The Associated Press

Hugo Chavez: War leader?

Featured Topic | Posted 27 weeks 11 hours ago

Is war looming in Latin America?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has a knack for belligerent rhetoric. He's threatened to cut off oil to the United States. Now he's threatening to go to war with neighboring Colombia. Chavez on Sunday ordered Venezuela's embassy in Colombia closed and told the military to send 10 battalions to the border after Colombian troops killed a top rebel leader. He called the U.S.-allied government in Bogota "a terrorist state" and labeled President Alvaro Uribe "a criminal."

What would a South American war mean for the United States and the world's economy? Should the U.S. intervene?

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Ben likes: Is Chavez admitting an alliance with FARC?

Ed Morrissey/Hot Air

We saw a hint of this six weeks ago. Chavez demanded that Latin American nations recognize FARC (as well as a few other terrorist groups) as “legitimate armies” despite their track record of kidnapping and drug trafficking. As the Washington Post noted, even allies of Chavez balked at that notion. Now it looks as though Chavez will take Venezuela to war to support these terrorists, hoping to undermine President Alvaro Uribe and the democratic government in Colombia.

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Joel likes: Revolution in Venezuela?

Joaquin Villalobos/The Nation

What Chávez has got wrong is his belief that he has made a revolution when in fact he's simply won some elections. And even those victories are more attributable to an arrogant, bejeweled opposition that lacks mass adherents than to Chávez. This has allowed Chávez to dominate some state institutions and to change some of the rules of the game, but it doesn't give him the leverage needed to impose the sort of drastic ideological sea change he clearly intends.

Nor does Chávez have a revolutionary army. On the contrary, the army has defeated him twice (1992 and 2002). The complicity of the army with Chávez today rests solely on weapons purchases, and that is much more about corruption than about preparing for war. It's exactly this sort of privileged corruption that closes the path to authentic revolutionary change. The Venezuelan military will neither kill nor die for Hugo Chávez.

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Thoughts

Chavez: Should We Take Him Out?

Submitted on March 2nd, 2008 by Chuck_Johnson

This is a repost of a post I did at RedBlueAmerica.com

I met Dictator Chavez in Guatemala this past January. He came to the inauguration of the new Guatemalan President, narco-terrorist lover (and leftist), Alvaró Colom.

My uncle and I met him in the lobby of the Western Camino Real, one of the most expensive hotels in Guatemala. Although much of the Guatemalan press was fawning over him, calling him Commandante, only one of the journalists had the courage to say the right thing: “it smells like sulfur in here.” It was a reference to this Chavez statement. My kind of guy. The journalist, that is. Pity he’s in such a minority.

Chavez, like Benito Mussolini before him, is a classic Fascist. After he failed to militarize his country with his “reforms,” he’s now militarizing the border with Colombia. He knows that this action probably won’t get rebuked. Columbians don’t vote in Venezuela, after all. War, Chavez knows, will give him more power. The very real tragedy is that Colombia has been making such economic and political gains.If war happens, guess which country they’ll take refuge.

This story will end in war. Make no mistake. Anyone think political assassination of autocratic leaders is such a bad idea? This economist doesn't. I think he’s right. Maybe it is time to take Chavez out. He's a pretty ugly guy. I don't think we're going to have to worry about Che-like shirts.

Well, at least, there will be one positive side effect of removing Chavez from power. Pomona Professor Tinker Salas won't be visited by the FBI. No Chavez, no Chavez supporters, and no FBI visits. Hey, he can even write a book talking about how we murdered that poor dictator who just wanted to create a "democracy." He's already spent a lot of time talking about how bad free trade is for Latin America on a public news station.

Chuck Johnson is a student at Claremont McKenna College. He blogs at claremontconservative.blogspot.com.

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