Meanwhile, down in Venezuela (the 3^rd largest oil producer in the world), we receive reports of civil unrest. President Hugo Chavez, who won a landslide victory in his country’s 1998 general election, is being pressured to step down by his Ambassador to “WASHINGTON” and one of his ex-generals in “WASHINGTON.”   Pulling out all the stops in their effort to oust Chavez, they introduced a Recall (as American as Apple Pie and Arnold) funded by American dollars which came complete with 860,000 disputed ballots (which, at the risk of beating around the Bush, might also be considered an all too American twist).

Flashback: Chavez, the people’s (but apparently not Big Oil’s) choice was briefly deposed in an April 2002 coup (although every newspaper in the U.S. ran the story that “Chavez resigned his presidency”).  The BBC and CBC reported that the President of Venezuela had been kidnapped at gunpoint and bundled off by helicopter from the presidential palace. According to the New York Times, Chavez recognized that he was unpopular, his time was up: “With yesterday’s resignation of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator.”  His more democratically palatable replacement quickly dissolved Congress, fired the Supreme Court judges, the Attorney General, the human rights ombudsman, and the national electoral council.  Shortly thereafter, the Venezuelan people rose up, the new democratically palatable dictator was tossed and Chavez was returned to office and the rest was, well … [flash forward to 2004] don’t you Haiti when history repeats (but what do you expect when you vote for the father’s son)?