CRUISIN' FOR A BRUISIN' WITH HUGO --Greg Palast in Caracas

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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.

Annoying the moneyed and the powerful is Chavez' gift. And this week, at the meeting of the Congress of Andean Parliaments, he unwrapped a special surprise, a renewed proposal for PetroSur, functionally, a Latin American OPEC.

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.

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Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez greets his supporters at an army food market set up in one of Caracas' main avenues in Venezuela, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2003. Chavez's government announced that it was selling tons of basic foods at reduced prices at markets across the country while the opposition conducted a signature drive to demand a referendum on his presidency. (AP Photo/Marcelo Garcia)

kick some Bushian ass! :kick:

hate his guts.
I don't think he is particularly intelligent. He is a demagoge. But he is not the one who screwed Venezuela royally to leave it in the state it is now. The oligarchs took care of that. I don't think he really is improving the economic and social situation of Venezuelans but he serves as a symbol for the downtrodden.

If he really starts messing up with OIL, watch out!!!! Bush and Co. will come barrelling through.

He is also a bulwark against the fascist globalizers in Latin America.

government (no easy feat given Uncle Sam's 50+ year track record of destablizing and overthrowing democratic governments in Latin America and the rest of the world). Of course your elite golpista friends hate him--their way of life is threatened.

As for messing with oil, he's already messed with oil. He was successful is getting the price of crude raised from $10 to $20 a barrel. Additionally, he restructered PDVSA--Venezuela's state oil company that the oligarchs robbed for years.