Wilson Ramos Rescued - Chavez' Failures

Numerous news agencies reported that Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos was rescued in a mission that saw several minutes of gunfire. This is cause to be thankful for the MLB rookie and his family.

Early reports quoted Ramos as saying that a number of the criminals spoke with a Colombian accent. Don't laugh - I did not learn Spanish until High School and I can pick out a Colombian in a few seconds of listening.
It is very possible that the criminals were affiliated in some way with the FARC, which has grown more desperate after several major setbacks handed to them by Colombian Military and Police forces. Of course much of the intelligence came as a result of US assistance.

Venezuela has an extremely high frequency of kidnappings, even among Latin American countries. Hugo Chavez is fond of running his mouth about how bad the US is. He revels in throwing his petrodollars around to other Latin American countries, especially those that either have turned Leftist or may do so soon. He seems to want to present himself as a sort of Leftist Godfather and hopes to facilitate other countries in running their nations into the ground as badly as he has with Venezuela. He even has made a big deal of providing subsidized home heating oil to low-income American families. Included in this sort of 'bread and circuses' are a series of commercials where one of his 'useful idiots' (To use Lenin's phrase) talks about the program and proceeds to pretend that opposition in the US to the program is "because it comes from Venezuela"; yeah - that is the reason.

Chavez presides over a nation where middle class and wealthier families have long been afraid of kidnappings and robberies. MLB and Minor league players who play in Venezuelan winter leagues employ private guards. Even McDonald's restaurants have armed guards posted in high vantage points to ward off criminals. He was like a kid in a candy store when George W. Bush was President. He appeared once at the United Nations General Circus, I mean Assembly, a few years ago and rambled on and on about how the place smelled of sulphur because the Devil (Bush) had spoken there a day earlier.

He seethes with arrogance, yet can't or won't even try to bring his country to a point where it is half as good a place to live as the US, which of course to him is a prime example of the wrong way to do all things. I for one would be glad to congratulate the buffoon if he did actually help out his people and nation. I mean, if I really despised the US, wouldn't I want to make my country safer and more prosperous and therefore prove that the US is wrong? That's not his plan. He prefers to nationalize private property to keep giving shots in the arm to the country's revenue. He refuses to renew licenses to TV stations that do not toe the line that he has drawn and refuse to be a part of his propaganda machine.

My take? He wants things to get worse so he can have a reason to consolidate even more power and keep himself there as El Presidente for Life. When the last barrel of oil is shipped out of Venezuela and the only thing that they have to show for it is a socialist version of a banana republic with kidnappings being a major part of the economy, Venezuelans can thank Hugo Chavez.