You've seen his face on TV telling us about "our good friends in Venezuela" who provide reduced-price heating oil for the poor. Joe shares heart-rending stories of how his wonderful partnership with South American strongman Hugo Chavez has helped so many downtrodden Americans. It's all so warm and loving and special. Isn't Socialism compassionate?
Now for the reality. Hugo Chavez is a communist who is quickly turning Venezuela into a prison nation. He has destroyed freedom of the press, nationalized major privately companies, almost got away with ending elections so he could become "His Majesty."
A recent State Department report said the human rights situation in Venezuela for 2006 was characterized by "politicization of the judiciary and harassment of the media and the political opposition". The report said the human rights violations in Venezuela included unlawful killings, disappearances reportedly involving security forces, torture and abuse of detainees, harsh prison conditions, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and attacks on the independent media.
The Organization of American States (OAS) also filed a report on the joys of living in Chavez' compassionate workers paradise. Said the OAS Report, it was concerned about the administration of justice in that country, the problem of sicariato (paid killings) and the "impunity that surrounds reports of extrajudicial executions at the hands of agents" of the Venezuela government. More than 6,370 people were victims of homicides committed between 2000 and 2005 by the "agents" of Venezuelan state security forces.
Oh, and by the way, as Joe and Hugo show their compassion for the poor in big, bad capitalist America, keep in mind that in the past Chavez has pushed OPEC to reduce oil output to drive up costs and fill his coffers. Of course the people most hurt by such "compassionate" moves are the poor.
Hugo Chavez has two purposes for supplying the cheap oil - to embarrass the U.S. government and use it for propaganda to help enforc his stranglehold on his own citizens. And as usual there's a hand useful idiot like Joe Kennedy to help him do it.
Oil and our need for it is all Chavez. The name of the Venezuelan oil outlet in the nation is CITGO. I don't buy it - ever.
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Tom DeWeese is the President of the American Policy Center and the Editor of The DeWeese Report. Visit the American Policy Center.
