US "Far-Right" Wants To Kill Capriles", Chavez Helped Pick Pope and Other Maduro Lunatic Thoughts

More fun stuff from Venezuela.

Hugo Chavez will not be embalmed and permanently displayed for all to see after all. It looks like they started the process too late, which means he has probably started to decay.  Apparently, it wasn't Hugo's idea in the first place. According to an embalmer from Colombia, Camilo Jaramillo, Chavez just wanted to be buried in his hometown of Sabaneta. Vice President (now acting Prez ) Nicolas Maduro also mentioned that the idea of permanent display had been suggested by visiting leaders and his own love for his comandante.

Maduro also happens to think that Hugo had something to do with the latest Pope pick.

"The debate was between an African and a South American pope," Nicolas Maduro said, after taking part in a group prayer at a book fair in Caracas.

"I don't know, but we know that our commander ascended to those heights and he's face-to-face with Christ," said Maduro. "He had an influence for the choosing of a South American pope. Some new hand came in and Christ declared: 'Well, South America's time has come'."

Of course Pope Francis I, formerly known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is actually of Italian heritage. His dad was born in Italy, and although his mum was born in Argentina, her parents hailed from Italy.
Maybe it had more to do with the fact that 40% of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics live in South America. Besides, I sincerely doubt Chavez is hanging out with the angelic crowd.

And last but certainly not least, Maduro has already demonstrated how unhinged he is by accusing the West (most notably the U.S.) of poisoning Chavez, now the man is claiming that the U.S. "far right"  have their sights set on opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski. Yes, Republicans are plotting to assassinate Capriles.

Venezuela's acting president said on Wednesday that "far right" figures in the US were plotting to kill opposition leader Henrique Capriles in an increasingly volatile atmosphere ahead of an April 14 election.

"We have detected plans by the far right, linked to the groups of (former Bush administration officials) Roger Noriega and Otto Reich, to make an attempt against the opposition presidential candidate," Nicolas Maduro said.

Maduro is so concerned about Capriles's well being that he sent one of his men to meet with Capriles's people.  Right. This is the same man that Chavez launched a vicious smear campaign against during the last Venezuelan elections. The same man the U.S. right was rooting for. I know I was.

Noriega dismissed the whole thing as "absolute nonsense", saying:

"They call you what they are and they accuse you of doing what they do. That is the way they operate."

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Maduro and his henchmen were planning on killing Capriles, and then blaming it on the evil right-wing Yankees.

So lets see, Maduro thinks Chavez was poisoned by his U.S. 'enemies', persuaded Jesus to get a Latino Pope elected, and is convinced the U.S. "far right" wants Capriles dead- when it's more than likely it's Maduro they want out of the picture. And this man could be the next official Venezuelan President?

God help us. He's as wacko, if not more so, than Chavez.

Chavez Poisoned By Enemies- Says VP Maduro

Although the world was finally told of the passing of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez,  I have a feeling it might have happened a tad earlier than officially announced- considering the veil of secrecy surrounding his illness towards the end. When a series of photos of Chavez surfaced after his most recent cancer surgery, an L.A. based digital animator posted on Youtube his 'evidence' that the photo of Chavez with his daughters reading a dated 'Granma' newspaper were, in actuality, photoshopped. So we still don't have any definitive proof how long he was alive after the last surgery, not that it matters now. He died of his cancer, and all the loons are blaming the U.S.

When he was alive, Chavez was convinced that the U.S. gave him and other leftist Latin leaders cancer, including Argentina's Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, until it turned out her thyroid wasn't cancerous at all. And just prior to the announcement of Hugo's demise, Vice President Nicolas Maduro accused "enemies" (like the U.S.) of having poisoned his comandante, after it was revealed that Chavez had developed "a new, severe" respiratory infection.

“We have no doubt that Commandant Chávez was attacked with this illness, we have not a single doubt,” Maduro said. “The established enemies of our land specifically tried to harm the health of our leader.”

Maduro said he will order the creation of a “scientific commission” to look at this alleged conspiracy that Chávez was sickened through medical means.

“We already have leads, which will be further explored with a scientific investigation,” Maduro said.

