Rice's Latin American tour upstaged by Chavez controversy

[deminks]

BOGOTA (AFP) - US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice is on her first major tour of Latin America to promote democracy and market economy, but growing tension with the Venezuela of President Hugo Chavez threatens to upstage her at every stop.

First in Brazil and on Wednesday in Colombia, Rice's statements have been peppered with brief caustic remarks about Chavez, who on thursday is expected to meet in Havana with Cuban President
Fidel Castro, the arch-enemy of the United States.

At each stop, Rice has been trying to prevent Venezuela from upstaging her Latin American agenda, which has to do with renewing US links to the region, which went largely neglected during Bush's first four-year term in office from 2001.

"This is not a trip about Venezuela, this is a trip about the future of this hemisphere," Rice said in Bogota, miffed at having to speak about Venezuela at every press conference she held.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050428/pl_afp/usvenezuelalatamrice_050428142243;_ylt=AhuBUmAplL_FASNpkiEz0WCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2bW85OXIzBHNlYwNwbA--

[htuttle]

1. The Empire lost most of Latin American during Bush's first term

...And it ain't gonna get it back.

[annabanana]

2. hee hee.. The Daily News says Rice is "miffed"

Isn't the press treating her with the kid gloves she seems to expect? Poor Condi...:nopity:

[rodeodance]

7. oh poor miffed condi--what a shame te eh

[saigon68]

34. She's there to test the strength of Mirrors

She jumps out from behind the CURTAIN with this expression.



If the mirror doesn't shatter.

The it receives the Nuclear Blast Seal of Approval

[bemildred]

3. "Fidel Castro, the arch-enemy of the United States"

Bwaaahaaahaaa. I'm sure OBl and al Zarqawi are relieved.
I expect the Cuban tank battalions will be heading for Miami
any day now. Do these people EVER think about what they say?

[Mika]

6. But when Cuba arrests paid agents of the arch enemy..

.. we hear constant mewlings about Castro abusing said agents for "simply speaking their minds".

Imagine if AlQueda (or some enemy state) had paid agents working on the overthrow of our system of government and claimed they were "independent journalists simply speaking their minds". It would be laughable. They would be arrested and jailed too.

[Cha]

31. And tom delay smokin' a BIG OL'

CUBAN CIGAR in time magazine..sending mixed messages!

[tanyev]

4. Whatsa' matter, Condi?

The old razzle-dazzle not working so well? The piano playing may not be enough to distract them in Latin America. Can you do this?

[CottonBear]

5. Latin America has democracies and market economies Condi.

Just STFU already. You embarrass us.

[reprobate]

13. This administration embarrasses democracies all over the world.

History will remember them as "The government that ended the American
Empire."

They are decimating the military.

They are destroying the economy.

They have made us the most hated and feared nation on earth.

Great job George. What's your second act.....Do the same to the world?

[orwell]

8. Hmmm...

Why doesn't Chavez tour the US to "promote Democracy". Oh that's right, it is only the US' preordained right to tell everyone else what to do.

How Democratic...

[rodeodance]

9. "Washington is irked" and condi is miffed. how sad

....Rice late Wednesday again accused Chavez of having a "destabilizing" influence over Venezuela's neighbors. A day earlier she called for "a free and completely democratic Venezuela."

Far from dropping his anti-American rhetoric, Chavez on Wednesday criticized Rice's visit to Latin America, calling the secretary of state "an imperial lady moving across South America."

Venezuela loomed large in Rice's meeting in Brasilia with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and other Brazilian leaders, and again on Wednesday during her meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, the chief US ally in South America.

Washington is especially irked by Venezuela's weapons purchases in Russia and Spain. Chavez, in turn, charges the United States with attempting to overthrow him and have him replaced by a government that better serves US interests........

[orwell]

14. Dominatrix

"Washington is especially irked by Venezuela's weapons purchases in Russia and Spain."

Translation: How dare you actually try and defend yourselves. Don't you know that WE defend our vassal states. And the impertinence of buying weapons from anyone but US suppliers.

That's the thanks we get for dominating your hemisphere.

[DELUSIONAL]

10. Oh dear -- what about her dominatrix outfits -- the press

isn't going to report on what she's wearing. Oh darn.

By hey -- she's gotta work for her masters.

[Spazito]

11. LOL! So condi is 'miffed' eh

I love Chavez's response about condi:

"Far from dropping his anti-American rhetoric, Chavez on Wednesday criticized Rice's visit to Latin America, calling the secretary of state "an imperial lady moving across South America."


Gotta love the American media, with their 'anti-American' tag on anyone and anything that doesn't blow kisses to bush's cabal.

[Az_lefty]

12. Poor poor Condi...reality smacks her right in the face!

:nopity:

[arikara]

15. Seems to be a little confusion about Condi's gender

"In Brasilia, Rice stressed the need to strengthen democracy and economic ties with the Latin American region. He also promoted Brazil to the rank of favored US trading partner."

[lyonn]

16. Since when has the U.S. care about

the future of this hemisphere? His daddy did his best to undemocratically take those countries over by helping terrorist replace elected governments. Read today some history on this on Consortium News. It's a wonder some of those countries even allow her to land. She speaks with forked tongue.

[jdj]

17. So is Condi a rock star? a rapper?

WTF?

I don't remember this terminology being used before this admin, maybe I'm delusional, but since when did our elected officials 'tour' places like they are on a freaking safari?

