Venezuela: Chávez’s relatives are millionaires in the US

Hugo Chávez, laughing after knowing how much he and his family have in bank accounts across the world

Weapons, parties, concerts, jewelry, cars, travels, changes of look are part of the lifestyle of the family of the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, who is a staunch defender of socialism and a tough anti-capitalist.

DEA reports from 2008, indicate that you have identified five bank accounts in U.S. financial institutions amounting to nearly $ 140 million belonging to the brothers and mother of the president of Venezuela.

But you know? Then he will insist he is a suporter of the “socialism of the XXI century” and talk about the “Bolivarian revolution”. And people like Sean Penn will of course, support him.

Anyway, looking on the bright side. As he has blamed “criminal capitalism” for the recent heavy rains that have fallen in Venezuela, we can, safely, blame his family for them… and for global warming!!

Venezuela: remarks like ‘Hitler didn’t finish the job’ are routine

This is really worrying.

In Venezuela, remarks like ‘Hitler didn’t finish the job‘ are routineMore than half the Jews in Venezuela left the country since Chavez has been in power, and those who remain say there is official antisemitism in the country.

“I am not even horrified anymore when I see swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans such as ‘Hitler didn’t finish the job’ on walls near my synagogue,” says a former Israeli who lives in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.

“This is an influence that trickles down from the top – from the government – against the Jews. I know that Chavez is exerting efforts not to appear anti-Semitic to the outside world, and that he welcomed the leaders of the Jewish community, but I haven’t heard of him ever punishing someone for anti-Semitic writings or remarks.”

She would rather her name not be mentioned. “This gets translated and immediately appears on various internet sites. I don’t need trouble,” she says. “A few years ago it was heaven here, who could have believed that it would turn into such a burdensome place?”

She isn’t the only one who feels this way. According to data from the Venezuelan Confederation of Israelite Associations, the number of Jews in Venezuela sharply decreased in the ten years President Hugo Chavez has been in power.

In 2000, there were some 18,000 Jews listed, and today the number stands at a little less than 9,000. The outward flow of people amplified in the last two years, when more than 5,000 Jews left the country, in particular to Miami in the United States.

via In Venezuela, remarks like ‘Hitler didn’t finish the job’ are routine – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

This is worrying. But then it’s me the one who is “generating hate”… 🙄

Iran welcomes Chavez as partner against Western "bullies"

Iran welcomes Chavez as partner against Western “bullies” [ WORLD BULLETIN- TURKEY NEWS, WORLD NEWS ]:

“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received his close Latin American ally Hugo Chavez on Tuesday and welcomed the Venezuelan president’s support against the Islamic Republic’s western ‘bullies’.

The leaders of the two major oil exporters inspected a guard of honour before heading into talks which Iranian media said were aimed at boosting cooperation in the oil, gas, and petrochemical sectors.

‘The progressive and fraternal stance of Venezuela in condemning sanctions against Iran imposed by the bullying powers is indicative of the deep and firm ties between the two countries,’ Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA.”

Related:
Obama: Nuclear Venezuela is OK by him.
Ahmadinejad: “Promise of God is that the enemies of our nations will go one day”.

Photo: AFP.

Venezuela: "We are carrying studies to start a nuclear energy program", Chávez says

FOXNews.com – Chavez: Venezuela Studying Nuclear Program:

“Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Monday that his government is carrying out initial studies into starting a nuclear energy program.

Chavez brought up the issue during a news conference, saying the South American country needs an atomic energy program.

‘We’re taking on the project of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and they aren’t going to stop us,’ Chavez said. ‘We need it and we’re carrying out the first studies.’

Chavez is a close ally of Iran and has defended the Iranian nuclear program, saying he is sure Iran is not making atomic weapons in spite of U.S. and European suspicions.”

Just after the legislative elections in which he lost his “supermajority”. Wasn’t Venezuela one of the most important oil producers in the world? So, why do they need nuclear energy? Just the same Iran needs it?

