03/03/2008 (11:56 am)
Chavez Threatens Colombia, But Not Us
Venezuela moved 10 battalions to the border of Columbia yesterday in response to Columbia’s killing of a senior leader of terrorist army FARC on Sunday. Ecuador followed suit.
If you’re wondering how Venezuelan oil fits into the US’ relationship with Chavez, take a moment to browse this article from Caracas Chronicles that explains the relationship simply. Titling her article, revealingly, “I am not taking my hand off of this hot stove until you say uncle!” the author, apparently an American living in Venezuela, explains why Hugo Chavez cannot credibly threaten the US. Keep in mind that when the author says “we,” she means “Venezuela.”
Three very important points to remember when thinking about Venezuelan oil:
- Venezuela’s economy collapses altogether if they don’t sell their oil;
- Oil is a worldwide market with a fairly inflexible supply, so if Chavez manages to sell his oil to someone other than the US, we can buy surplus oil from whoever used to sell it to Chavez’ new customer;
- Venezuelan oil is unusually heavy and sulfurous, and right now, most of the refineries in the world that are engineered to handle it are in the US.
The summary is that Chavez can afford to stop selling to the US a lot less than we can afford to stop buying from him. So, don’t expect that to happen, and if it does, say goodbye quickly to Hugo Chavez, who will lose power immediately.
What’s going on in South America is that a couple of new, leftist governments seem to have allied themselves with leftist guerrillas who torment Colombia. Colombia apparently found documents in its raid against FARC linking FARC leaders to the new, leftist government in Ecuador. Ed Morrissey from his new vantage point at Hot Air asks this morning whether Chavez is casting his lot with FARC as well. This comment under Morrissey’s article suggests that Chavez is less interested in invading Colombia than he is in protecting FARC, which is hiding inside his country.This is the sort of aggressive undermining we have come to expect from leftist governments, and the reason we regard them as enemies; it’s not just a disagreement over politics. FARC is largely involved in the Colombian drug trade these days, and probably retains little of its original, populist fervor. Ecuador’s and Venezuela’s alignment with them makes it easy to categorize them as bandits.
Map from Atlapedia Online.
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Chavez threatens war with Columbia
Here is a list of people who are supporters of Hugo Chavez we can expect to hear from soon with their condemnations: Cindy Sheehan, Danny Glover, Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Martin Sheen and Jimmy Carter.
If we hear nothing from these people then the…
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