years of state interventions in the economy are taking a brutal toll on private business. The result is that the economy is flickering and going dark, too, challenging Venezuela's mercurial leader, Hugo Chávez, and his socialist experiment like never before.

No matter that Venezuela is one of the world's great oil powers -- among the top five providers of crude to the United States. Economists say Venezuela is gripped by an economic crisis that has no easy or fast solution, even if sluggish oil production were ramped up and profligate state spending were cut.

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Viva el Rey!

H.M. King Juan Carlos I of Spain

In a moment which warmed my occasionally monarchist heart H.M. King Juan Carlos (Bourbon) of Spain gave a brief but firm rebuke to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez last night in Santiago Chile. The heated exchange occurred at a summit of Spanish and Latin American leaders after Chavez delivered one of his infamous ad hominem attacks, this time directed at former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar a close ally of the United States. He repeatedly described Aznar (who has been out of office for three years) as a fascist, and inferred that he was less human than a snake.

The current Spanish PM Zapatero (himself a socialist) reproved Chavez in his own address for his undiplomatic language in reference to a democratically elected representative of the Spanish people. During Zapatero's remarks the Venezuelan bully repeatedly attempted to interrupt him until King Juan Carlos turned to him and said "Hugo. Why don't you just shut up?" Adding further weight to the sharply worded rebuke from a royal sovereign to another head of state, the King chose to address Chavez using the very informal "por qué no te callas" vs. formal "por qué Ud. no le calla." In Spanish this is rather the equivalent of speaking sharply to a child or servant.

It's good to be the king.

Hugo... Would you like a little Bourbon with that dressing (down)?