USA embassadors expelled from Venezuela and Bolivia

[Money$hit]

U.S. Calls Venezuelan Officials Rebel Supporters

For all the warnings, refusing to sell oil would probably hurt Venezuela more than the United States. America is the country’s main customer for oil, and therefore a significant part of its revenues. By contrast, American refiners could buy oil elsewhere.

So true, we really wouldnt even need to go to war with them. Simply refusing to do business with them would bring them to their knees.

Its really a sad situation down in South America, from what Ive seen in pictures, it looks really beautiful. The prospects for development are actually looking better in countries down there. In the recent 50 years, many countries down there have been so plagued with hyperinflation, growth and development is nearly impossible. Its come under control with better monetary policy, but the corrupt governments are the final barricade.

Chavez is prime example. Columbia could actually be much better developed, but when thugs like Chavez continue to enable the FARC, its game over. And guess where all the money is coming from? Probably his oil fields.

[Joey Link]

His economy is taking a big shit and his hardcore socialist policies will fold without the money coming in from high priced oil. He's going to loose his country from his own people, we don't have to do shit. It's kind of a shame though, lots of Argentinans will die in the fight and one well aimed bullet could save them all.

This is exactly right. Will the world ever learn that socialism and communism just aren't viable in most places?

[Joey Link]

you think venezuelan guns are made of plastic?

Hey! What's wrong with plastic guns? Glock FTW ;)

[Pinepig]

Referendum now! Repeal executive order 11905 section 5 part G!

Lol, I betcha most folks here will have to look it up.

[Ral]

The Bolivian president needs something to shift blame for his failing country to. By blaming the U.S., and stepping up and speaking out against it, he makes himself look strong and Presidential" and, by turning the general unrest of his populace against us, he in turn gets greater power to keep his country together.

Hugo Chavez needs to do the same thing, and that's why we see this sabre-rattling. He must be well aware of his country's dependence on the U.S. though he probably doesn't like it, or admit it during his speeches. Fact is, they can say what they want, and we'll probably let them because so long as they keep buying oil from us they can't really do much to us. They asked for the Russian bombers to land there as a token gesture of "see, we really don't like you guys so we're gonna be friends with the other big kid on the playground" and Russia, trying to recapture some of its former glory and ascend again to the stage of international dominance, willingly obliged. We do the same thing with wargames off the coast of Iran, Russia, etc.

Yes, he's a whack job but so far, he's spewing a bunch of ugly rhetoric that doesn't have a whole lot of effect and he expelled the ambassadors temporarily. They'll be back, but I doubt it'll be news when he does.

[etxxz]

26 plots and like 6 declarations of war!

the article is a misleading on the drug traffic tho. its cash traffic (bribe/corruption/theft) and has a lot of influence from the case going on in miami with the $800,000 bribe to the campaign of Cristina Kirchner of argentina.

I dont put them even close to us on the plane of military capability. Thats all I really meant. Their leader Hugo, in my mind, is no different than other rebel leaders like Kim Jong Il, Saddam, Mahamoud Ahmadinejad, Castro, etc.

in that you are right. now, its was not offensive becuase i'm from that country, it was just that general view from a lot of people of this nation towards other countries. thanks though man.

[cferb]

Who cares? If they don't want us there, we should just leave, we sure as hell don't need them.

[netcsk]

This is why I pulled all of my money out of Latin America. Its getting rough down there right now.

[DEV0 E30]

U.S. Calls Venezuelan Officials Rebel Supporters

Article Tools Sponsored By
By SIMON ROMERO
Published: September 12, 2008

CARACAS, Venezuela — The United States stepped up the diplomatic skirmish with its left-wing adversaries in Latin America on Friday, saying it would expel the Venezuelan ambassador and declaring that Venezuela’s top two intelligence officials had supported the “narco-terrorist activities” of rebels in the region.

The moves heightened the political tensions that have been building between the United States, Venezuela and Bolivia in recent days. On Wednesday, Bolivia’s embattled president, Evo Morales, expelled the American ambassador there, Philip S. Goldberg, accusing him of supporting rebellious groups in eastern Bolivia.

Then on Thursday, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela said he was expelling the American ambassador to his country, Patrick Duddy, contending that an American-supported coup plot had been discovered.

The State Department responded by declaring Bolivia’s ambassador to Washington persona non grata. Then on Friday morning, it said it would expel Venezuela’s ambassador, while the Treasury Department accused the Venezuelan intelligence officials of aiding Colombia’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, “even as it terrorized and kidnapped innocents.”

The department said that the head of Venezuela’s military intelligence agency, Hugo Carvajal Barrios, protected drug shipments from seizure by Venezuelan anti-drug authorities and helped provide weapons to the FARC, which the United States considers a terrorist organization. The department also said that Henry Rangel Silva, the director of the DISIP intelligence agency, “materially assisted” the FARC’s drug trafficking activities and pushed for greater cooperation between the Venezuelan government and the rebels.

