Who Is Hugo Chavez?

Prior to last weeks comments by Pat Robertson calling for the U.S. to take out Hugo Chavez most Americans probably had little or no knowledge of the Castro protege or the South American country he runs. The New York Sun has a short tutorial on Chavez this morning. Here is a taste:

There's Mr. Chavez's extremist stance against America in the war on Islamic extremist terrorism. He opposed not only the Iraq war but even the effort to destroy Al Qaeda in Afghanistan after the attacks on America of September 11, 2001. And then there's Mr. Chavez's treatment of Venezuela's own citizens. The State Department's "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" for 2004 writes that the human rights group Red de Apoyo reported that on January 10, 2004, nine men were rounded up and executed. On March 10, Juan Carlos Zambrano "died after being beaten by soldiers who had detained him." His girlfriend was raped by the same soldiers. "On March 30, eight soldiers were burned in a punishment cell ... two of the soldiers died of their injuries."

Want to know more about Venezuela? Here is the CIA World Factbook page on Venezuela.