Picture from Venezuela Llora, Venezuela Sangra

The noose around the collective neck of Venezuelans seems to be tightening. An Associated Press story quotes Chavez in a personal ad hominem attack on a Honduran cardinal;

President Hugo Chavez called a cardinal from Honduras an “imperialist clown” after the Roman Catholic prelate warned of increasing authoritarianism under the Venezuelan leader.

“Another parrot of imperialism appeared, this time dressed as a cardinal. That’s to say, another imperialist clown,” Chavez was quoted as saying in a bulletin posted Tuesday on the state-run news agency’s Web site.

Chavez — a close ally of Cuba’s Fidel Castro — was responding to criticism from Honduran Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, who said in a recent interview cited by Venezuela’s Bolivarian News Agency that Chavez “thinks he’s God and can trample upon other people.”

Chavez made the comments during a government event late Monday. He has repeatedly clashed with Catholic Church leaders in Venezuela, calling them “liars” and “perverts,” but he rarely targets high-ranking priests abroad.

Clowns, liars and perverts. That’s real grown up. Kind of like when he made the “smell of sulfur” comment at the UN about our President. But, the mask is off Hugo now - since he’s been granted “continuous reelection”, the Orwellian term he uses to describe his seizure of the office of Venezuela’s president for the remainder of his life, it seems he can’t be stopped.

Tank at Venezuela Llora, Venezuela Sangra does an excellent piece on the new Culture of Personality growing up in Venezuela around Hugo in true Maoist/Stalinist style, including action figures of the stumpy little dictator. 

Daniel at Venezuela News and Views found an article from Foreign Policy that reports that Venezuela’s bolivar is one of the five worst currencies in the world in which to invest - as a result of Chavez’ communistic social and monetary policies;

With massive public spending fueling inflation and President Hugo Chávez’s nationalization campaign triggering a massive outflow of capital, it’s been a bad year for the bolívar. Thanks mainly to the high price of oil, many of Venezuela’s economic fundamentals look sound. But Venezuela’s currency has lost 21 percent of its value since January 2007….  

The Devil’s Excrement records a conversation betweeen a community leader and Chavez when the community leader tries to tell Hugo that his advisors are lying to him about conditions in Venezuela. Tinpot Hugo doesn’t want to hear it, of course.

Julia at The End of Venezuela as I Know It reports that the only way to organize protests these days is by text messaging since the Venezuelan media has fallen under the jackboot of Chavez and his minions.

At Novosti, Hugo is quoted sounding a bit like the wistful Democrats before the 2000 election when they wished Bill Clinton could run again;

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has said he will soon submit to parliament a bill allowing the president to be re-elected an unlimited number of times.

“If people don’t vote for me, I will leave. I’m not trying to hold onto this place, as I have always said. I won’t cry if I am rejected,” Chavez told the Hello President TV show Sunday.

“If the Venezuelan people say go, I will go,” he said.

Venezuela’s leader is elected by a simple majority by a direct national vote and is the head of state and government for six years, and can be re-elected once.

Chavez first pledged to change the number of allowable presidential terms after he won the presidential election in December 2006.

“I think the country’s Constitution should be changed. This first of all concerns presidential terms. We have no right to deprive people of the possibility of electing a leader they like for a fourth, fifth or sixth term,” he said.

Yet, John Edwards and Barack Obama announced the other day during their debate that they’d meet with Chavez (and Castro) according to the Miami Herald (commentary from Babalu Blog). Since Hugo counts Edwards supporter Danny Glover among his pals, there’s absolutely no doubt that they would.

Despite Chavez guarentees to Venezuelans that their private property rights would be protected by his revolution, he left enough wiggle room in his remarks to steal opponents private property (like he did with RCTV) in the style of Robert Mugabe;

President Hugo Chavez assured private property owners their rights will be guaranteed in Venezuela under a pending constitutional reform, as long as proprietors and investors respect the law.
 
“Our socialism accepts private property,” Chavez said in comments published Sunday on the Web site of Union Radio. “It’s only that this private property must be within the framework of the constitution.”

He did not elaborate, saying only that he would present his proposal to lawmakers in the coming weeks. Few details have emerged from a committee Chavez has appointed to draft the proposed overhaul.

Critics accuse Chavez of steering this oil-rich South American nation toward Cuba-style communism, and many wealthy Venezuelans fear second homes, yachts or other assets could be seized.

Chavez denies copying Havana’s economic model, and counters that Venezuela’s socialist reforms will merely broaden the concept of ownership.

Just like he did with petroleum and power companies - as long as they did what Hugo wanted them to do, they could continue to do business. Constitutional guarentees mean nothing in Venezuela these days since Chavez can now rule by decree - the Venezuelan Constitution is what Hugo says it is.

I see Hugo is now concerned that non-Venzuelans might criticise him while visiting Venezuela according to AP (by way of Fox News);

President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that foreigners who publicly criticize him or his government while visiting Venezuela will be expelled from the country.

Chavez ordered officials to closely monitor statements made by international figures during their visits to Venezuela — and deport any outspoken critics.

“How long are we going to allow a person — from any country in the world — to come to our own house to say there’s a dictatorship here, that the president is a tyrant, and nobody does anything about it?” Chavez asked during his weekly television and radio program.

The Venezuelan leader’s statements came after Manuel Espino, the president of Mexico’s conservative ruling party, criticized Chavez during a recent pro-democracy forum in Caracas.