In addition, the Treasury Department said a third official, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, who resigned as interior minister this week, was the Venezuelan government’s main weapons contact for the FARC. It said the rebel group uses proceeds from narcotics sales to buy weapons from the Venezuelan government.

The United States and Venezuela have been sparring over a variety of issues, including claims that Venezuela is growing as a transshipment point for cocaine, Mr. Chávez’s plans for military exercises with Russia’s Navy in the Caribbean and the safety of Venezuela’s airports for American airlines.

But there are significant internal issues that could be playing into these disputes as well. Bolivia is grappling with violent, spreading protests in its increasingly ungovernable east. Venezuela, and particularly the Chavez government, is facing uncomfortable revelations about a spy scandal unfolding in a Miami courtroom, as well as rising inflation and potential losses in regional elections later this year.

As for the Bush administration, it has been unable to effectively engage either of those governments, and anti-American sentiment has been mounting in the countries for years, a phenomenon aptly stoked by both Mr. Morales and Mr. Chavez. In Venezuela, that sentiment was fueled in 2002, when the Bush administration tacitly approved of a coup that briefly toppled Mr. Chavez.

On Thursday, Mr. Chávez gave Ambassador Duddy 72 hours to leave the country, asserting a new plot, and recalled his ambassador to Washington, Bernardo Álvarez.

“When there is a new government in the United States, we’ll send an ambassador,” Mr. Chávez said, using an expletive to refer to Americans.

The latest moves represent a low point in Venezuela’s political relations with the United States, which imported more than $40 billion in oil from Venezuela last year. Trade between the countries has remained resilient, topping $50 billion in 2007, despite repeated threats by Mr. Chávez to halt oil exports to the United States, a warning he reiterated on Thursday.

For all the warnings, refusing to sell oil would probably hurt Venezuela more than the United States. America is the country’s main customer for oil, and therefore a significant part of its revenues. By contrast, American refiners could buy oil elsewhere.

The Chávez government also said Thursday that it would reduce the number of flights by airlines from the United States to Venezuela, which now number about 70 a week, after the Bush administration complained that American inspectors were not allowed to review the security of Venezuelan airports.

The airline issue offers a window into tension over claims of drug trafficking, with news reports here saying that government officials are hesitant to allow inspectors into facilities thought to be used to smuggle cocaine to the United States and Europe.

Mr. Chávez said that a plot to overthrow and assassinate him had been uncovered and that the Bush administration was behind it. State television here played what it described as intercepts of phone discussions between active-duty and retired military officers that referred to a plot to take Miraflores, the presidential palace.

The State Department responded Friday that the “charges leveled against our fine ambassadors by the leaders of Bolivia and Venezuela are false — and the leaders of those countries know it.”

Mr. Chávez has claimed at least 26 times in the last six years that there were plots to kill him, according to counts in the local media.

Graham Bowley contributed reporting from New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/wo...l?ref=americas

[Scotaku]

Referendum now! Repeal executive order 11905 section 5 part G!

[nando]

it really sucks how much of an asshole chavez is - because every person I've ever met from south america was unbelievably cool.

[Money$hit]

that is the kind of redneck comments i was trying to avoid. i don't even want to know what you were thinking 7yr ago. why does it have to be kill them? you think venezuelan guns are made of plastic?

I dont put them even close to us on the plane of military capability. Thats all I really meant. Their leader Hugo, in my mind, is no different than other rebel leaders like Kim Jong Il, Saddam, Mahamoud Ahmadinejad, Castro, etc.

[etxxz]

Hes just pissed because we could destroy his entire country in probably less than a few hours.

what a dumb fuck he was to play with the big boys

that is the kind of redneck comments i was trying to avoid. i don't even want to know what you were thinking 7yr ago. why does it have to be kill them? you think venezuelan guns are made of plastic?

anyways thanks Pinepig, but this guy has plenty of supporters so to loose the country. Some people believe in him blindly even though they are starving. Luckally his bite is not nearly as bad as his bark. One bullet could have solved 9+years of problems. His policies and ineptness of the people around him are causing the country to go back to hell, blackouts all over and hours long, food scarcity etc etc.

[Pinepig]

Probably that too, im guessing its multiple reasons. I dont ever think ive seen him as being a pleasant person.

His economy is taking a big shit and his hardcore socialist policies will fold without the money coming in from high priced oil. He's going to loose his country from his own people, we don't have to do shit. It's kind of a shame though, lots of Argentinans will die in the fight and one well aimed bullet could save them all.

[Money$hit]

Probably that too, im guessing its multiple reasons. I dont ever think ive seen him as being a pleasant person.