If I were Colombian, I would be really worried.

Putin: Russian arms to Venezuela may be $5B

Venezuela continues buying weapons, making Putin very happy indeed:

Image by Globovisión via Flickr

Arms exports to Venezuela may reach as much as $5 billion, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday, a few days after he traveled to the country.

Putin visited Venezuela late last week to meet with President Hugo Chavez and pledged to sell more weapons to the country but gave no concrete figures.

“Our delegation has just returned from Venezuela, and the total volume of orders may exceed $5 billion,” Putin said in televised remarks.

Russia on Friday agreed to lend Venezuela up to $2.2 billion for the new arms deals.

Hugo Chavez's government has already bought more than $4 billion in Russian weapons since 2005, including helicopters, fighter jets and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles.

via Nation & World | Putin: Russian arms to Venezuela may be $5B | Seattle Times Newspaper.

Read it all. Specially the last paragraph…

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• Russia offers to help Venezuela set up space industry (telegraph.co.uk)
• Russia and Venezuela announce nuclear union (telegraph.co.uk)
• Putin signs key deals with Chavez (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Russia ‘may sell $5 billion of weapons to Venezuela’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• Putin deepens ties with Chavez on Venezuela visit (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Russia To Sell Arms Worth $5bn To Venezuela (news.sky.com)

US-Israel: Obama mistreats Netanyahu

Image via Wikipedia

Benjamin Netanyahu was left to stew in a White House meeting room for over an hour after President Barack Obama abruptly walked out of tense talks to have supper with his family, it emerged on Thursday. The snub marked a fresh low in US-Israeli relations and appeared designed to show Mr Netanyahu how low his stock had fallen in Washington after he refused to back down in a row over Jewish construction in east Jerusalem.

via Gateway Pundit.

While Obama nearly kneels in front of Saudi Arabian King (theocracy), handshakes Chávez (more and more an autocrat) and wanted to have dialogue without preconditions with Iran (theocracy) or Cuba (communist dictatorship), he can’t even get to have a meal with Netanyahu (president of a democracy). Well, how does that sound?

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• Obama snubbed Netanyahu for dinner with Michelle and the girls, Israelis claim (telegraph.co.uk)
• Israel is alone, but does Netanyahu realize it? (powerlineblog.com)

Venezuela: Chavez calls for internet controls

Image by ¡Que comunismo! via Flickr

“The Internet cannot be something open where anything is said and done. Every country has to apply its own rules and norms,” Chavez said. He cited German Chancellor Angel Merkel as having expressed a similar sentiment recently.

Chavez is angry with Venezuelan political opinion and gossip website Noticierodigital, which he said had falsely written that Diosdado Cabello, a senior minister and close aide, had been assassinated. The president said the story remained on the site for two days.

“We have to act. We are going to ask the attorney general for help, because this is a crime. I have information that this page periodically publishes stories calling for a coup d'etat. That cannot be permitted.”

via Venezuela’s Chavez calls for internet controls | Reuters.

But the web has other story to tell. It is an open web, you just have to register and you can begin commenting and posting. That is what has made possible that a new member, nicknamed “IR Presidente2012”, wrote that news. Only 168 minutes later the web cancelled the comments in that post and later erased it. In fact the news never reached the front page. Of course, that is not understood by Chávez, who only sees people plotting another coup d’etat in every place he looks.

