Hedging Our Bets

I don't think I've blogged in the past about American relations with Venezuela, whose socialist/populist president has been critical of the United States for several years and has recently ratcheted up the rhetoric another few degrees. Hugo Chavez on Sunday kicked out the Drug Enforcement Agency, saying it was spying on his government, and on Monday said that he believes the United States will conduct a military invasion of Venezuela, saying "If someday they get the crazy idea of coming to invade us, we'll make them bite the dust defending the freedom of our land."

The Christian Science Monitor on Wednesday features an excellent article examining the ways in which the Bush Administration is "playing both sides" in Venezuela - funding anti-Chavez groups while allowing American arms companies to sell "weapons, tear gas and other riot-control equipment" to the Venezuelan government - to the tune of tens of millions of dollars over the past few years.

Clearly Venezuela is a nation we must deal with carefully, particularly while Chavez remains in office. But our government should and must evaluate every proposed arms transaction very carefully, to make sure that those deals comport with the values we wish to export around the world.