Hugo Chavez: Love Him or Loathe Him? Essay -- Essays Papers

Hugo Chavez: Love Him or Loathe Him? Last week an incendiary press release exploded into the global headlines. A man by the name of Hugo Chavez ventured the claim that he had become an important target of assassination. Even more alarming, he proceeded to identify his assassin. It was none other than George W. Bush. "We have enough evidence," said Chavez, "that if anything happens to me, the person responsible will be the President of the United States" (â€Å"Defying U.S., Venezuela’s Chavez Embrace Socialism†). Who is Hugo Chavez? And why would he have the audacity to regard himself as a threat -- indeed, a lethal threat -- to the most powerful country on earth? And does he really believe he is so dangerous in the eyes of the United States that he would be viewed as a candidate for extermination? Hugo Chavez is the duly elected leader of a relatively small country on the northern coast of South America called Venezuela. It is a nation whose regional stature has, in the last twenty years, grown in influence in total disproportion to its size. The reason for Venezuela's increasing political clout is simple. It is the owner of vast reservoirs of liquid gold. It is perched on an enormous supply of oil. To a country like America, which is the world's largest consumer of fossil fuels by far, nothing could be more encouraging than to share geographical proximity with a nation so abundantly endowed with oil. Increasingly, however, a common neighborhood is all the U. S. shares in common with Venezuela. The two nations are clearly drifting apart, and at an alarming pace. The lightening rod in America's relationship with its South American neighbor is Hugo Chavez. In many recent pronouncements, the President o... ...lt;http://globalresearch.ca/articles/LAN407A.html>. -Niemeyer, Ralph and Lucila Gallino. â€Å"Interview With President Chavez.† Venezuela Analysis. November 2003 <http://www.venezuelaanalysis.com/articlese.php?artno=1055>. -Pike, John. â€Å"Venezuela.† GlobalSecurity. August 2004 <http://www.globalsecurtiy.org/intell/ops/venezuela.htm>. -Stelzer, Irwin M. â€Å"The Axis of Oil: China and Russia Find a New Way to Advance Their Strategic Ambitions.† Free Republic. February 2005 < http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1346965/posts>. -â€Å"Topic Area A: The Situation in Venezuela.† Model United Nations of the University of Chicago. <www.munuc.org>. -West, Andrew. â€Å"A Recipe for Economic Collapse in Venezuela: Hugo Chavez’s Anti- Capitalist Philosophy.† Capitalism Magazine. October 2000 <http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/565966/posts>. Hugo Chavez: Love Him or Loathe Him? Essay -- Essays Papers Hugo Chavez: Love Him or Loathe Him? Last week an incendiary press release exploded into the global headlines. A man by the name of Hugo Chavez ventured the claim that he had become an important target of assassination. Even more alarming, he proceeded to identify his assassin. It was none other than George W. Bush. "We have enough evidence," said Chavez, "that if anything happens to me, the person responsible will be the President of the United States" (â€Å"Defying U.S., Venezuela’s Chavez Embrace Socialism†). Who is Hugo Chavez? And why would he have the audacity to regard himself as a threat -- indeed, a lethal threat -- to the most powerful country on earth? And does he really believe he is so dangerous in the eyes of the United States that he would be viewed as a candidate for extermination? Hugo Chavez is the duly elected leader of a relatively small country on the northern coast of South America called Venezuela. It is a nation whose regional stature has, in the last twenty years, grown in influence in total disproportion to its size. The reason for Venezuela's increasing political clout is simple. It is the owner of vast reservoirs of liquid gold. It is perched on an enormous supply of oil. To a country like America, which is the world's largest consumer of fossil fuels by far, nothing could be more encouraging than to share geographical proximity with a nation so abundantly endowed with oil. Increasingly, however, a common neighborhood is all the U. S. shares in common with Venezuela. The two nations are clearly drifting apart, and at an alarming pace. The lightening rod in America's relationship with its South American neighbor is Hugo Chavez. In many recent pronouncements, the President o... ...lt;http://globalresearch.ca/articles/LAN407A.html>. -Niemeyer, Ralph and Lucila Gallino. â€Å"Interview With President Chavez.† Venezuela Analysis. November 2003 <http://www.venezuelaanalysis.com/articlese.php?artno=1055>. -Pike, John. â€Å"Venezuela.† GlobalSecurity. August 2004 <http://www.globalsecurtiy.org/intell/ops/venezuela.htm>. -Stelzer, Irwin M. â€Å"The Axis of Oil: China and Russia Find a New Way to Advance Their Strategic Ambitions.† Free Republic. February 2005 < http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1346965/posts>. -â€Å"Topic Area A: The Situation in Venezuela.† Model United Nations of the University of Chicago. <www.munuc.org>. -West, Andrew. â€Å"A Recipe for Economic Collapse in Venezuela: Hugo Chavez’s Anti- Capitalist Philosophy.† Capitalism Magazine. October 2000 <http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/565966/posts>.