Iranian and North Korean Diplomats visiting Venezuela?

Sr Tertius says on Feb 3, 2006, 09:45:

Geez! I didn't know that not following Washington mandates was automatically a "death wish." I'll download the manual and follow procedure.

"When the finger points to the moon, the fool looks at the finger" (Chinese proverb)

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Mr. Hollywood says on Feb 3, 2006, 09:50:

Hah B Bruce, I think you've read too many Tom Clancy novels. Chavez and Washington need each other. At its heart its a very symbiotic relationship. Both make a lot of noise presenting each other as a "threat". Meanwhile, they continue billions in trade. This is a clear case where money trumps bullshit.

Hawks in Washington like having a commie threat in Latin America. It's a model they've got a lot of practice exploiting.

Chavez, of course, needs to present himself as tough and anti-imperialist, which is hard to do without Uncle Sam to flip off.

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vladimiro says on Feb 3, 2006, 10:15:

Venezuela's interest in exports from North Korea is interesting because I think they only have military technology to export. If there is any truth to Chavez' rethoric about a US invasion it could be becuase he wants to do something, like buying missiles from N.Korea, that would change the balance of power in the region.

Venezuela/Iran have always been OPEC allies. Below is a photo of the unvieling of the Simon Bolivar statue in Iran's capital a few years ago. Iran has recently invested around $1billion USD in Venezuela but in non-military industries.

http://www.payvand.com/news/04/nov/1244.html

By the way, Iran has an embassy in Bogota and President Uribe asked the Iranians to ivest in Colombia's oil/gas the other day.

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Sr Tertius says on Feb 3, 2006, 10:46:

Chavez vs. Hitler However marginal that comparison was, it is of a level of imbecility that is, unfortunately, the trademark of the Bush administration.

"When the finger points to the moon, the fool looks at the finger" (Chinese proverb)

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Tinto (Moderator) says on Feb 3, 2006, 11:23:

I think GringoD and Platano have been taking "fake headline writing" classes together

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platano says on Feb 3, 2006, 11:52:

Mr. Chavez has nothing to fear... The United States is a peace-loving country which promotes democracy around the world. Mr. Chavez is democratically elected. Ergo sum, everything's cool.

Mr. Chavez appears to have learned a lesson, though. If you have nukes they don't mess with you so easily. North Korea? Hmmm...

plátano

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juancegomez says on Feb 3, 2006, 12:01:

..... Rumsfeld and many other U.S. officials are clearly highly exaggerating their concerns, in my opinion, as Chavez is nowhere near as "dictatorial" or as "dangerous" as they usually present him.

But still, even we supposed that Chavez could be considered a perfect and flawless democrat, the fact that he has extremely friendly relations with less-accepted leaders like those of North Korea and Iran, at the very least shows his lack of consistency and character (FYI, I also think that Uribe lacks character and consistency too, because of his maintaining friendly relations with a certain number of his political allies).

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greg says on Feb 4, 2006, 06:55:

Rumsfeld is just doing his job. Continuing to try to scare the people of the U.S. so Bush can keep up his fascist activities
The most dangerous people on the planet are in Washington.

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