Down south

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela's highest Catholic prelate on Sunday condemned President Hugo Chavez's rule as a dictatorship and urged Venezuelans to reject it in an attack likely to strain already poor church-government ties.

"I am convinced that what we have here is a dictatorship," Cardinal Rosalio Castillo, who is retired, said in a interview published by El Universal newspaper.

He told Venezuelans to use their constitutional right to refuse to recognize the left-wing president on the grounds he was not ruling democratically. Castillo did not elaborate on what actions he thought Venezuelans should take.
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Read the complete article Venezuelan cardinal: Chavez a dictator from CNN.

Today, I'm not going to write so much as a Vatican watcher...

In prosecuting the War on Terror, the United States has let its responsibilities in the Western Hemisphere be sidetracked. The War on Terror needs to be fought, but Chavez is an excellent example of how US foreign policy has 'forgotten' what are traditionally its primary areas of focus.

As recently as twenty years ago, the President of the United States and his close advisors were prepared to secretly run counter to the will of Congress in funding anti-communist forces in Latin America. The current administration doesn't seem to give Chavez and his emerging brand of communism in Venezuela a second thought while it deals with Iraq and other hot spots in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Fighting for liberty for all people around the world is something I'm 100% behind. The US thought could stand to reevaluate its priorities as Latin America slowly drifts left.

I commend the Church in Venezuela for seeing Chavez for what he really is and calling attention to him and his brand of totalitarianism. Hopefully, they'll pull their country back from the brink before it's too late.

Thanks goes out to the Fly for the link to CNN.