hugo chavez

Here would be some of the winners:

• Hugo Chavez.
• France
• Turkey
• Russia
• China
• Mexio

Chris Bowers has all the details.

So the big talk from the right is this:

Russia could use bases for its strategic bombers on the doorstep of the United States in Cuba and Venezuela to underpin long-distance patrols in the region, a senior air force officer said Saturday.

"This is possible in Cuba," General Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of the Russian air force's strategic aviation staff, told the Interfax-AVN military news agency.

The comments were the latest signal that Moscow intends to project its military capability in far-flung corners of the globe despite a tight defence budget and hardware that experts consider in many respects outdated.

Of course the right is already calling it the “Biden-challenger” for Obama.

My how quickly they forget. I wonder how Bush passed this test? Just last November this was the news:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans to travel this month to Cuba and Venezuela, which have increasing military and trade ties with Moscow.

The U.S. has objected to Russia's greater links with the two countries that have antagonistic relations with Washington.

Or how about going back to 2007, when Cuba and Venezuela were actively increasing their military arsenal, compliments of:

President Hugo Chávez is poised to buy at least five submarines from Russia in a £500m deal that will alarm the White House and confirms Venezuela as a growing military power in the region.

If we are tritely facing "world war 3", then this should indicate the battle lines that are being drawn. All of this has occurred over the last week.

1. Putin plan to shut out US oil giants

President Vladimir Putin is set to keep US oil companies out of a lucrative gas field in the latest sign of the deteriorating relationship between Moscow and Washington.

The Russian leader is expected to favour Norwegian companies and reject bids by America's Chevron and ConocoPhillips after failing to secure backing from the United States for his country's attempt to join the World Trade Organisation.

The tit-for-tat snub will be a blow to US companies scrambling for access to Russia's huge gas reserves at a time of high energy prices. It comes after Putin failed to resolve differences with US President George Bush over trade and human rights at the G8 conference in St Petersburg last week.

2. Russia defies U.S. with Venezuela arms deal

Russia said Thursday it had sold 24 aircraft and 53 helicopters to Venezuela, defying the United States, which has urged Moscow to halt arms sales to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Russia's arms export chief, speaking as Chavez met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, said the aircraft deal was part of a long-term package of arms contracts with Venezuela that was worth more than $3 billion.

Chavez is a vocal critic of what he calls U.S. imperialism. Washington considers him a dangerous radical and had urged Russia to rethink the weapons sale. It bans its own producers from selling weapons to Venezuela.

3. Chavez invites Iranian investment

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has urged Iran to increase investment in his country's oil and gas assets. Visiting Tehran as part of a foreign tour, Mr Chavez also pledged Venezuela would "stand by Iran at any time and under any condition".

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described Mr Chavez as a "brother and trench mate".

Venezuela and Iran are close allies, both members of the Opec oil-producing cartel and fierce critics of the US.

Sunday, on CNN's Late Edition, they made the mistake of giving Pat Robertson
a larger audience again. This time he used his time in the spotlight to further
taunt Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.

Robertson made two claims, which are being Venezuela's vice-President as
irrational. In the first claim, Robertson said that Chavez paid Osama Bin Laden
$1.2 million after the September 11th attacks. In his second claim, he is
accusing Chavez of trying to buy nuclear weapon components from Iran. When asked
where he learned about this information, Robertson said he has anonymous sources
he can not disclose.

Needless to say, the ramblings of "crazy" Pat are putting even further
strains upon United States and Venezuela relations. It now appears that
Robertson is trying to push us into war with Venezuela using some of the same
arguments we heard for the war in Iraq.

The administration needs to come out and denounce all ramblings of Robertson.
In a time where Bush is trying to discredit the allegation that he told middle
east leaders "god told him" to end the tyranny in Iraq, nothing would speak
stronger than a stern denouncement of Robertson's comments. Further more,
Robertson should be subpoenaed by the Senate intelligence committee and forced
to disclose his sources. He is toying with national security and bordering on an
act of treason. If any reporter was out making these allegations, they would be
expected to answer for it - so why isn't "crazy" Pat?

View this

article for further details on Pat's ramblings.

From the
BBC

US evangelical seeks Chavez talks

 A senior representative of America's evangelical Christians is to make
an attempt to set up a meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The Rev
Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, wants to
distance American Christians from the remarks of a tele-evangelist.

Pat Robertson earlier this week called for Mr Chavez to be assassinated.

The US State Department called his remarks "inappropriate" and Mr Robertson
later apologised for them.

Mr Haggard says he wants to meet Mr Chavez face to face and apologise for Mr
Robertson's remarks.

He also wants to secure assurances about the safety of American evangelical
missionaries working in Venezuela.

Mr Haggard is in Mexico, where he is meeting a friend of Mr Chavez.

If that encounter goes well, the leader of America's evangelical churches
will travel on to Caracas for a meeting which is bound to embarrass the White
House.

Political rivalry

Mr Chavez is locked in an acrimonious dispute with Mr Bush.

Washington regards the Venezuelan leader as a dangerous left-winger with
ambitions to dominate South America, says the BBC Justin Webb in Caracas.

Mr Chavez - a friend of Cuban leader Fidel Castro - equally dislikes Mr Bush,
and regularly suggests to his people that the Bush administration provides a
military threat to Venezuela.

The two nations have recently broken off co-operation on combating illegal
drugs, though America still buys Venezuelan oil.

The nation is the world's fifth-largest producer.

Via the BBC:

Chavez makes US oil export threat

BBC

Oil exports to the US could stop amid growing tensions between the two
countries, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said. He described recent US
government actions as "aggressive" in a speech at a youth festival in Caracas.

As a result, Venezuelan oil "instead of going to the United States, could
go elsewhere," he said.

Venezuela exports about 1.3 million barrels a day to the US and is the
world's fifth largest oil producer.

Tensions between the two countries have escalated since President Chavez
accused the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of spying on his
government.

Washington denies the charge and has accused Caracas of failing to
co-operate in the fight against drug-trafficking.

On Friday the Venezuelan government withdrew diplomatic immunity from DEA
agents working in the country in response to a US decision to revoke the visas
of six Venezuelan officials based in Washington.

Venezuela is an important transport route for cocaine from neighbouring
Colombia, which produces 80% of the world's supply.

With our delicate oil situation right now plaguing the nation's wallet, you
can be certain this will lead to a definite hit on our economy. Perhaps Bush
will not rule out use of force against Venezuela.