A simple wooden cross hanging from his neck, the Rev. Rubén Capitanio sat before a microphone on Monday and did what few Argentine priests before him had dared to do: condemn the Roman Catholic Church for its complicity in the atrocities committed during Argentina’s “dirty war.”

Chavez says will cut oil in case of attack from Colombia

Venezuela’s defense minister on Friday warned Colombia against provoking a conflict after President Hugo Chávez severed ties with the nation and placed his military on alert.

President Chavez ordered maximum alert on Venezuela’s border with Colombia after the Uribe administration made grave accusations against Venezuela claiming the Chavez government harbors terrorists and terrorist training camps

While it is doubtful that the U.S. wants to directly engage in a military conflict with, most likely, Venezuela right now, preparations for this possibility are being made. What is more likely in the short term is that the U.S. military will use its forces to engage in sabotage and intimidation in hopes of reversing support for the nations aligned with ALBA.

"There are highly alarming elements: the military exercises that the South Koreans and gringos performed in the Yellow Sea; the pressure on Iran for daring to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes; the mobilization of U.S. and Israeli troops near Iran's coasts, and the violence in Iraq and Afghanistan occupied by the empire," Chavez said during his usual Sunday news commentary, "Las lineas de Chavez."

Chavez denounced the continuing and false accusations by Obama government agencies regarding alleged links between Caracas and international drug trafficking, and the surprising presence on unconvincing explanations for thousands of U.S. marines in Costa Rica and the overflights of Dutch aircraft in Venezuelan territory.

President Obama gets tested almost daily. Most of these tests he fails so utterly and completely that even a grade of zero is too high of a score. Every now and again he does however barely pass some tests put before him but it is with what could best be deserving of a D and nothing better. Those are just the facts. It is hard for someone that does not understand the very basics of economics and believes in command and control economies to do any better because the answers that are given to the tests are always answers that have been proven time and again not to work.

As is customary, the US asks for authorization of Costa Rica’s legislature before entry of any US warship and soldiers in Costa Rican waters. And as customary, the Costa Rica legislature grants its permission, as was the case on Friday.

The permission allows the entry of 46 US war ships and 7.000 Marines for the balance of the year (July 1 to December 31, 2010).

In [the country] right now there is a military-business regime, with a little bit of democratic makeup."

This sounds like an excellent -- indeed, near-perfect -- description of the true state of the United States in these degraded days of ours. While the sinister comic opera of factional in-fighting amongst the elite provides an increasingly thin and cracked patina of democracy, the militarist-corporatist machines continue their ravenous devouring of the fat of the land and the flesh of the weak.

Juan Manuel Santos, notorious Defense Minister in the regime of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe and closely identified with high crimes against humanity “won” the recent Presidential elections in Colombia, June 2010.

According to the FT, “Colombia not Venezuela is (the) best model for Latin America” (FT 6/23/2010 p. 8). Citing Santos “overwhelming” margin – he garnered 69% of the vote, the FT claimed he won a “strong mandate” (FT 6/22/2010). In what has to be one of the most flagrant cover-ups in recent history, the media accounts exclude the most egregious facts about the elections and the profoundly authoritarian policies pursued by Santos over the past decade.

The socialist Chavez is a harsh critic of both Israel and the United States and cut relations with Israel after accusing it of "holocaust" for its 2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"It has become the assassin arm of the United States, no one can doubt it. It is a threat to all of us," Chavez said, during a visit by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) threatened to issue subpoenas against the U.S. Defense and State Departments last month if they continue to refuse to accurately account for billions of dollars spent on private contractors assisting Washington in the 'war on drugs' in Latin America. But McCaskill's concerns raise broader questions about oversight and transparency of a controversial industry and its ever expanding role in Washington's foreign policy.

Previously, Venezuelan brokers could trade in government bonds purchased at 2.15 to the US dollar and then offload them into the parallel exchange market at a rate 3 times greater. So, just for moving a few pieces of paper or keying in numbers on to a computer screen, so-called investors could free up their bolívares and make an easy 300% profit almost overnight.

In fact the correct word for such investors would be “speculators” or even “parasites”. Their actions have caused the bolívar to weaken significantly against the US dollar sparking an inflationary spiral which affects all 29 million inhabitants of the Bolivarian Republic.

