There is little doubt that Chavez is taking Castro’s lessons to heart.  Castro has survived at our doorstep for forty years with an atrocious embargo despite our many attempts to kill him and bring Cuba back to Batista days.  That our extreme right wing policies forced Castro to the extreme left in defense is no mistery.  And he didn’t even have oil. 

Ask Chavez how many times we’ve tried to kill or depose him to let our oil companies continue to steal oil riches from his impoverished country, like we are doing in Iraq.  The question is not whether Chavez’s consolidation of power is a good move or not.  The question may be that it’s the only move the neocons may have left him in their ongoing well funded secret war against him and the vast majority that elected him.  A war run by our secret services and organizations like the ludicrously named National Endowment for Democracy that seeks to depose him, a popular democratically elected leader.

I love Chavez the man is taking a stand against a country that had tens of thousands of young and old American men murdered for what trying to stop a nation from being communist ,they had no problems before the French went in there stealing there Rice causing millions to be on the brink of Starvation .The french wanted there stolen nation back so the U.S went in for the sake of Democraccy.The U.S is the most communist country around .Every thing is being read that you type .Your personal emails ,etc.In some states even when you try on clothes in a Wal-Mart.When you go to the Airport the might as well tell you to spread and cough.The U.S follows a man that lies like his Father no more taxes.The county is built on Lies ,Destruction ,Corruption,it is Babylon ,which will be destroyed .The U.S is only after oil.Bin Laden is probably some CIA agent that the goverment put a turban on and taught him a few Arabic words.People have no idea how much support Chavez has .See we are looking from the outside they are looking from inside ,we a given alot of false bull crap from the news.Chavez has been threatened by invasion and ,etc,no dictator should but up with that.Personally I hope they hang Bush .In Front of the Venzsuela Goverment building.He sent American men and women to die in a no win situation in a war that is so dangerous that the Chinese the Russians are laughing at Americans like Donkeys with sense

EZ you are right in applying the equal-opposite meaphor
however the tilt to the left in the south was brought about by US policy that treated it like a plantation. Overthrowing democracies, murdering people over their politics, theft of resources plus every dirty trick that the CIA could come up with. Now thw US is protecting at this very moment the terrorists that bombed a Cuban airliner, killing 73. Terrorists for the US are protected.
Orlando Bosch was pardoned by the first Bush and Posada Corrilles (sic) has still not been extradited from the US to pay for this crime.
What comes around..... You can expect more of this as the whole world begins to realise what the US is really about and that is GREED.
BTW in the first Bush’s election the CIA funneled money (abt $200,000 as I recall) through the Cuban American National Foundation into Bush’s
election campaign. They treated it as another S. American election, theirs to corrupt.
Who calls that democracy? Why wasn’t it investigated or even reported in the media. In the 60’s and 70’s many American reporters were on the CIA payroll. Why? Are they still? That’s freedom of the press American style.
Rabbit

I am deeply bothered by this.

In the past, I have been generally approving of Chavez’s democratic actions, as I read them in the internation press; however, this “rule by decree” seems to be antithetical to the sort of democratic governance that I thought Chavez was enacting. If the National Assembly is indeed dominated by his supporters, who (one might assume) generally agree with his policies, goals, and desire to bring them to fruition, then why is it necessary (or even tolerated) to bypass open, informed, productive, multiple-viewpoint democratic debate amongst the duly-elected represenatives of the very people in whose name Chavez governs?

Headless Hessian:

I agree that Venezuela is headed for a very slippery slope. 

However, there is a difference between socialism and communist totalitarianism.  Canada, Netherlands, Finland, Sweeden, Norway would be examples of successful socialist nations.  They know how to balance the interests and benefits of social programs with commercial enterprise.  Although it’s not an absolute truth, totalitarian communism has historically been used as a subterfuge to consolidate power.  Understand that democracy, socialism and communism aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.

One more thing, be careful who you send to hell.  You may run into them later. 

Latin America’s swing to the left, equal in intensity to our swing to the right, shows that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

I’m intrigued by the lack of editorializing by the truthdig poster. If it’s an article or post on O’Reilly or Limbaugh or Bush or almost anyone else, you get commentary. But this is simply repeating the original BBC report.

I’d be interested in seeing commentary on WHY the poster put this up. Why is it interesting? Why is it needful to be sent to RSS?

If Mad King George hadn’t made SUCH a mess of it, we would be in a position to actual pressure Chavez and his neighbors to back off.

This guy is doing to Venezuela what Bush is doing to the US, only he’s several steps ahead and claims to be “Socialist”.  He looks like just another Juan Peron, and may yet turn into a Somoza.  And since Bush is doing it to us, there’s no high moral ground for America to stand on and condemn Chavez’s fascistic actions.

Again, in foreign affairs, the unintended consequences of Bush’s absurd policies smack us in the face.

And, of course, since Bush, Bush and Reagan made CERTAIN we never came near being independent of either oil or foreign oil, we can’t easily starve him out--we need his oil.

Following in Castros footsteps.  Dubyah is trying it, but the Dem. congress is now putting a stop to it.
I hope Venezolanos realize what they are up against.  They will have nothing but misery.  The big difference here is that Venezuela has oil..and with that comes $$$$$$$$$$$ and power.  Castro lost all of that when the USSR went woooosh..down the old toilet!

Folks...anytime you see RED as in flags, armbands, headdress etc...be very cautious..that is usually commi!  Commi will take away what you have, no matter how honest or lack there of, you might have acquired it.  Been there, suffered through it.. and is SUCKS!  Big Time.  BTW anyone going to reply that Commi is good, 1) go live in it first for a long time like the rest of your life.  2) Go to hell!  Which is where you will be if you follow #1

Headless

I’ll bet George W. Bush is jealous as hell!

While I think that rule by decree is a bad idea, nationalization (in some cases re-nationalization) will be a good thing for Venezuela. I support Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution but given his overwhelming support, I do not think he needed this ability to rule by decree even for a limited time.