Between One Socialist and Another?

Preident Obama is extending an arm of friendship toward Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas. The two have discussed resuming diplomatic relations which were severed last September by the Bush administration. Chavez was even nice enough to offer Obama a book. It's title: Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. The author, Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano, blames countries like the US for exploitng Latin America. Obama said that the book was "a nice gesture." This is akin to if Khruschev offered Kennedy a copy of Das Kapital at the Vienna Conference and Kennedy referred to it as a "nice gesture." I would humbly suggest to writers such as Galeano that the notoriously corrupt and irresponsible governments (such as Chavez's) that have misruled Latin America for over two centuries are the real exploiters. Obama claims that his warm exchanges with Chavez are part of his campaign to "reach out to" America's enemies (the assumption being that it is the fault of America that they are our enemies). I would like to point out to Mr. Obama that Chavez has currently undermined the democratic process in Venezuela by changing the constitution, albeit by plebecite, so that he can become president for life. Chavez has also accused a Venezuelan opposition leader of trumped up charges of fraud. Economists also believe that Chavez may be driving his country toward fiscal ruining. He has relied on socialist programs to gain much support from the populace but with oil prices at $40 a barrel and the Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA running what is believed to be severe defecits by some, Chavez could be cooking a recipe for ruin. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden has said: "Here's a case where I would watch for behavior, not for rhetoric, and the behavior of President Chavez over the past years has been downright horrendous -- both internationally and with regard to what he's done internally inside Venezuela,"

So why is Obama courting this would socialist dictator? Apart from the fact that Chavez and Obama's fiscal and economic policies are alike in many aspects, it would be good to remember Venezuela has lots of oil. In Obama's justification for friendly relations with Venezuela he noted that "they [Venezuela] own Citgo, the oil company." When Bush removed a horrendous dictator in Iraq there were cries of "blood for oil" yet similar denunciations are not made when Obama gets cozy with a man that has undermined the democratic process in his country and is well on the way of becoming a dictator himself.