Chavez: Left tilt threat to empire

[How many people around the world can be labeled “Adolph Hitlers” by the Empire? Was the movie “The Boys From Brazil” non-fiction? What does that do to the psychological cash-value of the Hitler label? Why, as the Iranian dispute gets ratcheted up another notch, does the US choose to bite off another rhetorical chunk in another part of the world? There’s a combination of factors at play here. First, many nationalist leaders like Chavez, Evo Morales, Fidel Castro and to a lesser extent Lula of Brazil clearly see that the US is over-extended. They are pushing more chips into the pot and raising bets. It costs them nothing. It’s rope-a-dope in action. Similarly, in diplomatic circles, the US cannot afford to be perceived as reducing its bellicosity in other regions to “fund” its campaign against Ahmadinejad. To a large extent many heads of state are waiting for the moment when the US is “all-in” elsewhere to make the prudent moves necessary to restore their respective nations’ self sustainability as Peak Oil hits home and thus declare real independence.

The Iranian oil bourse slated to open next month is the doorway to world liberation from dollar hegemony.

No one in their right mind believes or is arguing that the already-stretched Pentagon could fight even “low-intensity” conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, West Africa (the departure of US Marines to Nigeria has been delayed once but is still slated), Iran and Latin America.

There’s one thing that the dispute over Iranian nuclear enrichment and research is certain to do: it will force almost every nation in the world to take sides. Germany’s new Chancellor Angela Merkel has clearly moved Germany into the US camp, at least on the surface. In the meantime Britain will play a much smaller role because of its almost unparalleled energy vulnerability. China and Russia are eager to have the Iranian issue reach the Security Council. It is there that their unilateral vetoes come into play.

In the meantime Hugo Chavez continues to do what the US government should be doing, preparing his country for sustainability during the transition from an oil-based civilization to a post-petroleum world. – MCR]

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HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, receiving a U.N. prize handed over by Fidel Castro on Friday, said Washington was right to be concerned by Latin America's tilt to the left because it represented a threat to the U.S. "empire."

Chavez was visiting Havana amid an intensifying propaganda war between Washington and Latin America's leftist leaders.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld compared Chavez to Adolf Hitler and warned darkly Thursday about populist leadership in Bolivia and Cuba.

"They are right to be worried, because they know what's happening here," Chavez said in a speech lasting more than 21/2 hours after accepting his prize.

"They will forever try to preserve the U.S. empire by all means, while we will do everything possible to shred it."

Some 200,000 Cubans crowded Revolution Plaza for Friday night's ceremony granting Chavez UNESCO's 2005 Jose Marti International Prize. Cuban President Castro himself handed over the framed certificate to Chavez, a close ally.

The forum gave Castro and Chavez a chance to pat each other on the back and promote regional solidarity while bashing the U.S. government.

Thousands of young Venezuelans, Bolivians and other Latin Americans studying medicine for free in Cuba attended the ceremony, screaming their support for both leaders.

Marti, who died in 1895 during Cuba's war of independence with Spain, has been glorified in Cuba as the ultimate anti-imperialist, a label both Chavez and Castro have embraced for themselves in their struggles with the United States.

Far from seeing them as regional heroes, the Bush administration considers the men to be populists who threaten democracy and individual rights.

Rumsfeld expressed the same fears about Bolivia's new leftist president, Evo Morales, during a National Press Club appearance Thursday.

"We've seen some populist leadership appealing to masses of people in those countries. And elections like Evo Morales in Bolivia take place that clearly are worrisome," Rumsfeld said.

"I mean, we've got Chavez in Venezuela with a lot of oil money. He's a person who was elected legally -- just as Adolf Hitler was elected legally -- and then consolidated power and now is, of course, working closely with Fidel Castro and Mr. Morales and others."

"Let the dogs of the empire bark, that's their job," he said. "Ours is to battle to achieve the true liberation of our people."

Castro also rejected Rumsfeld's comments, defending populism in his hour-long speech before Chavez took to the podium.

"Populist leaders are those who concern themselves with their people, with health, with education," said the Cuban leader.

"More dangerous are those who possess dozens of thousands of nuclear weapons," added Castro, referring to the U.S. government.

Earlier in the day, Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel also hit back, calling President Bush "the North American Hitler" and comparing his administration to the Third Reich.

The Marti prize was created by UNESCO in 1994 on the initiative of Cuba to recognize an individual or institution contributing to the unity and integration of countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

It is awarded by UNESCO on the recommendation of a seven-member international jury that includes Nadine Gordimer, the South African winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Earlier recipients of the $5,000 prize include the Mexican sociologist Pablo Gonzalez Casanova and the Ecuadorean painter Oswaldo Guayasamin.