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• Venezuela Next Up To Try To Censor The Internet (techdirt.com)

"God is a Bolivarian"

Chávez’s idiot ranting of the day…

“The squalid ones are hoping it won’t rain,” Chavez said late on Tuesday, using his usual term for the opposition. “But it’s going to rain, you’ll see, because God is a ‘Bolivarian.’ God cannot be squalid. Nature is with us,” the socialist leader added during an event with athletes

(via).

technorati tags: Venezuela, Chávez, Bolivarian_Revolution

Spain: NC judge accuses Venezuela of ETA/FARC terrorism (U)

In recent months, Venezuela has been linked to Islamic terrorism in the Sahara desert. But there was no direct evidence of the implication of Chávez’s Government in the support of terrorism till some Swedish weapons sent to Venezuela were found in a FARC camp. From AP:

A Spanish judge yesterday accused Venezuela of collaborating with Basque separatist militants (terrorists!!!!!) and Colombian rebels (terrorists!!!!) and said the two groups plotted to assassinate Colombia’s president while he visited Spain.Judge Eloy Velasco made the allegation in a 26-page indictment in which he charged six members of Basque group ETA, most of them exiled in Latin America, and seven members of Colombian leftist rebel group FARC with crimes including terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.

Spain has asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s government for an explanation, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said.

Velasco wrote that a Spanish probe launched in 2008 turned up evidence “that demonstrates Venezuelan governmental cooperation in the illicit collaboration between FARC and ETA.”

Chávez as ever has answered defiantly that he:

Venezuela: Chávez creates militias to defend “Bolivarian revolution”

And of course, “Castroite” thugs are enchanted that their Government’s colony –something real after the arrival of Cuban dark lord Ramiro Valdés (right, with Chávez)-, really defends them:

President Hugo Chávez called on the popular power authorities today to create militias to defend the Venezuelan Revolution in the 184 communes that are constituted at national level.

According to the Head of State, the residents in those areas, made up by hundred of families with low resources, will receive military training to resist any attack.

We won’t attack anybody, but we have to get ready to defend hand to hand, millimeter by millimeter, the territory of this Revolution, he pointed out during his Sunday program Aló, Presidente.

Venezuela: Anti-Chavez TV channel dropped

Venezuelan cable television providers dropped a channel Sunday that has been critical of President Hugo Chavez, citing violation of broadcast laws.

Radio Caracas Television, which lost its broadcasting license in 2007 and became a cable-only channel, disappeared shortly after midnight on Saturday.

RCTV was the only station that did not air the entire speech of Chavez during pro-government marches earlier on Saturday.

via Anti-Chavez TV channel dropped in Venezuela – CNN.com.

I will update later with reactions.

Thanks, world-wide leftist morons for supporting this wannabe dictator in his quest for dictatorship.

Islam 2010

Article by Horacio Vázquez-Rial published at Revista LD (Translation and links added by T&P):

“One day millions  of men will abandon the South to break into the North. And they won’t be doing it as friends. They will be there as conquerors. ANd they will conquer it colonizing it thanks to their sons. It will be the wombs of our women what will give us the victory”. (Houari Boumedienne, UN, 1974).

That was the beginning, and my readers will be absolutely bored of me writing quoting that once and again. To ease the tiredness they must be feeling, I will add other quotes this time:

We have 50 million Muslims living in Europe now and there are signals that God will proclaim Islam in Europe without weapons nor conquests. As time goes by, the 50 million Muslims in Europe will transform it and will convert it into an Islamic continent. God has arranged that an Islamic nation, Turkey, adds itself to the European Union. Those 50 million Muslims will multiply and there will be 100 million Muslims in Europe. Bosnia is a member of the European Union [sic]  and its a Muslim country; moreover, at least more than 50% of its population are Muslims. Statistics show that there are thousands of mosques in Europe. We have thousands of Islamic organizations and societies in Europe (…) I have here some statistics. There are 50 million Muslims in Europe nowadays, 14,000 mosques and Islamic centers and 1,500 Islamic societies and organizations. Those numbers are nothing but booming, to whom we have to add the numbers related to Bosnia, Turkey and Albania. Therefore, the words that God proclaimed in the Quram are just coming to reality: “It is Him that has sent His Messenger with the Address and the true religion to make it prevail over every other religion, despite the infidels” (Muammar El-Gadaffi, 2008).

