Meanwhile, in Venezuela

From Greg Palast's blog:

Hugo Chavez has an attitude problem. Only last April the Venezuelan president escaped a kidnapping by the Chairman of the nation's Chamber of Commerce. This weekend, Chavez is facing a recall petition by the angry rich of Venezuela. He also faces the wrath of an angry rich American president who does not appreciate Chavez' bad attitude toward globalization a la Rumsfeld.

...Venezuela, not Saudi Arabia, has long been the USA's largest supplier of foreign oil. By combining Venezuela's huge state-owned oil company with Ecuador's, Brazil's and Trinadad's (all nations now headed by elected leftists), Chavez could create a bargaining hammer for hemispheric trade talks which, up to now, have been mostly a one-way lecture from the USA.

"If Exxon and Mobil can combine, and Texaco and Phillips, why not PetroBrasil and PdVSA?" Chavez asks, referring to the Brazilian and Venezuelan government operators.

Recall that the stage has been set for us to invade Venezuela ("U.S. News has learned that terrorist-training camps are operating in Venezuela with the full knowledge and support of the Hugo Chavez government." - an October report). My webpage keeping track of developments there is here.

Greg Palast is currently in Venezuela and reporting from there. Read the entire article quote from above, as well as his first one, which I linked to here. The first link also contains Greg's report about how free trade agreements have destroyed Latin American economies.

As Greg's title for the article above, Cruisin' for a Bruisin' with Hugo, implies, Chavez, who has already been the target of an attempt on his life which he claims was American-made, is courting American retaliation.

Chavez is the only Latin American leader who did not sign the FTAA agreement in Miami.

Best wishes to Venezuela.