Researchers at Durham University have drawn up new maps to show the competing claims of Argentina and the UK for resources in the South Atlantic and Southern Oceans. At stake are a potential 60 billion barrels of oil and nine trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The publication of the maps follows the discovery of oil south of the Falkland Islands by a British company, Rockhopper Exploration, and a series of historical arguments about sovereignty and the rights to resources in the South Atlantic.

The first casualty of state terror is the corruption of language, the invention of euphemisms, where words mean their opposite and slogans cover great crimes: There is no longer a world consensus that condemns crimes against humanity. This is because mass murder and assassinations secure investor ‘confidence’, because Indians are dispossessed so the mines can be exploited; oil workers disappear so the petroleum will flow; and the international financial press praises the success of el Presidente for “pacifying the country”.

When narco-presidents are embraced by the leaders of North America and Europe, it is evident that criminals have become respectable the respectable have become criminals.

Brazil secured Chinese pledges to investment heavily in and buy more from Brazil as the summit of BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- opened a day early to allow for President Hu Jintao to return to China to oversee earthquake relief.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Venezuela on Friday to discuss oil, defense and nuclear energy cooperation with Latin America’s main leftist foe of the United States, President Hugo Chavez.

They were to launch a $20 billion venture between Russian firms and Venezuelan state company PDVSA to pump 450,000 barrels a day — almost a fifth of the OPEC member’s current output — from the vast Orinoco heavy oil belt.

This scandal revolves around the Colombian military, most recently under the direction of Juan Manuel Santos, knowingly murdering civilians in cold blood and then dressing them up to look like armed guerillas in order to justify more aid from the United States. According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pilay, this practice has been so "systematic and widespread" as to amount to a "crime against humanity." And sadly, when Ms. Pilay made this statement, she literally did not know the half of it.

There has been a sharp increase in US military aid and training of Latin American officers, focusing on light infantry tactics to combat "radical populism" -- a concept that sends shivers up the spine in the Latin American context Military training is being shifted from the State Department to the Pentagon, eliminating human rights and democracy conditionalities under congressional supervision, which has always been weak, but was at least a deterrent to some of the worst abuses. The US Fourth Fleet, disbanded in 1950, was reactivated in 2008, shortly after Colombia's invasion of Ecuador, with responsibility for the Caribbean, Central and South America, and the surrounding waters.

Authorities in Chile warned of a possible tsunami and evacuated residents in some coastal cities Wednesday after a strong aftershock caused concerns that large waves could hit shore within an hour.

Officials in the fishing village of Dichato and in Concepcion told residents they had one hour to leave low-lying areas.

The death toll from Saturday's 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile is up to nearly 400, Chilean officials said Sunday.

Latin American and Caribbean nations have agreed to create a new regional alliance, without the United States and Canada, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said at a summit here on Tuesday.

The bloc "must as a priority push for regional integration ... and promote the regional agenda in global meetings," Calderon told participants from 32 nations, including 24 leaders, at the beach resort of Cancun.

Argentina is to make its case for sovereignty over the Falkland Islands to other Latin American countries, as tensions over potential oil reserves in the South Atlantic grow.

The row over the disputed islands has reignited after the discovery of £60bn-worth of gas and oil reserves off the Falklands.

The US SOUTHCOM electronic surveillance base has been functioning in Aruba for several years. One day, an individual looking like a typical American, wearing shorts, a Hawaii shirt, and sunglasses, walked into it effortlessly and started roaming around. The US marines must have been too tired of the heat and assumed he actually was one of their countrymen - the base has been hosting numbers of visitors from the US recently amid the preparations for serious operations against Venezuela.

President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner

Tough talk: Argentina president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has announced a decree on shipping

Britain has made 'all the preparations necessary' to protect the Falkland Islands, Gordon Brown said today.

His reassurance comes amid Argentinian efforts to control shipping in the region.

The Argentinian government has issued a decree that tightens control over shipping in the area ahead of British efforts to start oil and gas exploration off the islands' waters.

Mr Brown said he did not expect a need to send a task force to the area, saying: 'This is oil drilling that is exploration for the future.

The Ministry of Defence has denied reports that a naval taskforce is on its way to the Falklands.

This past summer, President Obama announced that he had signed an agreement with Colombia to grant the U.S. military access to 7 military bases in Colombia.

