Venezuela's Chavez says coup attempt would fail

[Bacchus39]

Source: AP


CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is looking to 2010 facing a recession, trying to prevent widespread power outages, and warning his opponents against a coup attempt. Chavez said in a televised speech Wednesday that any action like the failed military rebellion against him in 2002 wouldn't have a chance.

"If something like that occurs to you, our counterattack is going to be firm. I'm warning you," Chavez said.

The leftist leader, who has consolidated power in the years since the short-lived 2002 coup, said if opponents wanted to try again "they'd have to import an armed force."

Chavez was responding to a prediction by Newsweek magazine, which listed a coup in Venezuela among its world predictions for 2010. It also predicted Chavez's friend and mentor Fidel Castro would die.




Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091231/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_venezuela_chavez

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sounds like a Republican:

As for President Barack Obama, Chavez said: "This year we've witnessed the falling apart of Obama. Obama fell to pieces. Well, there wasn't much hope really."

[David__77]

1. Chavez is 100% right.

The people are far better prepared and equipped to deal with a coup than in 2002. They would be smashed to pieces.

As for Obama, it is true that escalation of war against the people of Afghanistan is a serious strategic error, as is the excusing of the fascist coup in Honduras. There is a price to pay for these things.

[AlphaCentauri]

2. It did happen before what would stop them from trying again n/t

[Bacchus39]

3. he seems worried doesn't he? n/t

s

[Flaneur]

4. It's silly to tar all critics of Obama as Republican-like.

Especially so in this case.

[HuckleB]

5. Anyone who greets a thug like Ahmedinejad with open arms seems most Republican-like, IMO.

[Peace Patriot]

6. How many people has Iran's government killed, and how many people has the U.S. government killed,

over the last year?

You'd better be careful what kind of behavior you call thuggish--or you might have to conclude that Obama is a thug.

And, just for the record, how many people has the Chavez government killed?

---------------------

I wonder, too, what you think of the Colombian military and its closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads, which, according to Amnesty International, are responsible for 92% of the murders of thousands of union leaders in Colombia. Thugs? Then why is the U.S. government fawning all over these thugs and slipping them $6 BILLION of our hard-earned tax dollars to keep slaughtering union leaders, peasant farmers, human rights workers, teachers, journalists, protestors, political leftists and anybody who gets in their way?

If the U.S. has the sovereign right to make alliances with anyone the government damn pleases--the thugs running Colombia, the sheiks of araby and their "absolute monarchs," the drug lords of Afghanistan, the shooters and beheaders of anti-coup protestors in Honduras--Venezuela ALSO HAS that sovereign right. You are being highly selective about alliances you disapprove of and "thugs" you revile.

[HuckleB]

10. Nice red herrings you got there.

Since you live in a world that doesn't exist, I'm not going to waste my time pointing out the obvious.

[bloomington-lib]

9. +1 I meant this reply for Huckle above you.

[Peace Patriot]

7. The Associated Pukes are at it again...

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is looking to 2010 facing a recession..."

What government on the planet is NOT "facing a recession" from the Bushwhack Financial 9/11? Venezuela is coming off five years of sizzling economic growth--a 10% economic growth rate, with the most growth in the private sector (not including oil). The Chavez government presided over this astonishing growth while fully funding many new social programs AND while socking away $43 billion in international cash reserves, which gives the government maximum flexibility in negotiating the Bush-caused depression that spread worldwide. Venezuela and its allies have landed on their feet in this goddamn, predatory capitalist disaster, BECAUSE they rejected the dictates of the World Bank/IMF, U.S. banksters and Rupert Murdoch.

"...trying to prevent widespread power outages...".

So is Arnold Schwarzenegger. But Venezuela's power outages are not the result of corporate privatization, looting and mismanagement. They are entirely the result of a drought. Australia has far, FAR worse environmental problems from climate destabilization. How come the Pukes aren't predicting a coup there?

"The leftist leader, who has consolidated power in the years since the short-lived 2002 coup...".

You ever hear them describe Bush this way: "The rightwing leader, who has consolidated power in the years since his first stolen election..."? (Or, better: "The idiot son of vast wealth, whose handlers ripped up the U.S. Constitution, tortured thousands of prisoners and slaughtered a hundred thousand innocent people to steal their oil"?) Nope. We never even got "rightwing" as a description of Bush, let alone "idiot" scofflaw.

Chavez has been ELECTED, twice, by the people of Venezuela--three times, if you count the USAID-funded recall election in 2004--by ever increasing margins, in one of the most fair and transparent election systems in the western hemisphere. To say that he has "consolidated power" is to imply that the powers of the president are not rightfully his. It is intended to feed the wholly false impression that Chavez is a "dictator." Chavez was GRANTED power, by the people, because they APPROVE OF his policies. He and his government have scrupulously adhered to the Venezuelan Constitution and the rule of law. They are exercising lawful, rightful power, and their stabilization and strengthening of Venezuela's democracy, so that the fascists in Venezuela and their paymasters at the CIA cannot easily overthrow it again, is to be lauded, not spit upon as mere "consolidation of power."

FDR "consolidated" his power over four terms in office--but is that an appropriate main description of either FDR or lawful power? (FDR, "the leftist leader, who consolidated power in the years since the rightwing fucked the economy...".?)

This is why I have special names for these corpo-fascist 'news' monopolies: The Associate Pukes. The Wall Street Urinal. The New York Slimes. The Miami Hairball. They are filthy, dirtbag, warmongering liars and a disgrace to journalism.

[era veteran]

8. Hugo is a thug

Stalin used the phrase "Useful fools", fellow travelers. It amazes me the Chavez worshippers on DU. Go and visit and see for yourself. He is a communist not a socialist.

[bitchkitty]

11. As always, Chavez is correct.

As far as the "sounds like a Republican" bit, well...you'd know, wouldn't you?