So That's how it is gonna be, eh?

The Houston Chronicle reported yesterday, that a judge is considering expropriating Citgo (the US oil company tied to Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA) property in the US in response to ExxonMobil and ConocoPhilips' stomping their feet out of concession negotiations with the Venezuelan government after holding their breath until they turned blue didn't work.



The kicker is that the US government is considering seizing the plants and giving it to Exxon and Conoco in exchange for their losses in the Orinco Delta.

I'm sorry, but is that REALLY how it works? Kinda smells like Guatemala, 1954.
I guess we'll file this one under "AH! so THAT'S Imperialism?!" and wait for the invasion.





In related news, after Chávez told Brazilian and MERCOSUR legislators to mind their own-goddamn business when it comes to RCTV (in the case of Brasil he said he didn't give a damn what the 'parrots' had to say, something he has reiterated with every statement of 'concern' coming from Spain, Mexico, and etc), Brazil is demanding the predictable apology, which will never come.
Roberto Lavagna, semi-Peronist Argentine presidential hopeful, is calling for Argentina and Brazil to 'reign in' and 'put limits on' Chávez, while Kircher is playing the wallflower as his wife prepares to run for his job in upcoming elections.
And finally, MERCOSUR is talking about reconsidering Venezuela's status in the trade bloc.

Chávez's response? Venezuela wouldn't want to be in MERCOSUR anyway, unless it undergoes some major reconstructive surgery.

This illuminates something I've been saying for quite a while: Argentina, Brazil and Chile suck.

Or at least their presidents do...some examples:
The MST (Movimento Sem Terra, Landless Peasant Movement) has all but declared war on Lula, pointing out that he is too concerned with convincing the world that he's not Chávez to actually do anything he's promised in the past.
Chile's Michelle Bachelet went out of her way to meet with the Venezuelan opposition during a recent ALBA (Alternativa Bolivariana para las Américas -- the Chávez alternative to the Cold War era 'Aliance for Progress' and its offspring) meeting held here on the eve of RCTV's changeover to public hands. Not to mention that she's all but running on the Barak-Obama plan (i.e. cashing in political capital on her identity/past while saying and doing all but nothing of substance)
And Kirchner...well...he was never that great to begin with. His call to rebuild 'national capitalism' when he took office by the fluke of Menem's dropping out in 2003 was perhaps less than inspiring.