Chavez and the Avoidable Venezuelan Apocalypse
Filed under: Venezuela
Writing in the New York Times, columnist Roger Cohen says of Venezuelan lunatic Hugo Chavez (shown above arguing with the King of Spain):
The bottom line is this: Latin America's oil-gilded caudillo is getting serious about ruling for life, just like Franco and Castro. I might add Vladimir Putin to that list. Like the Russian leader, Chavez has already used gushing oil revenue, a pliant judiciary, subservient institutions and the galvanizing appeal of vitriolic anti- Americanism to concoct a 21st-century, gulag-free authoritarianism. But even Putin has not contemplated going as far as Chavez now intends to take his "Bolivarian revolution." Venezuelans will vote Sunday in a referendum that would remove all limits on presidential re-election, grant Chavez direct control over foreign currency reserves, allow him to censor the media under a state of emergency declarable at his discretion, expand his powers to expropriate private property and create the second formally socialist nation in the Americas alongside Fidel's. Unlike other votes during Chavez's nine-year presidency, and unlike the assured victory of Putin's United Russia Party in voting the same day, the referendum is not a foregone conclusion.
Click through to read why, and let's get that message out to the people of Venezuela, before it is too late!
Now, dis iz dee tym ont Pooblius Poondit ven ve dans (hat tip: Reader Gringo):
God only knows what they are saying in the above, but it's pretty darned damning (funny, too).
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