The Cuban government finances the prize, but does not always host the awards ceremony.

Marti is a hero both for Cubans on the island and exiles living overseas. The politician and poet himself spent 15 years in exile in New York, where he is honored by a statue at the entrance to Central Park.

The United States is expelling a Venezuelan diplomat after the Caracas government Thursday ordered an American naval attaché to depart for alleged spying. The State Department said it acted reluctantly and still hopes to be able to work with Venezuelan authorities.

The State Department has declared a Venezuelan diplomat persona non grata and given her 72 hours to leave in retaliation for the expulsion a day earlier of a U.S. naval attaché on what officials here say are unjustified spy charges.

The Venezuelan diplomat, identified as Jeny Figueredo Frias, holds the rank of counselor and was serving as chief of staff to the Venezuelan ambassador.

State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack did not accuse Figueredo of any wrongdoing and did not explain why she was designated for expulsion other than to say she was the "most appropriate" choice.

McCormack said the United States does not like to engage in what he termed "tit-for-tat diplomatic games," but said that Venezuela initiated the action and U.S. officials were forced to respond.

On Thursday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his government was expelling a U.S. Naval attaché, Commander John Correa, for allegedly passing secret military information from Venezuelan military officers to the Pentagon.

The State Department said the expulsion was not justified and that none of the military attaches at the U.S. embassy in Caracas was or is involved in inappropriate activities.

The twin expulsions underline the increasingly tense U.S. relationship with the government of Mr. Chavez, whom administration officials accuse of running Venezuela with an increasingly authoritarian hand.

Briefing reporters, spokesman McCormack said the United States has concerns about some Venezuelan activities in the Hemisphere and believes Mr. Chavez has governed in a non-democratic way. Yet he said the United States still stands ready to work with Venezuela on a number of issues, including fighting the regional drug trade.

"We're not going to stop speaking out about our concerns," he said. "That said, we will also pursue a course of working closely with the government of Venezuela where we can on issues of mutual concern. You pointed out the anti-narcotics agreement. This is certainly an area where we have in the past had excellent cooperation and a good relationship with the government of Venezuela, and we hope that kind of cooperation would continue in the future."

There was also a conciliatory note Friday from Caracas, where Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said that while relations with Washington were complicated and difficult, his government would not allow the dispute to get out of hand.

Mr. Chavez, a left-leaning populist with close ties with Cuban President Fidel Castro, has accused the United States of among other things fomenting a recall campaign against him two years ago, and of backing a military uprising that briefly ousted him in 2002.

Washington has denied both assertions. The United States has recently moved to block foreign arms acquisitions by Mr. Chavez, but the two countries remain major trading partners, with Venezuela supplying about 15 percent of oil imported by the United States.

[Less than a week after the preposterous energy message in the State of the Union Address, a Republican congressman (Roscoe Bartlett) and the world’s largest oil company have basically said that George W. Bush is full of it. What’s significant is that these are his “base.” Bush comes from oil. These reactions are tremendous signs that the Peak Oil movement has made enormous strides. We didn’t have to dissect the State of the Union, others did it for us. I think that’s because they realize how many people are getting wise. These are grounds for celebration as we pack our computers, homes and office and head for Oregon. – MCR]

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The United States will always rely on foreign imports of oil to feed its energy needs and should stop trying to become energy independent, a top Exxon Mobil Corp. executive said on Tuesday.

"Realistically, it is simply not feasible in any time period relevant to our discussion today," Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Stuart McGill said, referring to what he called the "misperception" that the United States can achieve energy independence.

The comments, in a speech at an energy conference in Houston, come a few days after U.S. President George W. Bush declared America was addicted to Middle Eastern oil and promised to help the country kick the habit.

Many in the United States believe America should wean itself off oil imports from the Middle East, fearing it makes the country dangerously dependent on an unstable region.

The world's largest publicly traded oil company, however, says hoping to end foreign oil imports is not only a bad idea, but also impossible.

"Americans depend upon imports to fill the gap," McGill said. "No combination of conservation measures, alternative energy sources and technological advances could realistically and economically provide a way to completely replace those imports in the short or medium term."

Instead of trying to achieve energy independence, importing nations like the U.S. should be promoting energy interdependence, McGill said.

"Because we are all contributing to and drawing from the same pool of oil, all nations -- exporting and importing -- are inextricably bound to one another in the energy marketplace," he said.