November 27, 2007   Alvaro Uribe of Colombia acted with integrity and decency to state the facts that Hugo Chavez is funding and moving his paid actors like chess pieces across South America to form not only a blockade around Latin America but to force out and remove what little democracy remains.

The Bishop of Caracas, Fr. Ugalde has bravely called for reinserting human and civil- religious and personal- freedoms in Venezuela, not the criminalization of religious and personal freedoms which are underway. Both men deserve our full support and gratitude. Both men are on the firing line daily and know well that the price of freedom in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela is high today as the Axis of Evil strips away what few liberties exist.
 
In a superb and timely review of Uribe's positions of principle while standing firmly against the unprincipled and manipulative, dark regime of Hugo Chavez and his Mini Me on a Moped Rafael Correa, we read in INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY, " ... as a mediator, Chavez proved he could keep neither a promise nor a secret, mainly because it was a fiction to think he could be partial. But the blow to his ego obscured any knowledge of that. "Colombia has spit in our faces," he said. In theory, a mediator should persuade two sides to each give up something to achieve a common end. The only one who gave up anything, however, was Uribe, who watched Chavez cavort with terrorists before TV cameras, giving them a legitimacy in Caracas they never had known.

Even worse, Chavez proved to be acting as an agent of the terrorists...No wonder Uribe lashed out, saying Chavez was less interested in mediating than in overthrowing Colombia's government. That may have sounded far-fetched, but it's what the guerrillas have been fighting for since 1964, and Chavez's admiration for them is no secret. Uribe, who has come down on the guerrillas harder than any other Colombian leader, is the president they want gone.

'You seek continental domination' Uribe said, and `a Marxist FARC government' to replace Colombia's elected one. He also pointed out that it was prime time for Chavez to be trying this, with the Venezuelan's public support at home flagging just one week before a constitutional referendum to grant him absolute power."  The whole piece is here which presciently states, "What's left, then, but to jealously whip up sentiment against Uribe, a neighbor who has always paid him undeserved courtesy and whose free market policies have made Colombia a star in the hemisphere. Don't be surprised if he looks to destabilize or confront this nation as testimony to the ruin of his own."

No sooner did Uribe state the truth about Chavez's plans for regional aggression to install his Marxist take overs, than numerous well endowed by their creator, George Soros's political grafts, begin to rise forth and stand united with the FARC and Chavez. While Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears shy about her initial fawning and preening with Chavez's political propagandist and FARC doxy, Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba, seen here on her very own web site promotionals with Chavez embracing the terror master for the FARC and here promising affection and plans for the FARC dominance of Colombia after the U.S. Department of State bowed to Nancy Pelosi and her Soros imbued Congressional leadership to provide a caravan style visit to the now jailed FARC leader Simon Trinidad in Texas, delivering her own special message of traitorous, seditious plans for her beloved FARC take over of Colombia thanks to her savior Hugo Chavez. Piedad Cordoba and Chavez are perps walking and should be treated as such: they are state sponsors of terror. No U.S. democrat should aid and abet these perps. Assisting Piedad on her seminal voyage to the USA this Fall was Soros's own pro Chavez/pro FARC lady of Congress, the Hon. Jan Schakowsky who recently gave tacit aid and comfort to these perps for the FARC and proxies for Hugo Chavez. You will recall that the lady congresswoman [Democrat-Illinois] is married to Robert Creamer, himself a well heeled democratic party operative and a convicted felon for check kitting and fraudulent abuse of his "foundation,"  read about it here and here replete with Ms. Schakowsky's claims that the Bush Republicans set him up.  Sound familiar? It is and pretty shop worn by now to claim that Bush will be behind everything that lady justice stands for. In fact, we hope he is behind lady justice but sadly, this FARC loving, Chavez assisting Schakowsky has no one to blame but herself for her husband's self confessed U.S. federal crimes. Busily teaming with every known pro narcotics activist in the U.S. Congress backed by George Soros and his anti USA adventurers, Ms. Schakowsky has fought hard to fund so called human rights activities in Colombia, replete with state backed suicide, state abortion on demand and state drug legalization while denouncing Alvaro Uribe in her rush to assist the FARC and Chavez's own Piedad Cordoba in their haste to reinstall FARC dominance in Colombia, which no one- well over 80% now- in Colombia wants. We can only guess that she enjoyed the formal letter of denouncement and mangled interference with U.S. foreign policy, such as it is, sent by Senators Barrack Hussein Obama, Ted Kennedy and Pat Leahy, as leaked to the WASHINGTON POST recently with the sole intention of debasing Uribe's hard work. Kennedy, Leahy and Obama are also good foot soldiers along with Chris Dodd and Hillary Clinton for their funders in chief: George Soros who intends to enable the return of the FARC in Colombia and assist in denying free trade for Colombia and as such, could care less that Chavez will command and control Colombia militarily. None of this seems to bother these Soros imbued anti Uribe actors.  