Venezuela: Hugo Chávez drafted banker in fraud case to fix Cuba’s economy, insiders say

A multimillionaire Venezuelan businessman, currently jailed in Caracas on bank fraud charges, had been sent to Cuba by President Hugo Chávez to help the country recover from its economic slump and also to spur economic growth on the island after Fidel Castro dies, according to former employees.

In an initial show of his new responsibility, looking for a personal benefit from future business in Cuba, Ricardo Fernández Barruecos gave the Cuban government a gift of 28 BMW automobiles, his former security consultant Luis Castro said in a sworn statement.

Castro told El Nuevo Herald that Fernández, envisioning brilliant prospects for his business in Cuba, also earned the support of Raúl Castro to open up the island’s economy after the death of his brother Fidel.

…But for some leaders of the opposition in Venezuela, Chávez’s admiration went beyond his gratitude for Fernández’s support of his socialist program.

They claim that Adan Chávez, the president’s brother, received a cut of the businessman’s success.

“[Fernández] is a frontman for Adan Chávez,” said dissident Ismael García, of the pro-democracy group PODEMOS, on Nov. 24 during a session of the Venezuela National Assembly.

via Hugo Chávez drafted banker in fraud case to fix Cuba’s economy, insiders say – Venezuela – MiamiHerald.com.

And this guy then accusses the West for the Iranian riots. Is there any country in South America where this guy hasn’t tried to meddle?

Of course, US is complaining he doesn’t “cooperate fully” in antiterrorism efforts. He has been harboring terrorists of several nationalities over the years (not only Colombian ones but also ETA’s):

The extensive paper entitled “Country Reports on Terrorism 2008”, published last April, warned of the situation in Venezuela due to “President Chávez’s ideological sympathy for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN)” which has “limited Venezuelan cooperation with Colombia in combating terrorism.”

For the Unites States, Venezuela’s relationship with Iran is also troubling. The report stated that “Iran and Venezuelan continued weekly flights connecting Tehran and Damascus with Caracas. Passengers on these flights were reportedly subject to only cursory immigration and customs controls at Venezuelan airports.”

He has not shown any sings of repentance, so it’s not probable he is going to hand over all the terrorists and be a good boy.

Venezuela: Chávez ushers restrictive energy measures

Oil-rich Venezuela ushered in 2010 with new measures rationing electricity use in malls, businesses and billboards, as Hugo Chavez’s government aimed to save power amid a crippling drought.

The new regulations came into effect January 1, with businesses required to comply with reduced consumption limits and authorities warning of forced power cuts and rate hikes if the measures are not followed.

via Socialist Hugo Chavez Rations Electricity | The Lonely Conservative.

Amazing what this gal is doing to Venezuela.

Venezuela: Chávez blames West for Iranian riots

Well, this is hardly surprising, specially after Ahmadinejad’s interview in Channel 4:

“The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects the attempts at destabilization promoted by the U.S. government against the people and government of Iran,” Venezuela’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The Bolivarian government is surprised that a group of governments, led by the U.S. empire, are echoing a campaign to divide and spread violence among Iranians, in contravention of elemental norms of peace, non-interference and respect for sovereignty,” it added.

So these two guys are meddling wherever they want to, but blame others for the riots they have in their territories. Brave logic…

Meanwhile, Moussavi, a man of the regime, just in case somewhat was doubting about US/Western influence on him, declares his willingness to be a martyr.

Venezuela: Chávez Warns on Toyota Plant

And “South African Communists’ Peace Price” goes on:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has threatened to expropriate Toyota Motor Corp.’s local assembly plant if it doesn’t produce more vehicles designed for rural areas and increase technology transfer.Mr. Chavez said Wednesday that Toyota needs to transfer more new technologies and manufacturing methods from headquarters to its local unit in Venezuela, adding that other foreign auto-assembly plants are also not doing enough of this.

Mr. Chavez said his socialist government is going to apply strict quotas regarding the number and types of vehicles auto makers can produce. He ordered an immediate inspection of Toyota’s facilities to see how many “rustic vehicles” they are currently producing.

