Top Russian military brass visits Nicaragua

A top level military delegation from Russia is visiting Nicaragua this week to further cement tightening bilateral relations between the two countries.

 

Russia’s General Staff Chief Col. Gen. Valery Gerasimov is in Managua for a three-day visit aimed at advancing Russia’s political-military cooperation with Nicaragua. Gerasimov is the highest ranking Russian military official to visit Nicaragua in the new era of cozying relations between Moscow and Managua.

On Sunday, the Russian military chief and his Nicaraguan counterpart, Gen. Julio Cesar Aviles, jointly inaugurated a new Russian-donated munitions destruction facility outside of Managua. The plant will serve the dual purpose of destroying old stockpiled munitions that are no longer useful and reactivating older munitions to “avoid expenses in buying new munitions,” according to Gen. Aviles.  

“Even beyond military use, there are other benefits to the country because the gunpowder or elements extracted from old munitions can be used perfectly in a project of national importance,” Gen. Aviles said, without elaborating.

Gerasimov, for his part, said it was a “great honor” to participate in the inauguration of the munitions destruction facility, which is known by the Nicaraguan military as Base-2.

The Russian military official’s meetings with Nicaraguan military brass will continue today and tomorrow. Gerasimov will also meet with President Daniel Ortega, according to Russian media sources.

Tens of thousands rally for Argentina's biggest protest in years

Thousands of pot-banging, flag-waving, banner-hoisting demonstrators massed in Buenos Aires for Argentina’s largest anti-government protest in years. Common themes at the protest included the nation's high levels of crime, corruption and inflation.

The demonstration, which lasted nearly four hours, was aimed at the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kircher. Police officials said at least 30,000 people participated, while local media reported that hundreds of thousands turned out.

Protesters angry at the nation’s current state banged pots and pans as Argentinians young and old rallied until almost midnight.

A column of demonstrators carried a 200-meter-long flag. As they marched through the city, they were greeted with noisy pans, tambourines, and honking car horns.

Protesters chanted, “We’re not afraiid!" as they swarmed into the Plaza de Mayo and surrounding area, right in front of the presidential palace.

They shouted, whistled, and held banners that read "Constitution is written with C, not K," referring to the ‘K dictatorship’ of Fernandez de Kircher’s government.

Another sign read, “Stop the wave of Argentines killed by crime, enough with corruption and say no to the constitutional reform.”

The sign referred to a widely held fear that President Fernandez will attempt to stay in office for a third term through a constitutional reform ending presidential term limits.

The protesters rattled off a long list of complaints about the current government: The country’s soaring inflation, violent crime rates and high-profile corruption.

"I came to protest everything that I don't like about this government and I don't like a single thing starting with [the president's] arrogance…they're killing policemen like dogs, and the president doesn't even open her mouth. This government is just a bunch of hooligans and corrupters,” 74-year-old retiree Marta Morosini told AP.

Protests took place in other cities throughout Argentina, including the major cities of Cordoba, Mendoza and La Plata.

In countries elsewhere around the world, demonstrators gathered in front of Argentinean embassies and consulates.

Around 50 angry demonstrators gathered in front of the consulate in Rome shouting,“Cristina, go away.”

In Madrid, another group of about 200 protesters braved the rain to bang pots outside the Argentinean consulate.

"In Argentina, there's no separation of power and it cannot be considered a democracy…Cristina is not respecting the constitution. The presidency is not a blank check and she must govern for those who are for her and against her,” Marcelo Gimenez, a 40-year-old Argentinean who currently resides in Spain said.

During a speech on Thursday, Fernandez did not directly address the protests, but instead defended her government’s policies and affirmed her dedication to the job.

"Never let go, not even in the worst moments," she said."Because it's in the worst moments when the true colors of a leader of a country comes out."

Fernandez won a second term last year with 54 percent of the vote.

Her administration has been accused of alienating large sections of the middle class, and has drawn criticism for limiting imports and imposing controls on foreign currency exchanges, making it difficult for Argentines to travel abroad.

Embarassing Argentine Farce - Argentina evacuates impounded frigate; Monday Timerman begins lobbying at the UN

The Argentine government ordered on Saturday the evacuation of the naval training frigate ARA Libertad impounded in Ghana by international creditors, following the warning made on Friday that complaints would be taken to the UN over the controversy.

