April 20, 2010 First were Coca-Cola and Barbie, then Twitter, and now McDonald’s and Wendy’s. American businesses in Venezuela continue to be among the primary targets of Hugo Chávez’s offensive against private property. The order to close down the Caracas McDonald’s and Wendy’s restaurants comes during government preparations for the official unveiling of a bust of Fidel Castro next week. “It is an ideological inconsistency to have two businesses identified with the U.S. empire in…
April 14, 2010 With the Venezuelan economy mired in a crippling recession and September elections looming, President Hugo Chávez dialed up the rhetoric this week. On a day he proclaimed “Day of National Jubilation,” Chávez hosted a military-style parade to mark the anniversary of the 2002 failed coup against him. Addressing a crowd of clenched-fists, riffle-carrying young militias, Chávez encouraged his supporters to pay the ultimate price in defense of his government. “You should be…
Washington Post Editorial April 8, 2010 RUSSIAN PRIME Minister Vladimir Putin boasted after returning from a visit to Venezuela on Monday that he had sold President Hugo Chávez another $5 billion in weapons — a huge sum for a Latin American country that is deep in recession and busy rationing its water, electricity and hard currency. Take it as one more sign of the political, economic and human rights meltdown underway in a major U.S….