Imperialism
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Foreign Affairs | Hugo Chavez | Venezuela — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
As if any more evidence was needed to show that Hugo Chavez means to destabilize the region:
High-ranking officials in Venezuela offered to help Colombian guerrillas obtain surface-to-air missiles meant to change the balance of power in their war with the Colombian government, according to internal rebel documents.
Venezuelan officials served as middlemen with Australian arms dealers and agreed to help the rebel commanders travel to the Middle East to receive missile training, according to files on computer hard drives seized by Colombian authorities and shown to The Washington Post. In interviews, Colombian officials said they have no evidence that the guerrillas obtained the antiaircraft missiles but added that Venezuelan authorities appear to have provided light arms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
The disclosures have already started to reverberate in the Bush administration and among Latin America policymakers on Capitol Hill, where a small group of Republicans has proposed classifying Venezuela, a major oil exporter to the United States, as a state sponsor of terrorism. The United States and Europe long ago blacklisted the rebel organization, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as a terrorist group.
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What might be interesting with respect to Chavez' ambition would be the state of relations between Venezuela and Brazil. Brazil is the ranking military power in South America, despite Venezuela's accumulation of equipment in excess of its troop training abilities. If Venezuela (and Chavez) offends Brazil too often, there might be a war in their border regions and between their navies.
chsw
Any direct war would be hampered between them. ALthough, isn't the oil-rich Orinoco basin on the border where most of the Anti-Chavistas draw from?
"Any love letter is incomplete without a Ronald Reagan quote"
--my sophomore year roommate
More reasons to dislike Chavez. More reasons to be vigilant regarding totalitarianism. More reasons to get off of foreign oil - especially OPEC oil.
Sad to say many of our friends on the left will ignore this. I think they would ignore his eating children alive...