The Obsessions of Hugo Chavez on Haiti Defy Logic
Ray Walser /
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez is a man consumed by an obsession. That obsession is the United States. The United States wants to assassinate him; steal his oil; invade his country, etc. Hugo Chavez wakes up in the morning obsessing about the Empire, shorthand for the U.S. and beds down at night with the same thoughts. Most certainly he suffers nightmares about the horrors of the U.S. from dusk to dawn.
The U.S. Southern Command! The Fourth Fleet! The Colombian Defense Agreement! Even the sinister designs of the hospital ship, USNS Comfort. It is after all a U.S. Navy ship! One might have thought that something as immense as the human tragedy in Haiti would cause Chavez to hold his tongue a bit longer. Sadly, when one suffers from obsessions, the rational self is not always in control. Less than a week after the Haiti quake, Chavez took to his podium. “The Empire [the U.S.]” he proclaimed, “is taking Haiti over the bodies and tears of its people.” For a leader who previously called President George W. Bush “Satan” and routinely infers that President Obama is little more than a prisoner of the Pentagon, the CIA, and Wall Street, this still seems an unusually cruel blow. (more…)