From Mark Weisbrot:

One of the nice things about a blog is that you can provide a few details that don't fit in columns or op-eds that the mainstream press runs. Below is a column I wrote that ran during the past week in a number of US newspapers. It provides some background, missing from almost all press coverage, about why President Hugo Chavez might see George W. Bush as "the Devil:" namely, the Bush administration's involvement in the 2002 military coup that briefly overthrew Venezuela's democratic government, and the administration's continued intervention inside Venezuela, to this day.

[cross-posted at And, yes, I DO take it personally]

the good news is that at least peru isn't having to contend with a fujimori comeback...

Hamas won a solid victory in Palestine, raising considerable concerns around the world as a "terrorist" group gains power. There is no question that the rise to power of an extremist group of any sort is worrisome. And Hamas does advocate terrorism and oppression of women. Hamas are extremists. But so are many governments that America supports. The extremism of Hamas is a concern. But there is one problem with opposing the Hamas government: they were democratically elected.

Whatever our approach to dealing with the Hamas government, we have to start from this beginning: they were democratically elected.

[cross-posted at And, yes, I DO take it personally]

Yesterday, the Boston Globe reported on a very interesting development involving Venezuela and the state of Massachusetts.

With the greatly increased energy prices and the winter already here for many in the northern states, this is really good news and puts our domestic oil companies to shame.

   

A subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil company will ship 12 million gallons of discounted home-heating oil to local charities and 45,000 low-income families in Massachusetts next month under a deal arranged by US Representative William D. Delahunt, a local nonprofit energy corporation, and Venezuela's president, White House critic Hugo Chávez.

Today, Argentine President Néstor Kirchner is meeting in Caracas with Chávez.

When the coup came in 2002, it certainly came as no surprise to the Bush administration.  They'd help to plan it, they knew it was coming, and they were on hand to provide color commentary and praise for the replacement leadership.  Elected president Hugo Chavez was out, Bush's chosen businessman Pedro Carmona was in, and the United States couldn't have been happier.

Then Chavez easily restored order and revealed US involvement.  Oops.

The question is why were they so anxious to go after this man?  Sure, Chavez has leftist leanings, and he has oil, but there are a lot of governments more openly inimical to our own in control of oil reserves.  Why is Chavez the focus of so much effort?   Why has Pat Robertson called for Chavez' murder, naming him a "dangerous enemy" of the United States.  Okay, there's the fact that Robertson is a fruit loop, but in this case, he may be right.

Hugo Chavez may be the most dangerous man in the world.