President Hugo Chavez has announced that he will write off the undisclosed sum Haiti owes Venezuela for oil as part of a regional bloc’s plans to help the impoverished Caribbean nation after the devastating Jan 12 earthquake.

Within the actual story, ABC noted that the information came from an obscure opinion post on the website of a Venezuelan state television channel, VIVE Television. The post referenced a supposed Russian military report on American seismic weapons.

All quotes subsequently attributed to Chavez regarding Haiti and earthquake weapons were in fact direct quotes from this web posting -- none of which was ever uttered by Chavez.

The Orinoco Belt, situated squarely underneath the South American nation, may hold some 513 billion barrels of crude oil, according to a new report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

That's twice the size of Saudi Arabia's oil reserves, placing Venezuela firmly atop the list of oil-rich nations.

WMR’s intelligence sources have reported that the Obama administration has authorized an economic war against Venezuela in order to destabilize the government of President Hugo Chavez.

After a successful coup against Chavez ally, President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras, and the very thin 51-49 percent electoral win by Chile’s billionaire right-winger Sebastian Pinera on January 17, a buoyed Obama White House has given a green light for political operatives in Venezuela, many of whom operate under the cover of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to set the stage for massive street demonstrations to protest Chavez’s devaluation of the bolivar, Venezuela’s currency.

The government of the Netherlands recently granted the US military use of its islands in the Caribbean, with the excuse that this is to help in the “war against drugs”. In reality, this is a direct threat to the Chavez government in Venezuela.

In the Dutch media articles have appeared about the “war-mongering” president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, who is “preparing a war against Colombia”. Now Chávez has accused the Netherlands of supporting aggression against Venezuela, because the Netherlands has given permission to the American armed forces to use the military bases on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curaçao[1].

For almost 200 years, since the proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine, the United States has continally asserted – and often physically exerted – its self-awarded right of dominion over all the lands south of its border. Military "partnerships," exploitative sweetheart deals for U.S. corporate and financial elites, and general servility toward Washington's political and economic agenda have been the chief characteristics of this "special relationship."

President Hugo Chávez said he ordered two F-16 jets to intercept a U.S. military plane that twice violated Venezuelan airspace on Friday in what he called the latest provocation in the South American nation's skies.

When Argentina spiraled into social and economic collapse in the late 90’s life changed for everyone. Regardless of the causes, there is much to be learned from a country that was once prosperous and is now recovering from economic crises that put about 60% of the people into poverty.

Venezuela on Thursday warned the US military against violating its airspace from bases in Aruba and Curacao, repeating recent accusations that Washington is preparing an act of “aggression”.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez revealed today on his Sunday television and radio program, Aló Presidente, that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, have illegally entered Venezuela’s airspace during the past several days.

President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused the U.S. of violating Venezuela's airspace with an unmanned spy plane, and ordered his military to be on alert and shoot down any such aircraft in the future.

Speaking during his weekly television and radio program, Chavez said the aircraft overflew a Venezuelan military base in the western state of Zulia after taking off from neighboring Colombia. He did not elaborate, but suggested the plane was being used for espionage.

Colombia has announced it will build a new military base near its border with Venezuela, in a move likely to further strain its tense ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"The first and foremost important achievement during the Chávez administration is the 1999 Constitution, which, although not written nor decreed by Chávez himself, was created through his vision of change for Venezuela. The 1999 Constitution was, in fact, drafted - written - by the people of Venezuela in one of the most participatory examples of nation building, and then was ratified through popular national referendum by 75% of Venezuelans.

An article published in the December 12th edition of the New York Times revealed the detention of a US government contract employee in Havana this past December 5th. The employee, whose name has not yet been disclosed, works for Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), one of the largest US government contractors providing services to the State Department, the Pentagon and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The employee was detained while distributing cellular telephones, computers and other communications equipment to Cuban dissident and counterrevolutionary groups that work to promote the US agenda on the Caribbean island.

Bolivia's Vice Chancellor has dismissed US warnings against developing close ties with Iran, days after La Paz and Tehran vowed forging better relations.

"We are playing down these comments; a lot because we're talking about a message intended for the US public that defers from the comments that we hear internationally" Bolivian Vice-Chancellor Hugo Fernandez told reporters on Friday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Latin American countries on Friday not to get too close to Iran, calling it "a really bad idea" that could have consequences.

President Hugo Chavez says Venezuela must be ready to defend itself against what he called the US and Colombia's gearing up for initiating a military conflict.

