Behind-the-scenes with Hugo Chavez and U.S. Officials

From the New York Times (no less!)

“American officials say Mr. Chávez, despite his very public denunciations of Washington, worked behind the scenes to keep trade relations between the two countries, especially in the oil sector, strong. They recalled how Mr. Chávez once picked up the phone and dialed an American diplomat to talk policy, an odd move for a leader who more than once barred American ambassadors from Caracas and regularly denounced Washington and its leaders, sometimes using barnyard epithets. “The United States needs to fix this,” Mr. Chávez said during the call, which concerned the ouster of the Honduran president in 2009. “You are the only ones who can.”

One of the most insane policies of our crackerjack State Department recently was the obsession with reinstalling Chavez’ narcotrafficking buddy Mel Zelaya as Honduran “President.” The Yankee big-stick involved bullying, vindictive and counterproductive sanctions against the Micheletti constitutionalists by U.S. State department hardliners at the behest of some influential hardliner lawmakers and officials.

Well, looks like these U.S. hardliners (against the will of the Honduran people as shown in poll after poll) were (are) in the pocket of some very deep-pocketed lobbyists.

That’s former U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt on the left at top, notorious for his counterproductive hard-line vindictiveness against Honduran Constitutionalists. Thanks to Delahunt’s hard-line against the will of the Honduran people it became easier for Castro DGI agents to visit the U.S. than for Honduran businessmen to do likewise. Delahunt’s vindictive obsession with sanctions, his hardline against granting U.S. visas for (genuinely) “people to people” visits from Hondurans to the U.S.–all this hurt mostly the poor Honduran people. His hardline against normalization of relations with Honduras’ constitutional government hurt U.S. exports to Honduras and cost many of our hardworking and patriotic U.S. businessmen. Many Hondurans were also prevented from visiting loved ones because of these vindictive sanctions.

“You are a fraud, Obama!… Go and ask many people in Africa!..You are an Afro-descendant, but you are the shame of all those people!” (Hugo Chavez, 2011)

Oh there was definitely some fraud going on….