Hugo Chavez wants a vote on the United Nations Security Council and with the help of the Arab League he may obtain the opportunity.
Venezuela Receives Arab League Support: President Chavez also secured Arab League support for Venezuela’s UN Security Council bid. "We expect 22 countries to support the (Venezuela) candidacy." Stated Ahmed Benhelli, Secretary General of the Arab League of Nations. With Arab League assistance, Foreign Affairs Minister Alí Rodríguez Araque on Tuesday guaranteed Venezuela has obtained more than the 128 votes necessary to win a non-permanent seat at the Security Council, as a number of international organizations have already agreed to support Caracas, including the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) and the Common Market of the South (Mercosur). In return for Arab league backing, Egypt is seeking South American support in its Security Council bid.
The elected socialist leader of the resource rich South American country wants influence within the global debate society because his street cred depends upon selling the idea he is protecting the poor from the United States.
Venezuela seeks UN balance: South America's largest trade bloc said in a statement that Venezuela would "help bring necessary balance" to the council. Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has said that he wants his nation to join the council to dilute Washington's "imperialist" influence.
In addition to hanging with Castro and paying homage to Che Guevara, El Presidente is making sure long time close personal friends command his freshly supplied army.
Venezuelan Military Changes: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has appointed Army General Pedro Azuaje Apitz as the new Army C-i-C. The announcement was made during the swearing-in of General Raul Baduel as Defense Minister.
General Baduel moves up and his second in command moves up one notch with him. The new Defense Minister makes it clear which enemy he is arming against.
Weapons Purchase: "Our country owns colossal natural resources and perhaps the largest fossil energy reserve around the world. Therefore, it would illusory not to notice that a number of multinationals - the so-called corporate predators - are controlling the elites that assume the right to interfere anywhere in the world based on any excuse, as in Iraq, for example."
British Leftist Hilary Wainwright manages to have a meeting with the new #2 man in Venezuelan power circles and shares her memories of the meeting.
Venezuela's New Model Army: Baduel had been at military college with Chavez. Like Chavez and many other officers, he was from a working class background and had been to university. He had also been one of the rebel officers who formed the Bolivarian Movement with Chavez and launched the unsuccessful coup attempt in 1992 against the repressive regime of President Carlos Andres Perez.
“we are ushered in to the most extraordinary office I’ve ever seen. Straight out of the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, it is a mixture of a shrine – statuettes of the Virgin Mary and other saints everywhere, hundreds of them, plus an almost ‘life’-size statue of an angel slaughtering a wild animal; a military museum – a set of Samurai swords; a library – books piled high on his desks, including a vast tome entitled Power; and a family portrait gallery. There is a slight smell of incense. Gregorian chants play in the background.”
The telling moment: 'We have to set an example in our administration of resources, in our transparency and above all in being absolutely ruthless towards corruption,' he says of the army. He reinforces his point by getting up and taking one of the samurai swords out of its sheath and swinging it in an ‘off with their heads’ gesture.
Yep. That sounds just about right.