Arafat died in 2004, less than a month after coming down with “flu-like” symptoms. Conspiracy theorists and some Palestinian leaders suggest that Arafat was poisoned medically by Israeli operatives.

“There have been too many cases throughout history, including the most recent, of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, it’s widely known that was poisoned medically.”

Of course, the fact that there was no access to Chavez by foreign operatives prior to the respiratory infection means naught. And no mention of the fact that Yasser Arafat died from HIV/AIDS, at least according to his personal doctor Ashraf al-Kurdi.

And these people rule countries. 

Sean Penn Pops In On Hugo Chavez Vigil In Bolivia

Hugo Chavez was back in Cuba for more cancer surgery, his fourth, but he's not blaming the U.S. just yet.  And just to lend support, one of  the Venezuelan president's best buddies- lefty actor Sean Penn- popped over to Bolivia (another lefty-led country) to participate in a candlelight vigil for poor ailing Chavez.

Chavistas along with Bolivian officials and the Venezuelan ambassador to La Paz, Crisbeylee Gonzalez, gathered at some diplomatic venue and were delighted to have Sean Penn show up wearing his snazzy Venezuelan flag jacket.

“Thank you, Sean,” said Gonzalez, “for joining us and for wanting to be here. We know President Chavez is a good friend of yours, and you didn’t hesitate one second about coming here with us to this vigil."

Sean Penn gushed:

“He’s one of the most important forces we’ve had on this planet." “And I’ll wish him nothing but that great strength he has shown over and over again. I do it in love, and I do it in gratitude.

“I just want to say, from my very American point of view, of my friend President Chavez: It is only possible to be so inspiring as he is, as a two-way street. And he would say that his inspiration is the people.”

Inspiring and one of the most important forces on this planet?  Whatever.

Okay, so Penn didn't fly to La Paz exclusively for the vigil, he was there for Jacob Ostreicher, an American capitalist entrepreneur who has been in jail (without a trial) for 18 months for money laundering, a charge he claims he's innocent of. The bizarre story reads like a movie, which is probably why Penn attended the release hearing. It's still odd, since Ostreicher is definitely a capitalist and Penn's sympathies obviously run decidedly left.

So why does Chavez fly to Cuba for all his medical work?  Isn't the medical care in his socialist country good enough? It should be.

Anti-Government Protests in Leftist Argentina

The love affair with the Latin leftist/socialist populist movement is starting to crumble, at least in Argentina. Thousands of people took to the streets of Buenos Aires pissed off at everything from crime, corruption, high inflation, and the possibility that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner will dump the constitutional term limits to keep herself in power. After all, Hugo Chavez managed to do that, why couldn't she?

Though the actual number of anti-government protesters in Buenos Aires (which included children and seniors) varied greatly depending on who you were talking to, there were at least 30,000 people and there could have been as many as hundreds of thousands.

Organized via social media, the throngs banged pots (typical of the Latin culture) and chanted "We're not afraid," probably a throwback to the days when political opponents simply 'disappeared.' They also carried banners with "Stop the wave of Argentinians killed by crime, enough with corruption and say no to constitutional reform."

One of the major problems facing Argentinians is a huge increase in violent crime that the government seems  powerless to contain.

Newspapers and television programmes provide a daily diet of stories about increasingly bold home robberies, in which armed bands tie up families until victims hand over the cash that many Argentinians have kept at home since the government froze savings accounts and devalued the currency in 2002. The vast majority of the crimes are never solved, while the death toll is rising.

As for inflation:

Inflation also upsets many. The government's much-criticised index puts annual inflation at about 10%, but private economists say prices are rising about three times faster than that. Real estate transactions have slowed to a standstill because of the difficulty in estimating future values, and unions that won 25% pay rises only a few months ago are threatening to strike again unless the government comes up with more.

Kirchner won re-election by 54%, but her disapproval rating dipped to 31% in a poll taken this past September. So it's interesting to note that although Argentinians voted to give her another term, they have suddenly become disenchanted. One 74, year-old Marta Morosini said,

"I came to protest everything that I don't like about this government and I don't like a single thing starting with [the president's] arrogance. They're killing policemen like dogs, and the president doesn't even open her mouth. This government is just a bunch of hooligans and corrupters."