Chavez who accused Washington and Bogota of planning to stage war against his country announced that thousands of Russian missiles and rocket launchers were being received by Venezuela as the country is preparing for a possible military conflict.

On October I met Sabia, his wife and children in Buritis, during my trip to countryside Rondonia. He can be seen in this photo, holding a Palestinian flag.

Venezuela on Sunday widened a police sweep against executives from seven troubled banks shut down despite their links with top government officials

Despite the modifications to the U.S. Air Force document more than six months after the original was sent to Congress, the intentions behind the U.S. military agreement with Colombia remain the same. No evidence exists demonstrating a change in the Pentagon’s global mobility strategy - it is an official state policy included in the Global Defense Posture Strategy, in place at the present time. The military base in Palanquero, Colombia has been identified several times in different Pentagon documents as the perfect site – a unique opportunity – to guarantee continental access in South America, facilitating “full spectrum military operations” in Latin America.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez denounced on Sunday provocations by the Colombian government on the common border with the support of the local opposition media.

Venezuela and Colombia are at odds over Bogota's decision to grant the US access to seven of its military bases.

The United States is massively building up its potential for nuclear and non-nuclear strikes in Latin America and the Caribbean by acquiring unprecedented freedom of action in seven new military, naval and air bases in Colombia. The development – and the reaction of Latin American leaders to it – is further exacerbating America's already fractured relationship with much of the continent.

COLOMBIA warned overnight that its forces were on "maximum alert'' and were prepared to defend against any attack, amid rising tensions with neighbouring Venezuela.

Venezuela has blown up two pedestrian bridges on its border with Colombia in the latest sign of deteriorating relations between the Andean neighbours.

Soldiers destroyed the walkways because they were being used by illegal militia and drug traffickers, said Eusebio Aguero, an army general based in the border state of Táchira.

"Uniformed men, apparently from the Venezuelan army, arrived in trucks on the Venezuelan side at two pedestrian bridges that link communities on both sides and then proceeded to dynamite them," Silva said.

CNN en Español has been running a story all afternnon that men dressed as Venezuelan troops blew up two pedestrin bridges over the Santander River on the Venezuela-Colombia border.

Tensions between the countries reached a new high after the Colombian military arrested four Venezuelan soldiers, just days after Mr Chavez told his army to "prepare for war" with Colombia.

The Venezuelan ambassador to Bogota, Gustavo Marquez, said that the seriousness of the situation could not be overstated and that "there is a pre-war situation in the entire region".

Telling his people, "If you want peace, prepare for war," and accusing the US of secretly plotting to invade and seize Venezuela's oil reserves, Hugo Chavez announced that he intends to send 15,000 troops to his country's border with Colombia.

The hostile move, which has inflamed diplomatic relations across the region, saw the left-wing president urge his soldiers to "defend this sacred nation called Venezuela" against what he called a creeping right-wing "empire". In response, Colombia said it would complain to the United Nations.

So consider the hypocrisy. On October 27, Rep. Connie Mack (Rep. FL) introduced HR 872: Calling for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to be designated a state sponsor of terrorism for its support of Iran, Hezbollah, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP). Its sole co-sponsor was Rep. Ron Klein (Dem. FL).

President Hugo Chavez's government is sending 15,000 soldiers to the border with Colombia, saying the military buildup is needed to increase security, combat drug trafficking and root out paramilitary groups.

Colombian opposition groups have reacted angrily after details of a controversial military deal with the US were made public.

Under the 10-year deal, the US military will not only have access to military bases, but also be able to use major international civilian airports.

US personnel and defence contractors will also enjoy diplomatic immunity.

Leftist Latin American leaders have agreed on using a new intra- regional trading currency, dubbed as Sucre, instead of the US dollar.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, who hosted leaders of the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean (ALBA), said that the “document is approved.”

During the seventh ALBA summit, the leaders agreed on the currency reform as well as approving plans to impose economic sanctions against the coup leaders in Honduras, AFP reported.

People no longer trust Congress, the President, the courts, the media, corporations, political parties, and other institutions of society. People even doubt science and medicine.

Cartoons published in Radio Progreso bulletin

A Jewish civil rights organization is expressing alarm over conspiracy theories claiming Jews and Israel aided the ouster of the Honduran president and attempts to dislodge him from his refuge in the Brazilian Embassy.