Sombre faced ministers Puricelli and Timerman making the announcement

Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman and Defence Minister Arturo Puricelli gave a press conference Saturday evening from Government House in Buenos Aires, reading a communiqué sent by President Cristina Fernández, in which she ordered the evacuation of the ship

“President Cristina Fernandez has decided the immediate evacuation of all the crew members, Argentine and non Argentines so as to preserve their physical integrity and dignity leaving on board the Captain and a minimum number of sailors for the maintenance of the frigate while it remains retained” in the port of Tema, Ghana, said Minister Timerman.

The frigate has been retained since 2 October in Ghana on an injunction order from a New York court on request from New York and Caribbean based funds holders of Argentine defaulted sovereign bonds and which pretend to collect full principal and interests.

Timerman said that “Argentina makes the government of Ghana responsible for all and every damage that the frigate ARA Libertad might suffer until its release, as well as all the costs generated because of an illegal action that violates international law”.

The Argentine minister added that on Monday, on specific instructions from President Cristina Fernandez, he will be meeting with the president of the UN Security Council in New York, “as well as with all those committees that address violations of human rights, international treaties and financial crimes”.

“The ruling from the Ghana Justice which orders the retention of the Frigate ARA Libertad not only violates international treaties which oblige Ghana to guarantee the immunity of war vessels, but also has put at risk the human rights of the 326 crewmembers on board, among which citizens from Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and South Africa”, added the communiqué read by Timerman.

In direct criticism to the Ghana court ruling upholding the impound and banning ARA Libertad from bunkering, Timerman said that “the only reply from the magistrate to an Argentine request which contemplates the possibility of a tragedy, and the impossibility of providing the basic elements for any human being, was that we reach an agreement with the ‘vulture fund’ which presented the demand. It is then clear the intention of the magistrate to force a sovereign country to negotiate with an entity dedicated to financial piracy from its hideout in the Caribbean. That option, as was clearly stated yesterday (Friday) is the only unacceptable for Argentina”.

Standing next to Defence minister Arturo Puricelli Timerman concluded that an act “which ‘prima facie’ seemed a commercial impound has dropped its mask and is exposing the true face of the power of the ‘vulture funds’ that from their fiscal hideouts organize attacks which are none less than an abduction, an extortion and a piracy act against a sovereign country, founding member of the UN and of acknowledged participation in countless peace missions in the five continents”.

The ‘vulture funds’ in this particular case are demanding payment of over 300 million dollars in Argentine sovereign bonds which were not included in the voluntary restructuring of Argentina’s massive default in 2001. Between 2005 and 2010 Argentina managed to come to terms with 93% of bond holders, however there are still 7% pending most of them in the hands of these funds that precisely take advantage of these situations and try by all means (including impounding assets overseas) to collect the face value plus interests of those documents.

The defendant, in this case the Argentine Foreign Ministry, its representatives, agents including ARA Libertad Captain Lucio Salónica and the crew are barred from moving the vessel from the port of Tema without a new order from the court, according to last week’s ruling at the Accra High Court.

The plaintiff said it would accept a deposit bail of 20 million dollars to release the vessel but the Argentine government rejected the option point blank.

Big deal: 20 Sukhoi Superjets to fly in Mexico

A Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 in Aeroflot livery comes to land ahead of the Farnborough Airshow 2012.

Mexico's Interjet airline has taken up an option to buy 20 Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ-100) planes at the Farnborough air show.

­Superjet International has signed a contract worth $700 million with Interjet to supply it with 20 SSJ-100s said Interjet Chairman Miguel Alemаn Velasco at a press conference at Farnborough.

He said the plane's quality and price were the key factors for the purchase.nterjet originally planned to buy 15 Super jets but later decided to sign up for an additional five.

Velasco also said that the decision to purchase additional Sukhoi planes was not affected by the May crash of a Superjet in Indonesia.

The plane crashed into a mountain during its first demonstration flight from Jakarta, killing all 45 people on board.

The latest investigation report show the crash could have been caused by the carelessness of a ground controller.

However Armenia’s Armavia has decided against buying a second plane, saying it will purchase Airbus and Boeing instead.

Armavia took delivery of the first Superjet 100 in April last year  and began commercial flights immediately. It was supposed to buy a second at the end of the year.

“Armenia is not going to buy it,” the Armavia’s spokeswoman Nana Avetisova said without giving a reason. However, some think it could be the airline has financial problems.

The Sukhoi Superjet is also operated by Russia’s Aeroflot. The airline says it is only using four of its eight brand new Superjets because of problems with the plane’s air-conditioning system.

