Vezuela offers to recieve Guantanamo detinee's

[Nordstream]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he is prepared to receive detainees held by the US military at the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba.

US President Barack Obama has ordered the closure of the controversial camp, in which around 240 inmates are held, by next year.

Mr Chavez made his offer at a summit of South American and Arab countries.

It is highly unlikely the Pentagon will take him up on it, however, given the poor state of US ties with Venezuela.

When the Obama administration made it clear it was looking for willing allies to take on detainees from Guantanamo Bay they probably had not imagined an offer coming from Hugo Chavez, the BBC's Will Grant reports from Caracas.

Nevertheless, the Venezuelan leader's proposal stands.

"We wouldn't have any problem in taking in human beings," Mr Chavez told Arabic TV channel al-Jazeera at the summit in Doha, Qatar, where he has been pushing for closer ties with the Arab world.

President Chavez also renewed his calls for Guantanamo Bay to be returned to Cuba, saying the US should finish with "this miserable prison".

A summit of the Americas is to be held in Trinidad and Tobago later this month and many observers are waiting to see if Mr Obama will meet Mr Chavez following years of hostility between the two nations, our correspondent adds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7978135.stm

A strange offer, he knows they'll refuse of course trying to symbolically say we care more about human rights then you do perhaps?

 

[amadeus]

Would Caracas just rearm them and ship them back to the Mideast?

 

[CaptainF]

Would Caracas just rearm them and ship them back to the Mideast?

They'd more likely be pushing coke through Miami I reckon...

 

[Dachs]

A strange offer, he knows they'll refuse of course trying to symbolically say we care more about human rights then you do perhaps?

That's it in a nutshell.

 

[Camikaze]

Chavez would have offered this, so as to be able to rant about America when they refuse, after having pleaded with other nations.

 

[Sharwood]

Chavez would have offered this, so as to be able to rant about America when they refuse, after having pleaded with other nations.

This. I doubt he'd have any idea what to do if Obama actually gave them to him. Probably parade them around in front of cameras with make-up to make them look like they have cigarette burns and the like as a sign of America's brutality.

EDIT: Hang on, how do you spell Venezuela incorrectly when it's in the damn article repeatedly?

 

[TheLastOne36]

Chavez hated Bush, not America, is what i understood from him. I guess he doesn't mind Obama. They are also both the first Minority presidents of their countries, maybe Chavez likes him cause of that? Though i doubt race has anything to do with it...

 

[RedRalph]

You know, it's funny. Chavez has actually done many positive things to the US, offering aid, providing cheap oil for the poor etc etc and every single time, people here have just shot it down and said he's only doing it to sway public opinion, etc, etc. Of course there is an element of truth to that, but other countries dont get criticised for it when they send aid, and that not the only reason he's doing it, the oil to the poor is for ideological reasons, and of course for propaganda.

@TLO36:I think relations between Chavez and Obama will be better than they were with Bush (this goes for practically every leader on Earth), basically both sides will be a bit more pragmatic. Chavez knew when he called Bush a prick, most of the world agreed with him, he knows most of the world wouldnt if he called Obama that, besides Obama has not provided him with any reasons too. And vise versa, Obama of course will publicly maintain a vaugely hostile attitude to Chavez, but I doubt he really has anyhting against him, and probably accepts he is likely to be there for the foreseeable.

 

[Masada]

You know, it's funny. Chavez has actually done many positive things to the US, offering aid, providing cheap oil for the poor etc etc and every single time, people here have just shot it down and said he's only doing it to sway public opinion, etc, etc. Of course there is an element of truth to that, but other countries dont get criticised for it when they send aid, and that not the only reason he's doing it, the oil to the poor is for ideological reasons, and of course for propaganda.