[AP]

18. I wonder what the true story is about Latin America?

One might be that Clinton gave Latin America a lot of room for eight years. Eight years without Kissinger having the ear of the president might have allowed enough economic power to build up that it's almost impossible for the US to shift power back to NY and DC. Staying out of the hair of center left and left government might have given them a solid foundation from which to withstand covert RW intervention.

Maybe the US put all its eggs in the Venezuela basket and when that didn't work in 2002, it put the rest of LatAm on alert and the US had to go back to the drawing board, and it's taken three years for them to get organized again.

But the US is so powerful. Why have the left had so much success in Latin America since the mid 90s? Surely, the US could stop it if they really wanted to.

Maybe the new politics of the right is to make money on the swings? Let people like Clinton and Blair and Chavez govern for a few years. When there's enough wealth built up in the working class bank accounts and home equity, bring in the right to extract it through S&L crises, 401(k)/pension raiding, and housing bubbles.

Maybe that's the new strategy. Maybe the right now realizes that, indeed, work is the source of all wealth, so let the workers create the wealth for a little while, and then take it.

[Demeter]

29. The Frustration IS IN the Fact That

they can't do a Haiti, or pull a Panama, or grab a Greneda, or chuck a Chili, as in the good old days...

[AP]

38. They did pull a Haiti though. Haiti was about to pass an income tax...

...and they got rid of Aristide so the sweatshop owners could keep all the wealth they get on the backs of underpaid workers.

[Judi Lynn]

19. Bush, through Condoleeza Rice is hell bent to lie every day of his term.

Sending her off to Latin America to inform them Venezuela is not democratic, when our own former President Jimmy Carter went there as one of the international observers to oversee the right-wing driven referendum on Chavez is as dishonest as anything I've ever seen by an American pResident.

No one sensible should try to accuse Jimmy Carter of having looked the other way, considering he's very tight with Venezuela's possibly wealthiest man, media tyrant tycoon Gustavo Cisneros, one of the coup plotters and abettors.

[Moderator]

20. kick

[emad]

21. Chavez has US running scared over rise of Left

Telegraph
By Jeremy McDermott, Latin America Correspondent
(Filed: 29/04/2005)

America is showing increasing signs of alarm at the influence of Hugo Chavez, the firebrand Leftist president of Venezuela who has eclipsed Fidel Castro as Washington's regional bogeyman.

The United States, obsessed with the Middle East for the past three years, has let Latin America drift to the Left, leaving Washington with almost no allies in its own back yard.

Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, yesterday visited Colombia, the last steadfast ally of the US in South America after Ecuador's Lucio Gutierrez was driven from power last week.

She promised that US aid would continue at present levels of some £400 million a year, despite the fact that the war on drugs has stalled and Marxist guerrillas have a launched a series of attacks that have wrong-footed the US-backed military.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=0QWJPMBLV34G5QFIQMGSM5WAVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2005/04/29/wvene29.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/29/ixworld.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=43359

[deutsey]

22. I'm sure Chavez will meet with an unfortunate accident soon.

:eyes:

[saigon68]

35. The CIA will KILL him like they did Allende

[deutsey]

36. Yep...they've already tried two coups just like they tried to

destabilize and overthrow the Allende government before '73.

[saigon68]

39. I'm watching like a Hawk

I'll bet the CIA does something soon though. He is getting way too much press in the third world

[wakeme2008]

23. Link that works

http://tinyurl.com/dbor5

:)

[meganmonkey]

24. I wish they would distinguish between US Gov't and the rest of us!

It makes it look like the whole country is scared of Latin America.

Note to the Telegraph: OUR GOVERNMENT DOES NOT REPRESENT US!!!! THEY ARE THIEVES AND LIARS!

Okay, I feel better now ;)

[Durant]

25. No doubt..

Washington wakes up every morning worried about ol' Hugo and his daily press releases about how worried Washington is about him :puke:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

26. Apparently they do.

right back at ya' :puke:

[Cha]

33. The chimp house in Washington Should

wake up every morning and worry about all the damn lies they told the
day before..but wait!..they have the corporate press to cover their ugly ass.

[Judi Lynn]

27. Embraer,Brazil Cos Get Venezuela Air Force Deal-Report

28 Apr 2005 13:42 GMT Embraer,Brazil Cos Get Venezuela Air Force Deal-Report


Copyright © 2005, Dow Jones Newswires

RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones)--Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer (ERJ) is joining other Brazilian companies in a deal with Venezuela's Air Force that could be worth as much as $5 billion, Brazil's Agencia Estado news agency said Thursday.

Officials at Embraer headquarters in Brazil told Dow Jones Newswires so far no order had been confirmed.

Agencia Estado gave no details on which other Brazilian companies could be involved in the defense deal.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, during a visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to Caracas in February, had said he was interested in discussing a possible purchase of military aircraft from Embraer.
(snip/...)

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2005042813420003&Take=1

[Demeter]

28. Condi Would Be Upstaged By a Paint-Drying Festival

unless she decides on more wildly inappropriate fashion statements.

After all, the rock singers dressed like that to get attention.....

[alexisfree]

30. rice is psycho

[Cha]

32. I'll take Venezuelan's Hugo Chavez

over that USA's lyin' condi rice..any day of the year!

[0007]

37. Our friends are disappearing!

It took a while but folks in the world are on to us.