What do Hugo Chavez and Congress Have in Common?

Ray Walser / August 20, 2009

Answer: they both want to punish Colombia.

Venezuela’s authoritarian, anti-American President Chavez claims Colombia threatens his national security, runs around too much with the “Empire,” [the U.S.], and will one day provoke a war with Venezuela. For these reasons, he aims to punish Colombia by cutting off trade and undermining economic security in Colombia and Venezuela. Being the economic kingpin of Venezuela, he can make it happen.

Chavez’s latest attack on Colombia and President Uribe comes just as the U.S. and Colombia move toward agreement on how to operate regular U.S. counter-narcotics surveillance from airfields in Colombia.

As usual, Chavez sounds the anti-American, anti-Colombian alarm to distract attention from his recent intervention in Honduras, from arms shipments to the narco-terrorists of the FARC, and expanding ties of military intimacy with Iran and Russia. (more…)