Chavez slams Bush during Paris trip

Chavez slams Bush during Paris trip

One of these days bush and chavez will become good friends, and they will sit around a barn fire eating barbeque rib steaks, and telling yarns to each other.

But this will only come when their office tenure will come to an end, and it will be interesting to see who will retire first, or be thrown out of office.

Sammy

Isn’t jailing rivals what dictators do?...
:mad:
Venezuela’s Chavez wants to jail rival
Sat Oct 25, 2008 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened on Saturday to imprison his main political rival, intensifying a campaign against a man he calls a crime boss just a month before he faces tough regional elections.

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Opposition leader Manuel Rosales, who lost to Chavez in the 2006 presidential vote, is governor of the oil producing state of Zulia and is running for mayor of its capital Maracaibo. “I am determined to put Manuel Rosales behind bars. A swine like that has to be in prison," Chavez said.

Chavez railed against Rosales at a gathering of businessmen in Zulia, urging the audience to vote against his rival for allegedly plotting to assassinate him, running crime gangs and illegally acquiring cattle ranches. Chavez provided no specific evidence for the charges against the main leader of a fragmented opposition who has solid support in the oil-producing west of the OPEC nation.

Human rights groups say Chavez has increasingly exerted control over branches of power such as the judiciary and become intolerant of critics in almost a decade in power. The former soldier typically takes to the offensive to stem a rise in support for potential rivals.

Chavez has been campaigning vigorously for his candidates in gubernatorial and mayoral races in the November 23 election but may lose some key posts as Venezuelans worry about crime, inflation and poor public services, pollsters say. Chavez often makes dramatic threats in speeches without immediately carrying them out. Still, he does follow through on enough of them over time for his threats to concern the people he targets.

[url:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE49O2FL20081025[/url]

See also:

‘Time to Push Back Against Chavez,’ Critics Say
Monday, October 20, 2008 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is among those pushing OPEC members for an output cut.

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As the slump in oil prices hurts producers like Venezuela, OPEC has moved up an emergency meeting where a sizeable production cut looks likely – part of a cartel bid to push prices back up. Critics of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, meanwhile, are urging American consumers to take the opportunity to inflict further pain on the U.S.-baiting leftist by switching from gas stations selling Venezuelan product. Oil demand has been dropping as a result of the global economic slowdown, and prices have dropped by more than half since last July’s record highs of almost $150 a barrel.

Earlier this month, OPEC announced an emergency meeting on Nov. 18 to discuss the impact of the financial crisis on the oil market, but after further drops it brought the meeting forward to Friday, Oct. 24, in Vienna. OPEC said in a statement it remained determined “to ensure that oil market fundamentals are kept in balance and market stability is maintained.” Venezuela, Iran and Qatar are among the OPEC members pushing for an output cut. Qatar’s oil minister predicted a one-million-barrels-per-day (bpd) cut, while his Algerian counterpart and current OPEC president, Chakib Khelil, was quoted Saturday as saying the cut could be as much as two million bpd.

A production cut would be the first in two years for OPEC, whose 13 members supply more than 40 percent of the world’s oil. Its last cut, of 500,000 bpd, was announced in Dec. 2006 and later reversed. Speculation of an imminent output cut saw prices rise slightly early Monday, with crude for November delivery rising above $72. Countries such as Venezuela are heavily reliant on energy sales.

More [url:
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=37777[/url]

Obama win not gonna help Chavez...
:cool:
Chavez tension with U.S. to remain despite Obama win
Fri Nov 7, 2008 - With the passing of the Bush era, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will lose his favorite enemy and sparring partner. But clashes with the United States will persist even with Barack Obama in the White House.

]
Ties between the superpower and one of its biggest oil suppliers have deteriorated for years and are at a low after Chavez — in an expletive-laced speech — expelled the U.S. ambassador in September and Washington followed suit. In the short term, tensions should ease as Chavez has pledged to return an ambassador once Obama assumes the U.S. presidency in January and George W. Bush, in the Venezuelan’s words, “creeps out the back door” of the White House. But the thaw may not last long.

With strong ties to Cuba, Iran and Russia, Venezuela’s socialist leader bases much of his political message on countering U.S. hegemony. U.S. officials initially hailed a short 2002 coup against Chavez and he says the CIA was involved in the putsch. Since then, he has inflated the threat of U.S. plots against him to shore up popularity at home, and he never tired of lambasting Bush for his “imperial” wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or calling him the devil, a donkey and a drunkard.

Regardless of who governs in Washington, the deterioration in relations could persist as potential flashpoints over oil, drugs, nuclear power and terrorism remain. “We hope he tunes into the frequency of the world and convinces the U.S. hawks it is impossible to dominate the planet," Chavez said of Obama this week.

But the man who calls ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor warned supporters: “Let’s not kid ourselves too much." After Obama takes office, ties can be expected to improve as the influence fades of Washington hardliners who lobbied for sanctions against Venezuela in clashes with Chavez over everything from oil prices to democracy.

[url=http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSTRE4A655620081107:
TALKS WITH OBAMA?[/url]

dictator?

[QUOTE=waltky;110955]Isn’t jailing rivals what dictators do?...

The differerence between a “dictator” and a president is a demovratic
vote.
Some presidents have and rely on voting machines, backed by rule of law courts ,whose members are appointed by presidents to serve them .
Others have and rely on populism.