Sukhoi has received over 200 firm orders for Superjet 100 airliners. At the 16th International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg in June

Russia’s Transaero signed a $212 million deal with Sukhoi for 6 Superjets-100.

The Superjet 100 is a short-medium haul passenger aircraft capable of carrying up to 100 passengers for up to 4,500 kilometers.

It is built as a joint venture between Sukhoi, and the US and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.

In 2012 Sukhoi plans to supply a total of 20 SSJ planes to countries like Indonesia, Laos and Mexico and to Russia’s Aeroflot and Yakutsk airlines.

United States neutrality on Lugo’s impeachment draws criticism

When Fernando Lugo was nearing the end of his lonely run as Paraguay’s elected president, the former priest appealed to what many followers of Latin American politics have long assumed to be a higher power: the US government.

Lugo left the presidential palace and met for more than an hour with US Ambassador James H. Thessin while congressmen prepared to vote to impeach him in a hasty Senate trial the next day. And while the leftist leader was lunching with the ambassador, his right-wing opponents also reached out to the embassy.

What both sides asked for during these critical hours, and what they were told in response, remains secret. Thessin said that he wouldn’t comment before the report by an Organization of American States’ fact-finding mission is released Tuesday.

Publicly, the US State Department remained studiously neutral as Lugo’s ouster convulsed his capital and Paraguay’s neighbours sought to apply maximum pressure on their poor, landlocked neighbor to abort what they now call an “institutional coup.”

Should the US have done more to defend Lugo, despite the fact that he had lost the confidence of all but a handful of lawmakers in a country where the constitution enables any leader to be removed from office for mere “poor performance” with a two-thirds vote of the Congress?

A chorus of voices around the region — mostly leftists — is saying yes, and some squarely blame Washington for Lugo’s downfall.

“The coup in Paraguay was being prepared for a long time and is part of a continental policy imposed by the United States against democratic governments, with the complicity of the economic and political powers,” declared Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the Argentine Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He urged the entire region to defend democracy by calling for the restoration of Lugo’s presidency.

Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chávez, went even further, claiming without presenting any evidence that Lugo’s ouster was a “decision of the Pentagon.”

Others disagree that Washington could have made a difference.

Conspiracy theories abound in Latin America, but there’s probably nothing the US could have done last month to save him, said former US diplomat Arturo Valenzuela. He said Lugo’s failure to cultivate political alliances made him vulnerable to impeachment throughout his presidency.

That doesn’t mean the US government shouldn’t seek to influence another country’s internal affairs when it can encourage a positive outcome, Valenzuela added.

He described a previous episode when he personally defended Lugo and said it was “one of the most difficult tasks I had” as the Obama administration’s top diplomat in Latin America.

“I actually spent hours, two years ago, with the leadership of the Colorado Party, primarily from Congress, trying to persuade them that it was not a good idea for them to impeach the president. And in that particular time, in fact, that did not happen,” Valenzuela said Friday at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.

This time, though, there was an overwhelming feeling among Paraguay’s lawmakers that the time had come to end Lugo’s enigmatic rule. The lower house voted 76-1 to put him on trial, and after a hasty impeachment the next day, senators voted 39-4 to remove him from office.

Lugo, whose election in 2008 with a 10-point lead over several rivals ended six decades of Colorado Party rule, was remote and even mysterious as a leader. He hardly ever explained his decisions and rarely spoke with the media. At the end, after nearly all his Paraguayan allies had abandoned him, it was even more difficult to understand his intentions. He reversed course several times, saying he’d accept the impeachment verdict and then challenging it.

While the US stayed aloof, nations in the region did try to save Lugo, and failed.

Foreign ministers from a dozen South American nations in the UNASUR organization flew together to Asuncion to lobby Paraguayan lawmakers, and found themselves advocating much more forcefully than Lugo himself against impeachment.

Venezuela’s foreign minister huddled privately with Paraguay’s four armed forces chiefs, which has brought allegations from the new government that he urged the generals to use the threat of force to abort the impeachment. Venezuela’s government denies that.

Top diplomats from Brazil and Argentina confronted Vice President Federico Franco, allegedly threatening trade sanctions if he didn’t call on Congress to stop the trial.

The visiting foreign ministers made a last-ditch attempt to persuade senators themselves, to no avail.

“I think it’s out of place for foreign ministers to intervene to such an extent in the internal affairs of Paraguay,” said Sen. Miguel Carrizosa of the Beloved Fatherland party, calling it “an abuse of diplomacy.”