Here too is Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Democrat in the U.S. Congress, formally speaking in 2001 at the ROAD MAP FOR BUDGETING OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRAMS OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT hearings and inexplicably praising Piedad Cordoba of Colombia for her work in human rights and urging U.S. support for Piedad. McKinney, herself the recipient of many pro Iran and Muslim activist groups' monies -read the list here- is only one in a long string of pro-Chavez and pro FARC activities across the USA, notably praised by Soros-backed WOLA. While beavering away to stop free trade in the Andes, WOLA also acts to upend any counternarcotics activities in South America, read their support for Rafael Correa's pro FARC positions here. Meanwhile, Piedad Cordoba was informed by the Sarkozy government of France that she was wrong and that France has never offered her asylum as she seeks to escape justice from Colombia.

To have the facts, study Uribe's respectful fact based 11-25-07 analysis of Chavez and the FARC again here. Uribe openly addresses Chavez as he states, “But dignity, respect for the individual in society, respect for individual freedoms - when these values are lost, it is difficult to win them back. We will continue to make every effort to defeat terrorism, and to rescue our fellow-citizens who have been kidnapped, but we will not allow advantage to be taken of our tragedy to support the cause of terrorism."

In to the world of men comes Father Ugalde, SJ of Andres Bello to urge Chavez to calm down and encourages non inflammatory behaviors, read it here. Chavez is furiously threatening the Catholic Church, especially its Bishops and also parochial schools, read about it here. Few are more loved that Fr. Ugalde, SJ and today Chavez's vice president Rodriguez blames Ugalde...and the church...for the deaths yesterday as Castro's own GRANMA tells us that Chavez, see here, blames Cardinal Urosa and church leaders of trying to scare the voting public. Frankly, the church would be badly remiss if it did not speak truth to power, as it has lately in Caracas, and anyone who actually reads the Chavez-Correa-Morales constitutions should be scared- very scared- to see the legitimizing of their illegitimate frameworks which abandons all individual rights and freedoms.

Today, in one of the most relevant pieces in the Soros-backed Carnegie Endowment's FOREIGN POLICY for many years, Oppenheimer's energy expert Gheit, read it here, reports that with no global oil shortages and oil basically at around $45 a barrel, it is the synthetic fear factor to reward speculators that has driven up the cost of global oil and affects all non oil producing nations negatively. Tragically, this "magazine" goes on to incorrectly tell us that President Bush's mistakes create the platform for a new war with Iran while ignoring the remarkable complicity of Iran's mavens of malfeasance, also no doubt blaming Bush for oil price spikes instead of where the synthetic spikes belong. Instead, we rely on the globe's best expert on Islam and today's activists in Iranian malfeasance, Princeton's Bernard Lewis who wrote in the 11-26-07 WALL STREET JOURNAL, read it here, that Iran and numerous Middle Eastern Muslim leaders persist in manipulative rhetoric and activities to destabilize the globe and focus solely on destroying the state of Israel, stating that, " There are signs of change in some Arab circles, of a willingness to accept Israel and even to see the possibility of a positive Israeli contribution to the public life of the region. But such opinions are only furtively expressed. Sometimes, those who dare to express them are jailed or worse. These opinions have as yet little or no impact on the leadership. Which brings us back to the Annapolis summit. If the issue is not the size of Israel, but its existence, negotiations are foredoomed. And in light of the past record, it is clear that is and will remain the issue, until the Arab leadership either achieves or renounces its purpose -- to destroy Israel. Both seem equally unlikely for the time being." Both Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa agree with Iran that Israel must be removed and that oil prices must be under the sole hand of Chavez's oil price handlers for price manipulations to benefit their racketeering adventures.
 
In an almost parallel statement that false realities are foisted on the global stage to enrich a few, the financial expert Gheit states, "Well, if you are a commodity trader, you want to do your best to push the commodity price in the direction that you forecast. And obviously, when you have a lot of financial players making bets on much higher oil prices, they would like to see a self-fulfilling prophecy. They want to see oil prices reach the level that they put the bet on. So, they can spread rumors. And if the glass is half empty or half full, they will say it’s empty.

