Venezuelan and Belarusian dictators strut before lines of troops in Minsk
Source: Reuters, via Yahoo!

First, take a look at the top of line weaponry Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is buying from Vladimir Putin of Russia, to aim at us, just 1350 miles from our shores. This is but one step removed from another Cuban Missile Crisis. That’s a main reason for this junket to Belarus and Russia. So much for peace and friendship. What’s peace and friendship compared to advanced weaponry!

Miguel Octavio at Devil’s Excrement in a brilliant essay, writes of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s visit with Aleksander Lukashenka, the Belarusian dictator of the Russian satellite state, Belarus. He says Chavez has more in common with Lukashenka than probably any other brutal dictator in the world. Both are in office by election fraud, both love military hardware, both are great repressors of democracy crowds, with an particularly raging hatred for what explicitly is known as ‘democratic revolution.’

I know that some naivos in England pompously dismiss Chavez as ‘democratically’ elected, even though they have never been to Venezuela, nor have they ever been exposed to anything beyond ZNet or Venezuelanalysis, nor have they read any of the work of even left-leaning Venezuelan bloggers, but perhaps because of this, they are sure they know more than any of us who watch Venezuela closely, and insist that Chavez is in a whole different category from the brutal Lukashenka, but here’s something important: Chavez in Belarus explicitly denounced “color revolutions” meaning: Orange, Rose, Daffodil and Denim ones. God knows what the people of Belarus thought upon hearing this Caracas thug say that. It sure wasn’t “aww, but he’s a democrat.”

Chavez pretty well broadcast that that he intended the Babes of Minsk the same sort of fate Lukashenka intended – and he thus unintentionally created a democracy bond between the two nations – Venezuela and Belarus, same as the bond that currently exists between Cuba’s democratic revolutionaries and the Czech Republic.

Make no mistake: Chavez hates all democratic revolution, and indeed all democracy. He even came to Belarus and kissed its dictator to make sure everyone understood that. The Belarusian Being Had blog has a whole string of news stories and photos here.

Meanwhile, Transitions Online Belarus has a deliciuous bloggy sarcastic perspective on how the visit looked from the Belarusian point of view, plus notes and links from the Belarusian language blogs well worth a click here.

Fausta at Fausta’s Blog points out that there indeed are plenty of people out there who don’t understand any of this. They don’t even understand that Belarus is run by one of the world’s most brutal dictators. Reuters is one of them, gaily calling these two avowed tyrants “mavericks.” She’s got a good post here.

Meanwhile, Boli at Boli-Nica has some cautionary notes for Chavez, noting that Russia and Iran have always distrusted the loudmouthed dictator and generally played a different kind of power game. It’s well worth reading here.

And Investor’s Business Daily has an editorial positing that this Chavez-Putin-Lukashenka alliance could presage a new cold war, because Putin’s arms sales and Chavez’s cavorting with the anti-democracy Lukashenka are two unfriendly signs that are likely to escalate. There’s also a lot of description of just what Chavez is buying from Putin and what those aircraft can do to the U.S. in this link here.

If you haven’t already seen Daniel’s post at Venezuela News & Views about Chavez & Lukashenka, along with his photos of the pair frolicking in the Happy-Hitler meadows of something unappetizingly called “The Stalin Line,” you really must click on for at least a first look here.

UPDATE: The weapons deal with Russia will total $3 billion, not the first-reported $1 billion. It also will include missiles capable of hitting the U.S. The Reuters item is here.