With Lugo out, the UNASUR and Mercosur groups swiftly suspended Paraguay’s membership, and Lugo called on the Washington-based OAS to suspend Paraguay as well, comparing his treatment to that of Manuel Zelaya, the Honduran president sent packing in his pajamas in a 2009 coup.

The Honduras experience proved highly problematic for US diplomats, who were accused of failing to do enough to support a democratically elected leader, and Lugo’s remaining allies in Paraguay have sought to blame the US again this time.

The Obama administration has continued to take a back-seat role in such political crises. In Libya, Egypt, Syria and now Paraguay, it has deferred to regional organizations and neighbouring countries, letting others take the lead in describing and defending what best represents democracy.

Some Lugo supporters are furious at the US for not doing more.

“No one who claims to defend democracy could have a contemplative attitude in the face of what happened in 1933 in Germany, when Adolf Hitler led a parliamentary coup, or when Honduras had another democratic rupture,” said Ricardo Canese, secretary general of Lugo’s leftist Broad Front coalition. “If the government of Barack Obama doesn’t condemn the coup-plotters who brought down Lugo, if it doesn’t condemn this dictatorship-like attitude, then it will be very serious for the United States.”

The State Department says this was no coup, and has limited its criticism to the Senate for moving so quickly against Lugo.

“We have been closely following events in Paraguay and remain deeply concerned with the speed of the process used for the impeachment,” one statement said, adding that “the United States is deeply interested in the success of Paraguayan democracy.”

The US position got a key endorsement this week from the New York-based Human Right Foundation, a nonprofit group that was deeply involved in analyzing the Honduran coup for the OAS and was quite critical of the State Department back then.

“What just happened in Paraguay is not, in any way, what took place in Honduras almost three years ago,” said Javier El-Hage, the foundation’s legal director. He said the new Paraguayan government should be fully recognized.

“President Lugo was removed legally through an impeachment trial, carried out on vague but legitimate and constitutional grounds. Principle, rather than politics, should guide the judgment of the OAS and others in the international community.”

Mujica proposes to blend Mercosur and Unasur into an only `more flexible group

Uruguayan president Jose Mujica proposed to its South American peers to blend Mercosur and Unasur into an only group, according to an interview with a Uruguayan weekly in which he also ratified his commitment with Venezuela (and its oil resources) to justify the incorporation of the fifth full member of Mercosur.

The Uruguayan president again floated a new proposal

“I favour and have proposed my peers to transform Mercosur in Unasur or the other way around, so that they become an only group. I don’t know how it would be called but we need to open other institutional paths, which are more flexible and more realistic”, said the Uruguayan leader.

Mujica said he shared his proposal with the presidents from Argentina, Cristina Fernandez; Brazil, Dilma Rousseff; Chile, Sebastián Peñera and Peru’s Ollanta Humala during the recent Mercosur summit in Mendoza which was followed by an emergency meeting of Unasur, Union of South American Nations.

“The region must think and look twenty years ahead and forget the short sightedness, the short terms”, Mujica told his peers.

The president said that with Venezuela inside Mercosur “it’s a three giants match against two weaklings (Uruguay and Paraguay) but with Unasur we can open to other strong countries from the Pacific such as Colombia, Peru and Chile”.

He also argued that Uruguay gave its support for Venezuela’s controversial incorporation to Mercosur, during the Mendoza summit, which was possible following the suspension of Paraguay, “not taking advantage of a circumstantial situation but because we are committed to Venezuela, its oil resources and its reality”.

“We are telling the world: ’wait a minute, we need the oil resources here (in South America)”, explained Mujica. Uruguay imports all of the oil it consumes and Venezuela has become the supplier of 65% of that total.

The way Venezuela was admitted into Mercosur triggered a sour controversy in Uruguay and particularly in the ruling coalition. Vice-president Danilo Astori described it as a “serious blow and injury” because it is “a very harmful serious institutional aggression”.

Astori is considered the architect of Uruguay’s current orthodox policy and the guarantee of the country’s fiscal consolidation, investments and attempts to further open the economy. He has become increasingly critical of Argentina and Brazil’s protectionist policies.

Foreign minister Luis Almagro revealed that Uruguay did not want the access of Venezuela to occur as it happened and that his Ministry will assess the juridical validity of such a move, which must be confirmed at a Mercosur meeting scheduled for July 31 in Rio do Janeiro.

