Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Hugo and Fidel

Peter Huessy:

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela wants to build a new empire.

The new strongman of South America hopes to re-establish a new Gran Colombia -- including Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama -- an oil-rich colossus astride a key global trade route and access to the Panama Canal.

Chávez has adopted the repressive practices of his friend Fidel Castro: Civil society has been strangled, the churches have been cowed, teachers cannot speak freely and private business has been decimated. He has taken over foreign-exchange institutions, established neighborhood-watch committees with spies and sacked the best of the military.

Billions in oil revenue have disappeared, even as poverty levels have increased from 44 percent to 54 percent of the population during Chávez's misrule. Twenty-seven thousand Cubans have been imported to, in part, spy and do his dirty work, even as some of them masquerade as doctors or teachers.

In return 80,000 barrels of oil per day -- 29 million barrels of oil per year -- are sent to Cuba with no prospect for payment. Already, Cuba owes Venezuela $1 billion.

Even while furnishing the oppressive Castro regime with free oil, the official unemployment rate in Venezuela exceeds 16 percent, a nearly 50 percent increase since 1998. The number of private industries has dropped from more than 11,000 to 5,000. And public debt has risen from $27 billion to $44 billion.

Chávez has kept his disastrous economic policies partly afloat by his mass distribution of free beer to the poor amid the slums of Caracas and elsewhere.

Chávez has assumed control over the state-owned oil industry, PDVSA, while firing 7,000 staff and top management, resulting in peak production being 1 million barrels less than capacity as what used to be one of the best-run oil industries in the world has sharply deteriorated.

This is a problem we are going to have to deal with in the next few years or sooner. While many people beat up on the Saudi Royal family, they are just backing some religious nuts in a deal witht he devil. Hugo is the real thing and his intentions are clear, He is an enemy with few pretensions of friendship.