“They’ll have to fulfill [the quotas], and if not, they can get out,” Mr. Chavez said during a televised address. “We’ll bring in another company.”

via Venezuela Warns on Toyota Plant | NewsBag.

Freedom… that word sooo unknown in Venezuela’s Chávez.

South Africa: Communist Party Gives Peace Prize to Chávez

The South African Communist Party SACP gave its highest award, the Chris Hani Peace Prize, to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez this week in recognition of Chavez’s leadership in the worldwide struggle against imperialism and for socialism.

Chavez was chosen to receive the award because he is “a principal fighter in the anti-imperialist struggle, the Bolivarian Revolution, and for his commitment to the struggle for the peace, solidarity, and socialism of the working class,” said SACP General Secretary Blade Nzimande.

via South African Communist Party Gives Peace Prize to Venezuelan President | venezuelanalysis.com.

It’s telling they give Chávez a “Peace Price” award, while there’s no award for Chinese dissident Liu Xiao Bo, nor to FARC’s victims.

Terrorism: Chávez and Gadaffi seek new definition

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi called on Monday for a new global definition of terrorism.Meeting a day after the end of a summit of African and South American leaders in Venezuela, the two men signed a declaration urging a global conference be held to sketch out new terms defining terrorism.

Neither spoke publicly about the document, which rejects “attempts to link the legitimate struggle of the people for liberty and self-determination” with terrorism, according to a Venezuelan government website.

via Chavez, Gaddafi Seek a New Definition of Terrorism – ABC News.

Of course, Gaddafi and Chávea, both of whom have been harbouring terrorists for years (FARC, ETA, etc.), want to exclude themselves from the list of terrorists… And without doubt, they are fighting for “liberty”. What they have to say is the liberty of whom they are defending.

Interestingly enough, they are not speaking about leaving power and building strong democracies. They continue with this crap about “bad capitalism/good socialism”. 🙄

Photo: Saturday Nation.

Venezuela-Sahel: international net of drug trafficking and terrorism

Following the news of 4 European (3 Spanish and 1 French) volunteers kidnapped by Al-Qaeda in Mauritania and taken then to Mali, I posted about the UN denouncing that international drug trafficking is financing terrorist groups in the Sahel, a Saharan region. In its Mauritanian and Mali zones is where AQIM has now its headquarters after being expelled from Algerian coasts. The link shows a connection with Bolivarian Venezuela:

The United Nations says the discovery of a crashed plane in Mali carrying cocaine from Venezuela has revealed a link between drug trafficking and terrorism.

The head of the UN drugs agency, Antonio Maria Costa, has warned that a sub-Saharan region of Africa, known as the Sahel, has become a new centre for drug trafficking, and the trade is helping to fund rebels and militant groups.

The BBC reports the wreckage of a Boeing 727 was found in Mali last month with up to 10 tonnes of cocaine from Venezuela on board.

via Radio New Zealand News : Stories : 2009 : 12 : 10 : Link revealed by UN between drug trafficking and terrorism.

More on the links between Chávez and terrorism: Venezuela’s new Continental Bolivarian Movement: 15 Minutes on Latin America @ Fausta’s Blog.

Venezuela: That “satisfactory” level of freedom of expression

Police has used tear gas and water cannons against Venezuelan protesters,who were demonstrating against the new Education Law, who would create “future Hugos”. Of course, the pro-Chávez’s demonstration, held the same day, wasn’t touched. We are waiting for Moratinos‘ words on the subject (and Obama’s, so critical of Honduras, Insulza’s or Ban Ki-Moon’s, among others).

But anti-Education Law protesters weren’t the only to receive tear gas: police demonstrators also received their share:

The police chiefs are giving orders to their subordinates to shoot in every direction“. “This action took place when the journalists were interviewing the Metropolitan Major, Antonio Ledesma“. “This policial action was the fourth in the day“.

Some pics here [PDF].