GEORGE W. BUSH ON HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE NO ONE-- NEXT UP: VENEZUELA

According to today's L.A. TIMES, Bush is blundering into another "you're either with us or you're with the terrorists" fiasco-- this time alienating the entire Latin American region.

The Bush Regime-- already far more hated outside America than even in Vermont-- is demanding that anyone who wants its "friendship" vote against Venezuela's shot at the rotating Latin American seat on the Security Council. Bush is demanding other nations vote for the puppet/torture regime of Guatemala instead. "Behind the scenes, U.S. officials have been applying pressure, even to close allies, Latin American diplomats say. For example, Washington has agreed to sell F-16 fighter jets to Chile, but are warning that Chilean pilots will not be trained to fly them if the government supports Venezuela's Security Council bid, the diplomats said."

The L.A. TIMES points out that after Bush's failed coup attempt against the wildly popular Hugo Chavez, relations between the two countries have gone drastically downhill, although the democartically-elected (and re-elected) populist Chavez has no bone to pick with Americans and, like so many the world over, just hates Bush (who he routinely refers to as an idiot).

"'No one wants to choose between the United States and Venezuela, but that's what it's come down to,' said a diplomat from one Western Hemisphere country, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. The Americans 'have made it quite clear this is a top priority... Everyone who wants to see balance in the Security Council, who wants to see the United States constrained, will vote for Chavez.'"


Caribbean countries, as well as independent-minded countries like Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina are behind Venezuela. The governments were in thrall to American corporate masters-- basically all the Central American countries-- plus the ones dependent of the Bush Regime for one reason or another-- Colombia, Mexico and Peru-- can be forced to do whatever the U.S. tells them to. If there is a deadlock among Latin American countries, the General Assembly gets to vote and the hatred for Bush in that body is so intense that they would give Venezuela 2 seats if they could!

Venezuela, the world's 5th largest oil exporter, supplies the U.S. with almost 15% of its oil imports (1.5 million barrels a day). Bush is constantly threatening Venezuela and a cut-off in exports-- Chavez has said if Bush keeps up his hostility and aggressiveness they'll start selling oil to China-- would devastate the U.S. economy and make the U.S. more dependent on oil from unstable Arab and African sources.


WEDNESDAY UPDATE: AND BOLIVIA TOO!

And while the Bush Regime is trying to undermine (and even overthrow) Chavez, there have also been rumblings about the U.S. "doing an Allende" on Bolivia's newly-elected president, Evo Morales, a genuine hero of working people throughout Latin America. If Bush is determined to make sure he is the most hated man in the entire world, he has already won and he can stop campaigning.