Venezuela’s Chavez Paranoid - Sampling the Goods?

By Tim Grubbs
September 11, 2008
International

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is acting highly paranoid and marginally delusional, leaving third-party observers to wonder if Chavez may have fallen victim to the peer pressure of a high-currency drug trade whose home front is Chavez’s own country. According to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Venezuela is a a major transit point for cannabis and coca-derived illicit drugs.

In an Associated Press article, it is reported that Chavez has ousted U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy over concerns that the United States government is involved in a covert plot to have Chavez removed from power. He is quoted as saying, “They’re trying to do here what they were doing in Bolivia,” and, “That’s enough [expletive] from you, Yankees.”

Chavez recently invited Russia to deploy two Blackjack bomber aircraft to Venezuela, which U.S. officials have dismissed as inconsequential. Of the bomber delivery, Chavez said, “The presence of those Russian planes in Venezuela is a warning. There’s nothing better to keep yourself from being attacked than to dissuade.”

To provide some background, Chavez also referred to George W. Bush as “the devil” at a United Nations meeting, commenting that he could still smell sulfur in the room after Bush had left.

That must be some serious weed!

Image Credit: Wikipedia