Wow!

Rubiazo says on Oct 17, 2005, 00:40:

That was only one issue I don't think they are necessarily part of a conspiracy. I'm just glad they are going to be prevented from trying to get the rest of the planet to think as they do.

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Michael B says on Oct 17, 2005, 06:58:

Perhaps Mr. Chavez read Mr. Michener's book "Hawaii" and does not want the same fate to befall his country.

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Mr. Hollywood says on Oct 17, 2005, 12:14:

If Chavez had real balls If Chavez had any real balls he'd stop selling Venezuelan oil to the US (his biggest purchaser).

I'm all for throwing out missionaries, but the dude is really whacked and paranoid. A friend of mine who lives in Caracas says that despite the HUGE money that the state is making with oil at $60 a barrel, the public infrastructure of that city is getting worse, not better.

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platano says on Oct 17, 2005, 13:06:

Mr. H., Chavez doesn't seem to have any problem with the people of the United States. He has stated publicly he would never cut off oil sales (that would harm the people). In fact, Chavez has also said he wants to sell discounted oil to poor people in the United States, something Mr. Bush has not offered to do.

Chavez seems to be bothered by a minority in the United States government who tried to overthrow the democratically elected Chavez and talked of assassinating Chavez.

Plátano X
Oxigeno Verde ¡Libertad por Ingrid y los demás!

plátano

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Mr. Hollywood says on Oct 17, 2005, 13:34:

Venezuelan oil Platano, Chavez's populist "I don't want to hurt the people of the US" rhetoric sounds nice, but in reality, oil is a totally fungible commodity and Chavez knows that. The only people hurt when Venzuela stops selling oil to the US would be Venezuelans, particularly Hugo and his cronies.

I think the US is WAY too fixated on Chavez and keeps breathing life into him every time they even mention him or Venezuela, but his paranoid rantings about how the US is plotting to assasinate him are just ridiculous. Maybe in the 1950s and 60's, like the bungled attempts against Castro, but the world just doesn't work that way any more.

And I really do wish he were the populist hero he paints himself as. It's a crime that a country with so much natural wealth should be so rampant with poverty. Sadly, natural resource wealth seems to always wind up in the hands of a very few and with secondary effects that are detrimental to the large majority.

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Mr. Hollywood says on Oct 17, 2005, 13:37:

Selling oil to poor people If Chavez wants to sell to poor Americans at discounted prices I commend him. Since he's in charge of the entire CITGO chain of gas stations in the US, this should be really easy for him to do and he doesn't need to ask anyone's permission.

Wait, you're telling me he hasn't done this already? But, but, but, why not?

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pepster says on Oct 17, 2005, 13:50:

C'mon The minute Chavez cuts off oil is the minute the US invades Venezuela. He is not that stupid. As long as that chimp keeps on pumping oil he'll be just fine.

My wife is Venezuelan and she's telling me EVERYBODY is suffering not just the rich. The poor are worse off than ever. Chavez has surrounded himself by a bunch mental midgets and idealogues leftover from the leftist movement. The country is a mess.

The Pepster ColombianBlog.com

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Mr. Hollywood says on Oct 17, 2005, 13:59:

Invade? The US has no self-interest in invading Venezuela, not even the right-wing nutjobs. Pat Robertson is going to have to do it himself.

We're already bogged down in one unpopular war, the people of the US wouldn't stand for it. And, besides, there's plenty of other oil out there on the world market to keep feeding the American oil demand.

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aztec says on Oct 17, 2005, 14:37:

I believe ... Venezuela crude is refined in ST. Croix, U.S Virgin Islands. The refinery located on this island is HUGE!

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Mr. Hollywood says on Oct 17, 2005, 15:04:

Agree about Castro I completely agree that Chavez is a pale imitation of Castro. Fidel, despite his shortcomings, also did a lot of good for Cuba, and he has to be admired for flipping the bird at Uncle Sam for all these decades.

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platano says on Oct 17, 2005, 16:54:

Anti-Chavistas will distort efforts to help the poor... Chavez brings in Cuban medical doctors to provide medical care to people who never had access to medical care and some Venezuelans will criticize that as bringing in a mechanism for social control. From a Voice of America report, a Venezuelan says the Cuban doctors are: "To know who you are, what you do, who you are married to, where you work and what you think of the government."

GIB, what if Chavez' day of reckoning is delayed as long as Castro's day of reckoning? Bummer! We have to wait 40+ years!

Plátano X
Oxigeno Verde ¡Libertad por Ingrid y los demás!

plátano

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Mr. Hollywood says on Oct 17, 2005, 18:20:

Yes "Chavez brings in Cuban medical doctors to provide medical care to people who never had access to medical care and some Venezuelans will criticize that as bringing in a mechanism for social control."

Well, one thing you can always say about Venezuela is that the opposition is every bit as bad, if not worse, than Chavez. IMHO, though, the Cuban doctors and giving away some land to the poorest of the poor is just window dressing while Chavez and co. loot the national treasury. With as much petroleum wealth as it receives, Venezuela should be like one of the oil rich gulf states like Kuwait where every citizen receives a dividend, free education, medical care, etc. But from everything I'm told, and from people who don't have a real dog in the fight, the overall quality of living in Venezuela is declining, not improving. It's tragic.

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Rubiazo says on Oct 17, 2005, 23:21:

re: Kuwait and other states those benefits are only for citizens. You can't get citizenship; it's almost impossible- you have to be born with it. They import cheap labor from other countries to do all the dirty work and they get NONE of the benefits. So in the end it works out to the same. 80% of people in Saudi Arabia are not Saudi citizens (and never will be).
The only difference in South America is that the poor people who get screwed also happen to be people who are born there.
I have heard people say both good and bad about Venezuela in the past 10 years or so. According to some, it was a mess in the 90s and Chavez fixed everything. According to others, it's better now than it has been in 30 years.

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Mr. Hollywood says on Oct 18, 2005, 06:07:

Kuwait You're right, Rubiazo, that the Kuwaities are real bastards to the people they import to do their manual labor. However, even those people are VOLUNTARILY moving from places like the Philipines to escape poverty there and get JOBS working for the Kuwaities, who would never get dirt under their fingernails. Still, it's nothing like the poverty and suffering you'll see in Venezuela (or Colombia).

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Dolfi says on Nov 4, 2005, 00:54:

Y porqué siguen ustedes vendiendo su maldito petroleo a los gringos?

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Rubiazo says on Nov 7, 2005, 09:35:

I have never been to the Middle East But I have seen more poverty that shocked me in Canada than I did anywhere in Latin America.

Anyways, I think the people of Venezuela by and large have Chavez's back so we'll have to see the long term results of current policies before we can judge them. I'm not holding out for anything positive but I'm trying to keep an open mind.

Castro's Cuba has made great strides in areas like education and healthcare, but it is still largely a poorly managed place. Despite having all the tools in place to be able to feed everybody adequately they are STILL rationing food to this day!

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latinking says on Nov 16, 2005, 00:40:

ey dolfi me borraron el mensaje carnal los gringos con su derecho de expresion la respuesta porque los gringos invadirian venezuela al no tener suficiente petroleo para andar cada uno solitario en su propio carro

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Colocano says on Nov 16, 2005, 06:02:

Por que...... Si lo dejan de vender se le acaba el dinero a Chavez i entonces no va a tener sufficiente para darle a sus payasos!

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