January 21, 2005: Headlines: COS - Venezuela: Congress: Expansion: Heritage Foundation: Stephen Johnson says: Hugo Chávez must have choked back laughter when Chris Dodd asked him to accept U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Venezuela
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January 11, 2005: Headlines: COS - Venezuela: COS - Dominican Republic: Expansion: Congress: Miami Herald: Senator Chris Dodd suggested to President Chavez that Venezuela should accept Peace Corps volunteers :
January 21, 2005: Headlines: COS - Venezuela: Congress: Expansion: Heritage Foundation: Stephen Johnson says: Hugo Chávez must have choked back laughter when Chris Dodd asked him to accept U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Venezuela
Stephen Johnson says: Hugo Chávez must have choked back laughter when Chris Dodd asked him to accept U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Venezuela
Stephen Johnson says: Hugo Chávez must have choked back laughter when Chris Dodd asked him to accept U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Venezuela
Venezuela Reality Check
by Stephen Johnson
WebMemo #643
January 21, 2005 |
During a recent South American tour, a U.S. Senate delegation showed how futile it is to patronize despots. Members struggled to invent common bonds with Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, and then promised what they couldn’t deliver.
In Caracas on January 10, Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) called on President Hugo Chávez, offering to repair testy relations with Washington if he would assure oil exports to the United States and cooperate with U.S. counternarcotics efforts in Colombia.
Dodd, the ranking Senator who once advocated friendly ties with Nicaragua’s Sandinista comandantes, told Chávez, “Both countries need each other.” At a news conference, he added, “Today is a new year, a new page, and we are here to find out if we can begin a new relationship.”
[Excerpt]
Something Ventured, Nothing Gained
Despite claims that the two countries need each other, Venezuela’s bully President doesn’t think so. And he may be right. Petroleum is fungible, and so shipments diverted to Asia may be replenished by another supplier. And even if Chávez continues helping Colombia’s terrorist rebels, he risks a confrontation that could ignite an armed conflict at home. Finally, the United States has already offered better relations. Now it’s up to Chávez.
The real challenge is for politicians like Sen. Dodd to see Chávez as an elected dictator. The budding tyrant must have choked back laughter when Dodd asked him to accept U.S. Peace Corps volunteers. Cuba has reportedly sent more than 25,000 doctors, teachers, and intelligence operatives to help corral Venezuela’s once free society. Tellingly, hundreds have already tried to escape.
Stephen Johnson is Senior Policy Analyst for Latin America in the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
When this story was posted in January 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| Ask Not As our country prepares for the inauguration of a President, we remember one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century and how his words inspired us. "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." |
| Latest: RPCVs and Peace Corps provide aid Peace Corps made an appeal last week to all Thailand RPCV's to consider serving again through the Crisis Corps and more than 30 RPCVs have responded so far. RPCVs: Read what an RPCV-led NGO is doing about the crisis an how one RPCV is headed for Sri Lanka to help a nation he grew to love. Question: Is Crisis Corps going to send RPCVs to India, Indonesia and nine other countries that need help? |
| The World's Broken Promise to our Children Former Director Carol Bellamy, now head of Unicef, says that the appalling conditions endured today by half the world's children speak to a broken promise. Too many governments are doing worse than neglecting children -- they are making deliberate, informed choices that hurt children. Read her op-ed and Unicef's report on the State of the World's Children 2005. |
| Our debt to Bill Moyers Former Peace Corps Deputy Director Bill Moyers leaves PBS next week to begin writing his memoir of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Read what Moyers says about journalism under fire, the value of a free press, and the yearning for democracy. "We have got to nurture the spirit of independent journalism in this country," he warns, "or we'll not save capitalism from its own excesses, and we'll not save democracy from its own inertia." |
| Is Gaddi Leaving? Rumors are swirling that Peace Corps Director Vasquez may be leaving the administration. We think Director Vasquez has been doing a good job and if he decides to stay to the end of the administration, he could possibly have the same sort of impact as a Loret Ruppe Miller. If Vasquez has decided to leave, then Bob Taft, Peter McPherson, Chris Shays, or Jody Olsen would be good candidates to run the agency. Latest: For the record, Peace Corps has no comment on the rumors. |
| The Birth of the Peace Corps UMBC's Shriver Center and the Maryland Returned Volunteers hosted Scott Stossel, biographer of Sargent Shriver, who spoke on the Birth of the Peace Corps. This is the second annual Peace Corps History series - last year's speaker was Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn. |
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Story Source: Heritage Foundation
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Venezuela; Congress; Expansion
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