To my knowledge, there is no oil shortage. Any willing buyers will not have a problem finding oil. Global inventories are over 4 billion barrels. In simple math, that is the equivalent of all the oil produced in the Middle East for six months. So, the fear premium, in my view, is totally exaggerated; it’s not justified by logic or market fundamentals. Again, it’s very difficult to quantify fear. But that is the psychological factor, in my view, that is bringing oil prices to these unprecedented levels. For instance, I don’t believe that Iran is going to cut oil exports, because Iran needs the revenue more than the world needs Iran’s oil. We have to be logical in assessing the risk. And obviously, financial players want to exaggerate the situation so that the risk premium increases and they make more money."

Our opinion is that no one- no one at all in the free world- needs to subsidize false/synthetic offshore commodities speculators who falsely profiteer from doubling energy costs. When sovereign governments hide behind their so called sovereignty to manipulate global oil prices, as Chavez and Correa do actively, we declare that a halt must be had. Nations do not exist to solely benefit murky oil speculators and energy derivatives traders while ruining free and fair governance.

When nations are led by liars and agents of extortion and malfeasance, having long ago abandoned rule of law, and actively racketeer with faceless money movers, often aligned with shadowy Russian money men as is the case in Ecuador and Venezuela today, we say: NO MAS. We concur with Gheit that we must be logical in assessing risk. But it is illogical to rely on synthetic fear mongering or worse- badly prepared so called formal reports on the facts which only mask the facts and politically enable some bizarre subset of humans whose ultimate concern is protecting and enhancing the synthetic. Sustainable foreign policies and federal budgets are not plumped up by irregular BOTOX injections of Cuban style propaganda, however well paid and however synthetic.
 
We are not in the business of selling out liberty and ruining quality of life to enhance oil speculators or tin pot dictators [or both] whose very machinations create hardship, job loss, economic and societal instability...and crime. Instead of operating legitimate and functionally honest oil development, the very lawless caudillo team of Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa have ruinously plunged their nations in to the axis of evil commandeered by Russian and Iranian money movers and narcotics and weapons runners whose very acts debase all integrity and belie honest oil industry activities, which includes oil development, production and even derivatives to some extant as warranted. However, the criminal oil speculative rackets as active today are not to be born and must end for their end game is not mere speculative profiteering but the actual installation of armies of propaganda and governmental ends to freedom- now with upwards of $40 billion on order in weapons of offense from Belarus, Iran-Syria and Russia for Chavez's enhanced pipeline- to feed the self fulfilling prophecy of fear, terror and profiteering from the fake/synthetic acts to drive up speculative rewards. What started as a very bad game of oil price rigging has led to a very evil leveraging of actual terror and continent wide militarism to protect and defend the criminals active now in Latin America.
 
The Catholic Church asks for honesty. They get death threats and rejection of the right of all peoples to worship freely. The people of the Andes want serenity and honesty. They get multi billion dollar propaganda schemes and ridiculously useless so called assistance from the USA [with the occasional broccoli plot and remittances money laundering banks] which only misleads, enables and confuses the facts and debases honest truth tellers. The locals want free and open speech and media. They get Iranian News and AL JAZERRA propaganda coupled with armed and loaded paramilitaries from Hugo Chavez. Most folks want honest foreign policy actors and instead they get foreign policy plumped up by BOTOX injections from so called policy makers/NGOs who would not know the real thing from the fake.
 
In other words, the globe does not wither for the loss of Iranian and Venezuelan oil, falsely overblown in today's market while delivering a slice of the profiteering for Axis of Evil political allies globally, sometimes called oil speculators [and yes- we all know who they are, small time bit players or large players] and feeding the machinations to drive up more and more fear mongering even as the mongers install real time weaponization across the Americas, making the fake Opium Wars of the 1800s look like child's play.
 
In other words, there is an oil bubble and it is created to synthetically cause harm to freedom loving nations while encompassing and enriching nations which embrace non democratic principles such as large scale racketeering, murder for hire called state funded paramilitaries, and narcoterrorism. This oil price bubble needs today the prick of conscience and acts of accountability, highly glossed over by the enabling, manipulative NGOs who tell us today that honesty in South America is just too "expensive- don’t you see? And these fabulous dictators just need the money to help the poor- don't you get it?" Foreign policy and paid efforts by supposed truth tellers are never to be manipulated to aid and abet oil price bubbles and tin pot dictators who racket in oil price run ups. Prick the bubble of the false with a dose of integrity and accountability and the bubble deflates. Protect the false and the manipulative and know that you do, with your own phony family values of cult like performances, grow the Axis of Evil and crime.
 
Do you know what has crafted the fake oil bubble today? Do you care? And what is your role in enabling the false while honor and accountability ask for your support? 
 
