Venezuela Protests Go On, Referendum Prospects Fade
Sunday, he called President Bush an “a–hole.”
He also threatened to cut off oil supplies to the United States if it tries to invade or blockade Venezuela, which is its fourth-largest oil supplier.
Chavez’s comments and the violence helped push oil prices to their highest level since shortly before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last year. U.S. crude touched $36.45 a barrel.
U.S. officials routinely dismiss his accusations as bluster.
The invalidation of forged signatures is apparently behind the latest opposition protests and their decision to denounce the referendum process altogether.
But as Ron Smith points out in What’s Really Happening in Venezuela? is the reality they’ve realised a referendum would not give them the results they seek?
If so, they should be nothing if not energised by recent events in Haiti.
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, in reaction to Aristide fleeing the country [which today has degenerated into a U.S. official version of events], was quoted by NPR radio as saying “Haiti has turned a new page.”
I’d say the real story has yet to be revealed and Negroponte would be the last person I’d turn to for an honest let alone accurate quote.