Besides the capital, there were protests across the country as well as overseas. In Madrid, Spain, one 40-year-old Argentinian expat, Marcelo Gimenez,  said:

"In Argentina, there's no separation of power and it cannot be considered a democracy. Cristina is not respecting the constitution. The presidency is not a blank cheque and she must govern for those who are for her and against her."

Apparently there were several smaller protests this year that were easy to dismiss, but not this time. In defense of Fernández Kirchner, supporters blamed it on the rich, though she herself did not comment on the demonstrations. However, she did defend her policies, claiming:

... they helped rescue Argentina from its worst economic crisis a decade ago and kept it afloat during the 2009 world financial downturn.

"During boom times it's easy to run a country but try running when it's crumbling down," Fernández said, while urging Argentinians to support her and pledging never to give up as her late husband had taught her.

"Never let go, not even in the worst moments," she said. "Because it's in the worst moments when the true colours of a leader of a country comes out."

Granted, they were in pretty bad shape, always have been, but whatever she was doing is obviously not working anymore, if it ever worked to begin with.  But someone voted for her, just like they did here.  It's not a far stretch to imagine what's going to happen when all the "gimmes" in this country suddenly no longer have all the freebies they are accustomed to because our government ran out of money.  We could have very scary times ahead for us.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Claims HIV Created By West To Weaken Third World

Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the fruit loop over in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, are two peas in a pod- they're both delusional. Maybe that's why they're best buds. Chavez is a tad more prolific when it comes to absurdities, but Mahmoud has come out with some equally good ones.  Take his latest claims that the West is behind the HIV virus.

"Today there is this outstanding question that why so many killer viruses, including the HIV virus, have spread all over the world. Many so-called experts say the spread has come as a result of vices and immoralities but we see that in the centre of the places that these viruses have emerged these immoral acts have not been reported." "Then how is it that at the same time in some African countries they find these viruses?

"It is obvious that the African countries must be plundered of their wealth and resources. The major powers and despots are behind the development of these diseases so they could then sell their drugs and medical equipment to the poor countries".

Huh?  What wealth and resources?

I guess he didn't get the memo that the bulk of African countries are piss-poor, and that HIV started in monkeys in Africa and was probably transmitted to humans not through "immoral acts" but rather through consumption of diseased meat.

But a conspiracy theory is far more exotic to Mahmoud and Chavez than the truth. After all, Chavez was busy entertaining the notion that the U.S. gave him, Argentina's Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and several other Latin leaders the big "C".  It turns out, however, that Cristina didn't have cancer after all. 

Mahmoud also believes 9/11 was an inside job (though there are plenty of loonies in this country who agree with him:

"Some segments within the American government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy, and its grips on the Middle East, in order to save the Zionist regime," he said.

Ha. That's a good one, since our economy is doing so well, Mahmoud!

Then there's also the fact that he's a holocaust denier, and claims they have no homosexuals in Iran. Of course, that's just wishful thinking on his part.  If Mahmoud wasn't so dangerous, he'd be funny.

Hey Chavez, Argentina's President Never Had Cancer!

The good news for Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is the surgery to remove her cancerous thyroid gland went swimmingly on January 4.  The bad news- it wasn't cancerous after all.

According to Eduardo Faure (thyroid cancer specialist, but not Kirchner's doctor) the papillary carcinoma diagnosis was a 'false positive', which can happen occasionally:

"The cells may originally appear to be cancer but in 2 percent of cases, after the operation, when a more thorough examination can be performed, it turns out they are not," the doctor said in an interview.

I'm glad it turned out that Fernandez de Kirchner never had cancer, and I'm sure so is she, but I'd be pretty pissed off if some misinformed doctors had removed my thyroid for no compelling reason, especially in light of the fact that the effects of being thyroid-less are not much fun. As expected the Argentine people are also pretty darn ecstatic that the popular lefty leader never had cancer. News of her upgraded  'cancer-free' diagnosis, by spokesman Alfredo Scoccimaro, was greeted with great jubilation by some fans who had kept vigil by the hospital throughout her ordeal.

But I have to wonder how idiot-boy Hugo Chavez feels about this new 'no cancer for Kirchner' status update. I wonder if he's bummed out. After all, Chavez was convinced that the U.S. was probably behind the rash of cancerous diseases besetting so many Latin leftist leaders, including his own and Kirchner's. Now he has to scratch one off his list.  I'd like to think he was alone in his lunatic thinking, but there are many equally delusional folk (see comments) who also entertained the notion that the U.S. has nothing better to do than give people cancer.  If that's the case, Ahmadinejad and others would be long gone.

Hugo Chavez Thinks The U.S. Gave Him and Other Lefty Latin Leaders Cancer

The always laughable Hugo Chavez, has come out with another doozy. This time, the loco Venezuelan President said he thinks that the U.S. might have given him, along with several other lefty Latin leaders, the big "C".  Yes, somehow the U.S. spread some cancer-inducing mojo their way, and voila.  Apparently, these thoughts came to him after he heard Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has thyroid cancer.

“It’s very difficult to explain, even with the law of probabilities, what has been happening to some of us in Latin America,” Chavez said in a nationally televised speech to the military. “Would it be so strange that they’ve invented technology to spread cancer and we won’t know about it for 50 years?”

Now he wants a powwow with others who have had cancer, to compare notes. That would include Fernando Lugo (Paraguay) and Luiz Inacio Da Silva and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil. He also told other lefties to watch their backs:

“I’m just sharing my thoughts, but it’s very, very, very strange,” Chavez said. “Evo take care of yourself, Correa, be careful, we just don’t know,” he said, referring to Evo Morales and Rafael Correa, the leaders of Bolivia and Ecuador.

He also shared some advice that his commie buddy Fidel Castro gave him:

“Fidel always tells me, ‘Chavez be careful, they’ve developed technology, be careful with what you eat, they could stick you with a small needle,’” the Venezuelan leader said today. “In any case, I’m not accusing anyone, I’m just using my freedoms to reflect and issue comments on very strange events that are hard to explain.”

But Chavez has always been uber-paranoid and bizarre. He's convinced the U.S. is planning on invading Venezuela, although he shares those delusional beliefs with many others.  An article posted on Venezuelanalysis.com back in 2007 claimed that an invasion of Venezuela was imminent. Let's see-  it's been 4 years hence, and nada. In 2009, there was another article on this blog talking about a planned invasion by the U.S. through Colombia, and 2 years later- nada. Then in 2010 on the blog 'Postcards From The Revolution', award winning journalist Eva Golinger who is currently residing in what she terms "a country with a vibrant democracy and the largest oil reserves in the world"  [that would be Venezuela she's referring to] also talks about that invasion. I'm still waiting. But what's even more stupefying is that seemingly intelligent people actually buy into what he says.  Just take a look at the comments on Eva's blog and you'll see what I mean.  Pretty darn strange.

But I still think that the most laugh-inducing Chavez comment was when he claimed that capitalism killed the Martians.

I think I might actually miss him when he's gone.

U.N. Resolution On Human Rights In Iran Asks For "Unfettered Access"

The following members of the U.N. General Assembly's Third  Committee (dealing with Human Rights):

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta,
Micronesia (Federated States of), Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Palau, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America

passed a resolution with a 6 page bucket list of concerns regarding Iran's abysmal stance on human rights, and asking Iran to:

to positively avail itself of the opportunity to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur and other international human rights mechanisms, including by allowing the Special Rapporteur unfettered access to the country to carry out his mandate.

The resolution passed with 86 "yes" votes, 32 "no" votes, and 59  "abstentions".  According to the United For Iran website, the resolution gained some new votes from countries that abstained or voted no in the past, including Tunisia (surprisingly), Libya (surprisingly),  Central African Republic, Colombia, Haiti, South Korea, Haiti, Malawi, Senegal, Seychelles and Tanzania.

Among those voting "no", not surprisingly, were China, Russia; communist countries like Myanmar (Burma) and Vietnam;  all the leftist Latin countries including Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba and Nicaragua; most if not all of the 'istan" countries like Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. And, of course, most of the Muslim majority countries either voted  no or abstained. I was very surprised, however, that India actually voted no, but perhaps that's because of their contentious neighbour Pakistan.

