Monthly Archives: August 2010

Aug
2
2010
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A Rotting Chicken in Every Pot: Venezuela’s Disastrous Food Policy

This article was originally posted by The Huffington Post

Hugo Chavez announced last week on a national broadcast (aired, by presidential decree, on every television channel and radio station simultaneously) that Venezuelan troops are amassing on the western border with Colombia and that this was being done “in secret” so as to not alarm the population of Venezuela. Stung by the mountain of evidence of his support for the FARC terrorist group, Chavez is using a potential conflict with Colombia to whip up nationalistic fervor. The truth is that Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution continues to crumble with no end in sight — his celebrated war against hunger defeated by seven years of a reckless food policy that causes shortages, involves price controls, central planning and currency manipulation and rewards corruption. Food policy, not his shenanigans with the FARC, are of much greater importance to the Venezuelan population in advance of legislative elections in September. The past few months reveal a government in chaos and crisis mode.

From Venezuela’s presidential palace, Minister for Food Supply Felix Osorio denounces “the oligarchy’s media campaign” for a single report aired on Globovision – the last opposition television station remaining in Venezuela. The TV segment said that 23,000 lbs of rotting chicken were found in a rural waste dump in Eastern Venezuela. The packaging, they said, indicated the chickens came from the government food program. The Minister rejected this as false and called it a part of the “imperialistic onslaught” against Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution.

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Aug
2
2010
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Chavez Regime’s Drug Trafficking Back in Spotlight

This article was originally posted by The New American

After a series of reports brought the issue into the spotlight in recent years, allegations of involvement in drug trafficking by the regime of socialist Venezuelan “President” Hugo Chavez are making headlines once again.

In an article for USA Today, for example, Chris Hawley quotes multiple experts suggesting that the regime is at least turning a blind eye, if not directly supporting the traffickers.

“Parts of the Venezuelan military are probably trafficking with drugs and other stuff, and Chavez is not exactly motivated to crack down on them because he needs the military,” claimed Brookings Institution fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown. “He is allowing them to dabble in the trade.”

American and United Nations officials have also accused Chavez and his government of involvement in the drug trade, with the UN releasing a report in late June stating that more than 40 percent of all cocaine shipments to Europe were going through Venezuela. 

“The increasing flow of illicit narcotics through Venezuela and the continuing flow through Mexico pose significant challenges to U.S. counternarcotics interdiction efforts,” the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a separate report released in July. Another GAO report released last year claimed that top Venezuelan military and government officials were involved in the trade.

The allegations of Chavez’ complicity have been around for years, particularly since the regime expelled American drug agents from Venezuela. The U.S Drug Enforcement Administration was operating there until 2005, but Chavez kicked them out over supposed suspicions of spying, drug trafficking, and conspiring to bring down his regime.

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Aug
2
2010
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Colombia Denies Venezuela’s Attack Plan Allegations

This article was originally posted by AHN

A day after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claimed that his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe was capable of anything and speculated their plans of attacking his country, Bogota rejected allegations and termed them baseless.

cp Colombia Denies Venezuela’s Attack Plan Allegations Cesar Velasquez, a Colombian government’s spokesman described President Chavez’s remarks as “deceptive” and claimed that they had never thought of attacking them.The spokesman’s denial came two days after Chavez dispatched additional troops, including soldiers, air units and special forces, on its border in Paraguachon to boost Venezuelan National Guard troops.

“Colombia has gone through the proper international channels and will continue to insist on the application of international law to ensure Venezuela complies with its obligation not to harbour Colombian terrorists,” he added.

Relations between the two nations were at all time low last week following a heated meeting at the Organization of American States where Colombia presented facts and figures that Venezuela allegedly provided shelter to FARC and ELN rebels – a charge Venezuela vehemently denied and immediately suspended diplomatic ties.

Meanwhile, Venezuela is apparently seeking peace talks with neighbor Colombia. In his weekly opinion column “Chavez Lines”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez believed that the only way to bring peace was through the talks.

“The dilemma is between the words or the bullets, this is, between taking a dialogue table to the peoples of the South America for the peace exercise or keeping the region in a climate of conformation with a high war danger,” Chavez said.

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