In one of the most thoughtful pieces of late, we commend Zumwalt's piece on Dismantling Democracy, here. He reports on Venezuela and Russia [clearly he should have included the parrot on a moped, Chavez's own Correa]; “It is hard to conceive of the willingness of a people who, having escaped the yoke of tyranny to embrace democracy, would allow their government to revert to suppressing individual rights. But, in a disturbing 21st century trend, we are witnessing this evolution in places like Venezuela and Russia. What so desensitizes people to democracy's freedoms that they do nothing to prevent a return to tyranny's chains?

Key to dismantling the engine driving democracy is a charismatic, egotistical leader, with a "bad" attitude... In Venezuela, we see similar leadership by Hugo Chavez as he dismantles his country's engine of democracy and eliminates criticism for doing so. He does this by creating the false perception of an outside threat as a rallying point to stir up the public's nationalistic spirit. (Mr. Putin does this too, citing America's presence in former Warsaw Pact states.) The false threat Mr. Chavez created is of a future invasion by the United States. In a barrage of verbal attacks, he accuses the U.S. of pressing regional influence and, ludicrously, using subliminal messaging to do so. He buys Russian arms to defend against an invasion that will never come. Ironically, he allies himself with Islamic extremists who, absent a U.S. presence in the world, would be directing their violence against the likes of Mr. Chavez as a nonbeliever in Islam. These extremists see such an alliance only as a short-term necessity to achieve their long-term goal of world domination. Mr. Chavez fails to comprehend their long-term threat to Venezuela.

Meanwhile, like Mr. Putin, Mr. Chavez takes more power from his people — and for himself.

Both Mr. Chavez and Mr. Putin have used their authority in office to pave the way for their long-term presence, contrary to the constitutional restrictions under which they took power. Mr. Chavez has been more direct — manipulating constitutional change allowing him to serve multiple terms as president...Another factor at play in both countries is their immense oil resources. The high price of oil fills national treasuries with windfall profits — funds then used as various incentives to "buy" public silence. Meeting people's short-term needs distracts them from criticizing their government’s dubious long-term goals. (Mr. Chavez, for example, paid Venezuelan workers a 'Christmas' bonus, at the same time as the presidential election.)

But, whether the elixir is nationalism, financial incentive or both, the euphoria created is intoxicating, deadening people's sensitivities to the fact they are embarked upon an orchestrated march toward an Orwellian society. They are lemmings who, when the march ends and they gaze into the abyss below, will only have themselves to blame for having done nothing to stop it. "
 
While sitting around waiting for the next mind numbing, life fulfilling shopping mall experience or state union hand out, sometimes called political parties in Ecuador and Venezuela, we can only ask if one is better as a mindless lemming, marching like a robot behind Chavez and Correa in to the abyss of tyranny or are we better served by standing united with real leaders like Uribe and  Ugalde who call us to the daily work - hard work to be sure- of truth telling and ending our from-birth -trained synthetic, manipulative addictions to false realities which only increase the bubble of dishonesty and economic fascism while installing hard crime and murder most craven. It is impossibly irresponsible to declare that Andean souls are simply "not ready" for democracy and its responsibilities, such as even handed justice, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom from fear- real fear. If we are not ready for liberty, then join the Ecuadorean embassy in Washington and the U.S. embassy staff in Quito and hang out an identical sign on your front door that reads, GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. Integrity and Honor No Longer Welcome: Propagandists and highly overpaid Soros-backed NGOS only Welcome. Anti-Uribe Actors Always Welcome. Pro Chavez Actors Given Preferential Treatment.
 
Or stand with Uribe and Ugalde who call us back to common sense- not synthetic values of fake morals and fake marketeering- but the real deal.
Principled leadership, unlike unprincipled leadership and fake mavens of manipulation, is accountable. Morals are accountable.
 
Otherwise, you will soon have this Muslim TV talk show on How to Beat Your Wife coming your way soon on TV, courtesy of Correa and Chavez's partnership with militant Islam, sometimes called Iranian TV. See this How To Advice on manipulating and lying to your spouse and how to beat women here, told by a Muslim version of a priest. If you think that this is freedom, you are doomed inside a lost place and need to get out.
 
The opposite of Tom Paine's COMMON SENSE is George Orwell's 1984 about a futuristic totalitarian government. Castro, Correa and Chavez deliver Orwellian totalitarianism. You can chose democracy born of day to day COMMON SENSE but you must first self educate, stay alert and active in this world and of this time. There is no manipulation that will get you out of this choice which you must make now. If you prefer to reject the fake, the synthetic over the real and the lasting, you must connect and stand for something more effective than running away. Uribe and Ugalde's truth telling is a very good place to begin.
 
-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis