Reply #160: What an odd post! First, are you saying there IS no threat?

[Judi Lynn]

Please attempt to familiarize yourself with what has happened to Venezuela since Chavez took office February 2, 1999.

Has he accepted blame for WHAT? For things he did imperfectly? What are they? Do you know?

The coup attempt he led? He has said a lot about that. By the way, the President against whom he led the coup, as the rest of us know, ordered his military to fire into crowds of protesting poor people who hit the streets after he raised the cost of their transportation far far above their ability to pay.

That event was called "El Caracazo," and it suddenly brought things into focus in Venezuela. It is tremendously vivid to them as a national scandal, tragedy, and infamous nightmare.

President Carlos Andres Perez was later impeached and imprisoned for his own embezzlement and corruption. Most of us know that. Why didn't you?

Many people would be sorely pressed to act rashly in the face of that kind of filth. Chavez was pardoned.

Power in Venezuela is passing from the racist, tiny oligarchy to the people. That's what really gets right-wingers wild. They will fight it as long as they don't have to sacrifice anything, then they'll bail, without a doubt. They have absolutely no intention of relinquishing the exploitive power they've held over the vast majority of poor Venezuelans, using all tools they have and those _Bush gives them, at their disposal.

More Democratic? My expert opinion? How childish to be snotty.

If you're concerned about the preponderance of non-oligarchy people in the national assembly, you have only the oligarchy to blame, who knew they were going to get clobbered in the next to the last FREE election, and tried to distract the world's attention by simply refusing to play altogether. They didn't want to be publicly humiliated for the world to see, and they made up reasons to boycott the election.

They have no one to blame but themselves. Had they been more patriotic all this time, had they been DEMOCRATIC all this time, they wouldn't be pounding sand now.