Both Almagro and the Defence minister Fernandez Huidobro have been summoned to Congress to explain what really happened in Mendoza at the summit and to explain the presence during a week in Uruguay of 250 Venezuelan forces, without approval from the Legislative, and which on several occasions in meetings with their peers in military barracks swore allegiance to the Bolivarian Socialist regime of President Hugo Chavez.

Meanwhile Uruguay’s junior opposition party proposed during a long debate in the Lower House of congress that the Mercosur 1991 founding chart be again signed by the presidents and ratified by the four countries parliaments.

'Latin American Spring' kicking-off in Paraguay?

The impact of Paraguay’s president being ousted in a coup last month goes far beyond the country itself - it was global industrial powers who backed a powerful local elite to orchestrate the turnaround.

It seems the left-leaning policies of president Fernando Lugo, a socialist politician and former Catholic priest, were just too much for the Global Power Masters. So, after a 24-hour “impeachment trial”, they removed him.

Fernando Lugo was elected Paraguay’s president in April 2008 running on the “Alliance for Change” ticket, marking the very first time after sixty years that the pro-US Colorado Party was swept from formal political power.

Lugo’s policies sought to redistribute wealth, giving more rights to the poor majority of the Guaraní Indian-stock population. Ideologically, Lugo is in the same socialist camp as presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia, and Rafael Correa of Ecuador.

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Regime Change the Monsanto Way

­Lugo’s tenure in office was not easy: a scandal over his fathering a child out of wedlock and being ordained, a battle with cancer in 2010, and very recently a violent episode of police repression when clearing public land occupied by local farmers in the township of Curuguaty on Brazil’s border.  On Friday 15th June that turned very ugly when a gun fight broke out, leaving 6 police and 11 farmers dead, and dozens injured.

The opposition quickly maneuvered politically and through their control over Congress and the media, notably the ABC Color Multimedia outlet owned by Grupo Zuccolillo who are partners of US biotechnology and grains trader Gargill Inc.  Impeachment proceedings were pushed in a record 24 hours, putting Mr Lugo out of a job and replacing him with his Colorado Party vice president Federico Franco.

Most South American nations rejected this coup – Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, even Chile and Colombia. However, the US, UK and EU seem to have no qualms with this coup-de-Etat; for them it’s just “democracy business as usual”.

The roots of this coup against Paraguay, though not reported by the mainstream Western media, are simple. Late in October 2011, Paraguay’s liberal Agriculture and Livestock Minister Enzo Cardoso illegally approved a new transgenic cotton seed called “Bollgard BT” – engineered by US biotechnology giant Monsanto for mass plantation.

This immediately sparked widespread protests from local farmers and environmentalists, who say the product is very dangerous as its gene is mixed with the Bacillus Thurigensis gene, a toxic bacteria that kills cotton plagues but causes environmental damage. 

An internal row erupted as Paraguay’s National Seed & Vegetable Quality and Health Service – SENAVE – headed by a Lugo supporter, Miguel Lovera, refused to approve Monsanto’s wonder seed because it did not comply with Ministry of Health and Ministry of Environmental Protection approvals as required by law.

To cut a long story short, the local press led by Zuccolillo’s ABC Color newspaper and other opposition and pro-US media, politicians, NGOs, foreign agencies and corporate interests launched a smear campaign against Mr Lovera, as well as Health Minister Esperanza Martinez and Environmental Protection Minister Oscar Rivas, that led to the Curuguaty massacre and escalated all the way up to president Fernando Lugo.

No one knows who fired the first shot leading to the bloodbath in Curuguaty.  Some talk of internal sabotage inside police intelligence – especially amongst the Special Operations Group in charge of repressing the farmers, many of whose key officers were trained in counterinsurgency in Colombia during president Alvaro Uribe’s pro-US “paramilitary” government.  Then there’s the local Attorney General’s office receiving USAID – United States Agency for International Development “support”…

The Curuguaty massacre cost Interior Minister Carlos Filizzola his job, who was promptly replaced by Ruben Candia Amarilla from the opposition Colorado Party.  In 2005 Candia Amarilla was named Attorney General during the last Colorado Party administration counting the full support of US Ambassador John F Keen, thus giving USAID a major role in the Public Ministry.  Candia had already been accused by president Lugo some years ago of conspiring to overthrow him.

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The Brazilian Equation

­But this is not all just about Paraguay, which lies in the heart of South America. As Brazilian military geostrategists pointed out last century, it’s of fundamental geopolitical and geostrategic importance.  Thus, US control over Paraguay is a key factor for American hegemony over South America, one of whose goals lies in stopping Brazil’s growing global importance as a BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa – country.

