Chavez: Venezuela Could Renew Anti-Drug Operations With US

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse

Chavez: Venezuela Could Renew Anti-Drug Operations With US
Maandag 15 December 2008 01:52

CARACAS (AFP)--Venezuela could again collaborate with the United States in anti-drug operations after Barack Obama becomes US president, President Hugo Chavez said Sunday.

Venezuela halted cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2006, accusing it of being a front for spying.

'We can remake an agreement with the DEA that respects the sovereignty of Venezuela ... but always within the framework of respect,' Chavez said in an interview with the privately owned Televen network.

The Venezuelan president, who in 2006 called U.S. President George W. Bush 'the devil' at the United Nations, said that he was 'willing to work with the new government of the United States.'

Ties between the two countries 'are going to improve' with Obama in office, Chavez said. 'I feel that there are winds of change.'

Read more: http://www.beurs.nl/nieuws/artikel.php?id=279683&taal=US

[last1standing]

1. It's interesting how much a 'left wing dictator' will work with us.

So long as we're not sponsoring right wing coups and trying to isolate a country for democratically electing that 'left wing dictator' that is. :eyes:

[Idealism]

2. Hugo Chavez hasn't done nearly as bad a job as Bush has done

running his country.

[last1standing]

4. How can you say that?

All he's done since violently overtaking the presidency through force of ballot is to squander money on schools, housing and healthcare for the poor. He hasn't done a thing to help the truly needy corporations and ultra wealthy who worked with bush* to temporarily overthrow his dictatorial regime. If it hadn't been for the millions of dirty protesters and their work stoppages, Chavez would still be in jail and a democratically appointed junta could now be in place.

[Idealism]

6. Yeah you are right

I forgot what a radical he was with social spending programs, the bastard

:D

[bluestateguy]

3. I'm no Chavez fan, but we do need to work with him

and of course, not sponsor CIA coups either.

[EFerrari]

5. Venezuela has been having the Colombian drug people driven inside

its borders. That causes a lot of problems for them.

The DEA is corrupt as hell and I don't see how anyone could really work with them. It's a shame, the shape our law enforcement agencies are in.

[endarkenment]

7. Actually we need to cut the crap and legalize getting high.

[stillcool]

8. can't have that...

what happens to the slush fund?

[Vincardog]

9. what happens to the slush fund /NO what FUNDS the slush fund?

[stillcool]

10. What funds the slush fund?

weapon sales, and drug sales. I'm sure Iran/Contra didn't end the practice.

[Vincardog]

14. Bingo Illegal drugs are worht a lot moe to corrupt poliZe and polZ

[Moose4Biden]

11. Chavez

I'm not a Chavez fan, either. And he needs to work with us. When Obama becomes our president, he'll lose the boogeyman he's been using to climb to power. He needs to re-identify his role with us and his country.

[Judi Lynn]

12. He was a national hero in Venezuela long before he ran for the Presidency. They know who he is. n/t

[EFerrari]

13. Just because Junior is leaving office doesn't mean that the multinational predators

are going away.

[Peace Patriot]

15. I'm no fan of chainsawing union leaders and throwing their body parts into mass graves

(like they do with our "war on drugs" BILLIONS in Bushwhacked Colombia), or funding and organizing white separatist riots and machine-gunning of unarmed peasants (like the US-DEA and the US embassy were just doing in Bolivia this September to try to overthrow Bolivia's first indigenous president, who has a 65% approval rating) (--Note: they failed), but if President Chavez has reason to believe that President Obama won't use US "war on drugs" aid in those horrible ways, but will genuinely help Venezuela to control the violent criminal cocaine traffic out of Colombia, I figure he knows what he's talking about.

I gotta laugh at these people who start posts on Chavez with "I'm no fan of Chavez, but...". They never explain why this caveat. They just finger-paint an impression they've gotten from the corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies that Chavez is, somehow, bad, but likely couldn't tell you any particular way that he is 'bad' and I suspect have no idea, really. I could cite a lot of stats and details (the number of elections Chavez has won, by ever-increasing big margins--in provably transparent, highly monitored elections--his continued high approval ratings, Venezuelans' continued high degree of satisfaction with their government and economy, etc., etc., as well as how many close, friendly allies Chavez has among South America's other leaders), but I won't. I would just suggest to those who are "no fan of Chavez" that they look into the matter themselves and maybe peruse www.venezuelanalysis.com and www.BoRev.net (my favorite--very funny and informative site), and get informed. If we stay vulnerable to corporate media impressions--spin, psyops, 'red-baiting,' McCarthyism, bogeymen under every bed--then they can more easily fool us when next they need some other country's resources and want to slaughter a million innocent people to get it.

Being a "fan," or not being a "fan," of any given politician is not very important. What he or she does is important. Whether he or she is expressing the will of the people is important. The success of democratic institutions and social justice programs is important. Fan clubs are Faux News creations of unreal media celebrities. Celebrity is not important to most peoples' lives. Food on the table and health care are. Chavez should be judged on his policies not on whether you would yell yourself hoarse with 'Viva Chavez' chants at a rally, or throw your shoes at him. (Har-har.) What has he done? Why have Venezuelans elected him so often? Why do THEY approve of him so highly? And, why are the perceptions of many of our people so at variance from the perception of, say, the president of Brazil, who said, of Chavez: "They can invent a lot of things to criticize Chavez, but not on democracy"?