Of course, why the U.N. even bothers drafting resolutions for countries that have no intention of complying is another issue. Iran is not going to let the Special Rapporteur, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, have 'unfettered access' to the country, and they're certainly not going to change their ways simply because the U.N. "urges" or "asks" them to. It's incredibly naive to think so. The only chance for change in that country, is when (if ever) the Mullahs and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are laid to rest or in exile somewhere far away.

For a list of how each country voted, click here.

Wikileaks Cable- The American Airlines Crew And "Loco" Hugo Chavez

Although I firmly believe what Wikileaks is doing is, for the most part, a criminal act rather than a freedom of speech issue (but that's a topic for another post), some of the less potentially harmful information that has emerged has been rather bizarre. Take what happened at the airport in Caracas, Venezuela several years ago, when the captain and crew of American Airlines flight 903 were briefly held by Venezuelan authorities because of what amounted to the language barrier. According to a confidential, classified 2008 cable from the US Embassy in Caracas, the captain and flight crew had been detained because of the following announcement by one crew member:

"Welcome to Venezuela. Local Chavez time is ..."

If you remember, back in 2007, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, decided to arbitrarily create his own personal time-zone by permanently turning the clock back a half hour; simply because he could. And, as those of us who travel by air well know, passengers are always informed of the local time upon arrival at our destination. However, according to the cable, one Chavez groupie passenger, Nestor Maldonado Lanza, thought he heard "loco" instead of "local". For those of you who might not know Spanish, "loco" means crazy, which (ironically) Chavez is, but that's beside the point. Incensed at this perceived insult, Lanza immediately told National Assemblyman Carlos Echezuria Rodriguez (who was waiting for him at the airport) about these terrible Americans who had called his beloved Presidente "loco". The Deputy, in turn, called Vice President Carrizales, and from there it almost spiralled out of control- all because of one misinterpreted word.

Omar Nottaro, American Airlines Country Manager, managed to extricate the crew from what could have turned into an international incident, by some deft diplomacy which included apologies to various entities and off they went. Frankly, there should have been no need for apologies but when you are dealing with people like Chavez (who is clearly not in his right mind) and his minions, it's best to placate.

And apparently it wasn't an isolated incident- the cable also briefly mentions a Delta flight that had similar problems in Caracas.

Bolivian Nurses Forced to Wear Hijab At Inauguration of Iran-funded Hospital

The raunchy love affair between lefty Latin and South American leaders and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues unabashedly with Iran's funding of a medical center in Bolivia, at the cost of 1.2 million dollars. 2 more hospitals have been promised.

In the meantime, the female nurses were forced to wear the Islamic hijab and cover themselves from head to toe at the inauguration of the Hospital República Islámica de Irán (Islamic Republic of Iran Hospital) in El Alto on November 24, where Evo and Mahmoud attended via teleconference. Causing an uproar, the minister of Health, Ramiro Tapia, assured everyone that things would go back to normal once the hospital was officially handed over at the beginning of December. Apparently, the Red Crescent (the Islamic version of the Red Cross) is handling administrative duties, so it wasn't a question of forcing Islamic dress on the nurses, but rather the uniform of the red Crescent. At least that's what Iranian Embassy officials said. Frankly, it's the same thing. They're both Islamic attire being forced on non-Muslims, in a foreign non-Islamic country. The article on LosTiempos.com doesn't specify whether they will continue to administrate or not, but in another article a source, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, claims that wearing the hijab is a requirement (for both doctors and nurses) for being hired. The women have no choice, if they need the job. Administrative director, Pou Mount, explained that using the veil as part of the uniform was simply "a little piece of Iran in Bolivia".

Another source Semanario Verdad Latinoamericano also references the issue, but doesn't go into much detail, mentioning nothing about going back to business as usual. I'm not sure anyone knows for sure whether the forced wearing of hijab will be permanent or not. It appears to be, since being hired is predicated on accepting the rules, one of which is wearing a hijab.

I guess that's what happens when you make a deal with the devil.

H/T Fausta's Blog