An emergency decree that prohibited large street protests and limited other civil liberties following the return of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will be repealed within 24 hours, the country's interim leader said Monday.

The emergency decree, which resulted in dozens of arrests and the closing of two pro-Zelaya media outlets, is no longer necessary because "we have peace in the country," interim President Roberto Micheletti told the privately owned Channel 5 television network.

"We want to go back to normalcy," Micheletti said.

‘First they came for my legally elected President….. then they came for my Freedom Of Speech…..’

Under Pinochet’s regime, over a quarter of a million people were detained in prisons like the Chacabuco desert camp. These are the only images to have emerged from his camps and reveal the true horror of his regime. “They must stay here until they realise they are on the wrong path,” states the guard at Chacabuco Concentration camp. Nearby prisoners suspected of being Communists are forced to march and sing military songs. One of the victims filmed at the camp was Patricia Letelier. Now, she lives in exile in Scotland and recalls what happened to her at Chacabuco. “I heard shouting and screaming and knew what was waiting for me. Shortly afterwards my own torture began.”

Manuel Zelaya takes refuge in Brazilian Embassy in Honduras since coming back to the country. He claims Israeli mercenaries hired by the de facto government tormenting him, planning on murdering him

In a bid to diminish the power of the US-dominated IMF and counterbalance the influence of Western investors, seven Latin American countries have agreed to form a “Bank of the South.”

I guess you can call it ‘Payback Time’….. for 30 Billion Dollar$ a year, Israel is expected to do something. Apparently that ’something’ is to have Mossad Agents do the dirty work for the CIA…. and supply poison gas to the opponents of Democracy.

On September 22nd Human Rights Watch issued a report stating that it “has received credible reports that police used excessive force – wielding truncheons and firing tear gas and rubber bullets – today to disperse thousands of Zelaya supporters who gathered outside the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa” where constitutionally elected President Zelaya has been staying since he stealthfully returned to Honduras on September 21st. “Given the reports we have received, and the poor track record since the coup, we fear that conditions could deteriorate drastically in the coming days” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.

''Brazil is following a path very similar to Iran, but Iran is getting all the attention,'' said Marshall Eakin, a Brazil expert at Vanderbilt University.

In a dramatic move that seemed like something out of a Hollywood
movie, ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya sneaked back into his
country and turned up Monday at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa,
the capital. (Source: Pakistan News)

A strong 6.4 magnitude earthquake was felt for several seconds across Venezuela on Saturday, shaking buildings in the capital, Caracas, but no damage was immediately reported.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday told the Israeli people not to support their government, which he described as “genocidal”.

Chavez is on an 11-day trip to Libya, Algeria, Syria, Iran, Belarus, Russia and Spain in what he is describing as a bid to build a multi-polar world and decrease US influence in the region.

The Venezuelan president has singled out Israel for criticism during his visit to Syria, slamming it for mistreating the Palestinians and being an agent of US imperialism.

Imagine that you live in a nice house in a tense neighborhood. Your neighbors haven’t been too pleased with you lately, and you have a terrible roach infestation running havoc in your house. But perhaps there’s hope.

A big, strong guy lives down the street, and is offering to help out. He has big guns and says he has just the spray to get rid of those pesky roaches if you just let him crash at your place.

Some American troops will soon find themselves stationed at military bases scattered across the South American nation of Colombia with a mission to use advanced Predator drone technology to aid in fighting the drug trade and to combat terrorism, according to published reports Saturday.

But Colombia’s neighbors certainly do not see it that way.

The deal is worth over 40 million dollars for Bogota, along with expanded US military assistance for Bogota’s counternarcotics efforts, according to a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Obama administration should reconsider its decision to escalate U.S. involvement in Colombia's long-running civil war.

The White House already has its hands full with Iraq and Afghanistan; it does not need to be drawn deeper into another bloody conflict.

In recent months, negotiations have been quietly under way to turn at least three – and possibly five – Colombian bases into U.S. military outposts. The Pentagon would be allowed to station as many as 800 U.S. military personnel and 600 private contractors at the bases.

South American leaders at a regional summit have expressed fresh concerns over Colombian plans to grant American troops access to its military bases.

Is this the type of ‘Change’ we have been hearing about from the new administration? Change from a democratic system to one that surpresses all human rights??