Meanwhile, south of the border

Venezuela Hails Latin American 'Axis' Against US

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday his country was forging an alliance with Argentina and Brazil to lead Latin America's opposition to U.S. free trade plans for the region.

"Clearly, an axis can be seen ... -- and it's not an axis of evil as some people say -- .. that passes from Caracas, through Brasilia and reaches Buenos Aires," the left-wing Venezuelan leader said in a state of the nation speech to parliament.

Oooo, Hugo! Can we feel your muscle? More bloviations by following the link, but I especially liked:

The Venezuelan president said the growing cooperation between Cuba and Venezuela, in which more than 10,000 Cuban doctors are participating in Venezuelan government health projects, was a model of social and economic collaboration.

"Yes, we are de-stabilizers ... Fidel and Chavez ... against death, against injustice, against hunger, sickness and inequality," Chavez said. He faces a bid by foes to hold a referendum this year to try to vote him out of office.

You see, there's a funny thing about those "doctors" and it's related to the referendum - Castro’s Venezuelan Piracy

The flights from Havana go to ramp number 4 at Maiquetia Airport 25 miles from downtown Caracas, a ramp re-designated for military use by Venezuela’s Marxist President Hugo Chavez and exempt from the usual customs controls or inspections.

On September 29 alone, six flights brought 950 Cubans, mostly males in their 30s and 40s. These “Cubans travel without caring about their belongings, which are loaded directly from the planes to the trucks of the mayor’s offices,” reported the journal El Universal on November 18. “The load is guarded by National Guard officers.”

In this nation that once had a free press, the tightening grip of the Chavez dictatorship has forbidden the photographing of this airport influx of operatives from his friend Fidel Castro’s Communist police state.

“The use of TV cameras as well as the presence of journalists from any mass media is prohibited,” reported El Universal. “Nevertheless, a few photojournalists have managed to catch images from landings, defeating security controls.”

Between September 26 and October 27, this journal reports from its sources that 11,530 Cubans arrived in Venezuela on 76 such flights. Chavez’s seizure of one television station and threats against the rest of the press have reduced such critical news coverage of his regime.

Facing potential recall by voters, Chavez has also taken personal dictatorial control of the state-run oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (Pdvsa), and since then its many aircraft have also been ferrying an unknown number of Cuban operatives into his turbulent nation.
...
These Cubans are officially welcomed as health care workers, educators and helpers by the Chavez government. But many of them, as an October 6 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies indicated, are “Cuban intelligence officers” who have been embedded in key sectors of the Venezuelan Government, including its computer data processing, military, oil production, and political police (DISIP).

And why would they do that?

But 3.6 million Venezuelans signed to recall Chavez despite his threats and intimidation. A Chavez-appointed panel now has until the end of January to decide whether to declare more than 1.2 million signatures invalid – an absurd claim on its face – or to set a date within 97 days for a recall election that, if honest, Chavez is certain to lose.

I'm not holding my breath that the referendum will come off. And Hugo could use the company of a few "comrades" when the going inevitably gets tough.