Brazil recently discovered massive oil reserves off its Atlantic coast, which led it to upgrade and strengthen its naval and air forces, especially ever since the US resurrected the South Atlantic Fourth Fleet (founded during World War II, scrapped in 1953 and reborn under George W Bush).

This means Brazil’s growing alliance with Russia, China and India needs to open up an alternative Pacific Ocean route away from the NATO controlled Atlantic.  US military and political control over Paraguay would definitely act as a barrier to this, and is a preparatory step for US plans to build a trade block with US-UK allies in Latin America: notably, Mexico, Panamá with its Canal, Colombia, Peru, Chile and now, Paraguay.  A veritable Pacific Wall not easy for Brazil to jump over.

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The kind of “democracy” the US wants to see…

­During the 20th Century, Latin America had to cope with extensive “coup engineering” – military and civilian – by the US and UK intel agencies CIA and MI6, which repeatedly orchestrated, financed, armed and promoted “regime change”.   

Lasting decades, the ensuing pro-US regimes had “trademark” figures like General Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua, generals Aramburu, Ongania and Videla in Argentina, Carlos Andrés Perez in Venezuela, Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, and general Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay, amongst others.

Divide & Rule (and Weaken!!!) That is the keynote for the coming “Latin American Spring”, just as it is with today’s nefarious “Arab Spring”.

So, stay tuned… there’s lots more to come!

Breaking the law: Brazilian fighter jets shatter Supreme Court building

 

What could be worse than nearly destroying a government building during a training exercise?

Destroying the building which houses the country’s Supreme Court – and facing a whole lot of angry lawyers, as two Air Force pilots in Brazil will have to.

The long arm of the law is definitely itching to grab a hold of the two men, who made a low-altitude supersonic fly pass during a training exercise, and ended up shattering every window in the Supreme Court building in the capital, Brasilia.

Swooping low over the Supremo Tribunal Federal building, the two French-made Mirage 2000 jets generated a massive shockwave, obliterating the glass facade.

The war planes were taking part in the national flag exchange ceremony at the Esplanada dos Ministerios. In the video, crowds of spectators can be heard cheering and clapping at the display, which impressed everyone but the legal eagles in the building.

The press spokesman for the Brazilian Air Force said the military will conduct an investigation into the incident and reimburse any cost.

Made by French arms company Dassault, the Mirage 2000 jet is known for its fantastic straight line speed, reaching just over twice the speed of sound. But it also has a notoriously large turning circle, making maneuverability somewhat tricky.

So even if the pilots had had the time to see they might run into some trouble, they may not have had the time to do anything about it.

Venezuelan presidential campaign takes off: Village Idiot Chavez leads massive rally

President  and Village Idiot Hugo Chávez shook off his health problems to lead a massive rally on Sunday while opposition rival Henrique Capriles took to remote regions for the formal launch of Venezuela's presidential race.

 “The Bolivarian hurricane has begun!” roared the Village Idiot Chavez

Unable to repeat the frenetic campaigning of past elections due to his struggle with cancer, a fist-pumping Chávez nevertheless made a rare appearance at a rally in central Venezuela to underline he is fit enough for the Oct. 7 vote.

“The Bolivarian hurricane has begun!” he roared to tens of thousands of supporters in the central town of Maracay, referring to his personal idol and Venezuela's independence hero, Simon Bolívar.

Capriles, a young ex-state governor seeking to end 13 years of populist rule in the South American OPEC member, flew to two distant spots near the Brazilian and Colombian borders to highlight alleged government neglect of remote communities.

“Venezuela is a blessed country. We just lack a good government,” he told indigenous inhabitants of the remote San Francisco de Yuruani hamlet, close to the majestic, flat-topped Roraima mountain in a barely populated region near Brazil.

With three months to the ballot, Chávez has a two-digit lead in most polls. Yet there is a large percentage of undecided voters and one pollster this week put the pair head-to-head.

After three operations to remove two malignant tumours during a year-long battle with cancer, the ever-upbeat Chávez, 57, has in recent weeks declared himself in full recovery and his energy levels appear to be surging just in time for the campaign.

“I want to thank Christ the Redeemer for allowing me to get through this difficult year,” he said, after riding on the top of a truck for several hours through streets lined with ecstatic supporters against a backdrop of lush hills.

Most analysts agree the presidential vote is shaping into the closest since Chávez took power in 1999, turning himself into one of the world's most controversial leaders with his anti-American rhetoric and radical nationalization policies.