. September 13, 2006 SouthAmerica: The Economist magazine published an article on the last issue âWith friends like theseâ, and the article said: ââ¦The immediate aim of this relentless travel is to drum up votes for Venezuelaâs bid to obtain in October one of the two rotating seats on the United Nations Security Council that are normally held by Latin American countries. â¦Now the United States is lobbying hard for Guatemala, placing some South American countries in a quandary. Many are wary of Mr. Chavez but are unwilling to be seen as American pawns. The Mercosur countries have said they will vote for Venezuela; so might Chile. â¦The US has imposed an arms embargo on Venezuela. â¦Venezuela has turned elsewhere for arms. In July Mr. Chavez ordered kit worth some $ 3 billion dollars from Russia, including 24 Sukhoi, 30 jet fighters to replace his ageing American F-16âs. The neighbours are more concerned about the 100,000 Kalashnikov assalt rifles that have begun to arrive, and 55 Russian helicopters, including about a dozen MI-35 helicopter gunships. ************ I believe that it is a good thing that Venezuela gets the UN Security Council seat for the next 2 years. It will be very entertaining to see Hugo Chavez and the Bush administration going at each other. Besides Hugo Chavez would help hold back any agenda that the Bush administration has regarding the UN Security Council. Hopefully the democrats will take the house and the senate in November of 2006 â as Hugo Chavez helps neutralize the United States at the UN Security Council, the democrats will help neutralize the Bush administration on everything else. The best thing that can happen in the next two years is for the Bush administration to be completely neutralized - The less the Bush administration is able to accomplish in the next 2 years, the better it will be for the American people and for the rest of the world. In 2008 after the United States has its next presidential election, Mr. Chavez will be done with his United Nations Security Council adventure, and the new US government administration will be able to operate once again - in the international and domestic areas. . .
The guy who supplies about 14-15% of our insatiable appetite for petroleum products. He is a socialist and chimp boy hates his guts. However, chimp boy screams too much, Chavez will sell his oil to the Chinese and Indians. So, chimp boy just screeches and puts up a show, but lets Chavez go on with his socialist agenda. I believe US has imposed a no arms sale policy against Chavez's country only to see him buy hardware from the Ruskies. http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.image?id=8110
. September 13, 2006 SouthAmerica: Hugo Chavez and Venezuela are getting a lot of mainstream American media attention, because the Bush administration is building its new boogieman in the Americas â after all Fidel Castro is a very old man and what will become of the Americas without a new boogieman? But after the Bush administration becomes history, a new US president can try to straighten out the situation with Venezuela with diplomacy and common sense. But never forget: The real leader of Latin America it is Brazil and not Venezuela and we have the country's size, the population, the resources, and a very sound economy to back up Brazilâs position. In the meantime keep tuned and enjoy the Hugo Chavez show. I find it very entertaining. .
Interesting analysis . . . I think that it should be mentioned too, that the Bush admin may actually perfer the status quo, as they have done almost nothing to reduce the US dependency of oil.
I've been hearing this bullshit about Brazil since 1973 when I moved to Florida and worked with some of your countrymen. These guys were a hoot. They would show up at the construction site wearing the cloths they had on from the night before when they werew out clubing around....silk shirts, Italian shoes, etc... They would paint apartments in these clothes, getting paint on them and then have to go out an buy new clothes!! They were the laughing stock of the job site. I asked them about this and it turns out they considerded it very "un-macho" to wear the apropriate work clothes. I swear this is all true. Anyway, they were constantly going on about how Brazil was the next superpower. SA, did you ever live/work in Orlando in the mid '70's
. Arnie: I've been hearing this bullshit about Brazil since 1973 when I moved to Florida and worked with some of your countrymen. They would show up at the construction site⦠SA, did you ever live/work in Orlando in the mid '70's? ************** SouthAmerica: I never had to work in construction or doing similar type of work. **************** Hapaboy: Also, SA, were you an extra in "Scarface"? ************* SouthAmerica: No I was not an extra in Scarface. But if I were that would have served as a big lesson in economics regarding one of the most profitable businesses in the United States on a regular basis. The United States has the largest market for junkies in the world â more than any other country in the world. ************ Sputdr: I enjoy it too, he's going to screw South America hard. It's funny. ************* SouthAmerica: We have enough people trying to screw up South America as it is. ************* Nick Leeson JR: Yeah, no doubt about that. Not funny to the South Americans, but to me it is . . . *************** SouthAmerica: But some how we always survive in South America, and things just can get better from where we are today. .