You've answered your own question. Most other nations when providing aid don't blow their trumpet all that hard all over the world, the most you will get in Australia is a hint of self satisfaction about helping the "Yanks"

Chavez knew when he called Bush a prick, most of the world agreed with him

When the King of Spain told him to shut-up most of the Spanish speaking world silently nodded their heads and kept working. That also goes to show that Chavez is fond of the propaganda.

And vise versa, Obama of course will publicly maintain a vaugely hostile attitude to Chavez, but I doubt he really has anyhting against him, and probably accepts he is likely to be there for the foreseeable.

Chavez is the worlds comic relief at this stage, he won't be able to punch above his weight now with oil prices down. But your more or less correct I don't see Chavez insulting Obama much it might alienate his Western base of support which he shares with Obama I'm guessing. He's a largely benign, slightly monarchical dictator with a penchant for self congratulation and grandiose statements.

 

[Bamspeedy]

@TLO36:I think relations between Chavez and Obama will be better than they were with Bush (this goes for practically every leader on Earth), basically both sides will be a bit more pragmatic. Chavez knew when he called Bush a prick, most of the world agreed with him, he knows most of the world wouldnt if he called Obama that, besides Obama has not provided him with any reasons too. And vise versa, Obama of course will publicly maintain a vaugely hostile attitude to Chavez, but I doubt he really has anyhting against him, and probably accepts he is likely to be there for the foreseeable.

Chavez probably will get along better with Obama than he did with Bush (I don't see Chavez calling Obama 'the devil'), but it doesn't look like they are off to a very good start....

However, on March 22, 2009 Chavez called Obama "ignorant." Chavez, feeling that Obama violated his honor by naming him an "obstacle to progress" in the Latin American Region, has decided to put his new ambassador to the United States on hold.

 

[RedRalph]

You've answered your own question. Most other nations when providing aid don't blow their trumpet all that hard all over the world, the most you will get in Australia is a hint of self satisfaction about helping the "Yanks"

what trumpet blowing? Give me an example of him blowing his trumpet over this?

When the King of Spain told him to shut-up most of the Spanish speaking world silently nodded their heads and kept working. That also goes to show that Chavez is fond of the propaganda.

Again, dont understand your point here. Are you saying the Spanish speaking world approved of Chavez or disapproved?

Chavez is the worlds comic relief at this stage, he won't be able to punch above his weight now with oil prices down. But your more or less correct I don't see Chavez insulting Obama much it might alienate his Western base of support which he shares with Obama I'm guessing. He's a largely benign, slightly monarchical dictator with a penchant for self congratulation and grandiose statements.

a dictator... monarchial... I suspect that like many others, you really know nothing at all about him or are willfully ignorant.

 

[Bill3000]

You know, it's funny. Chavez has actually done many positive things to the US, offering aid, providing cheap oil for the poor etc etc and every single time, people here have just shot it down and said he's only doing it to sway public opinion, etc, etc. Of course there is an element of truth to that, but other countries dont get criticised for it when they send aid, and that not the only reason he's doing it, the oil to the poor is for ideological reasons, and of course for propaganda.

Perhaps if he was a bit less of an anti-american ideological blowhard, you might have a point. Until then...

 

[RedRalph]

Perhaps if he was a bit less of an anti-american ideological blowhard, you might have a point. Until then...

So anti-American that he provides cheap oil to its poor citizens... I think you meant anti-capitalist

 

[Sharwood]

So anti-American that he provides cheap oil to its poor citizens... I think you meant anti-capitalist

America = capitalist. haven't you been reading your Cold War propaganda lately, comrade?

 

[Bill3000]

So anti-American that he provides cheap oil to its poor citizens... I think you meant anti-capitalist

No, I meant anti-American, as in anti-American government. His words speak louder than his actions, and the US government is not going to seek cooperation with a leader that constantly criticizes it.

 

[Phlegmak]

You know, it's funny. Chavez has actually done many positive things to the US, offering aid, providing cheap oil for the poor etc etc and every single time, people here have just shot it down and said he's only doing it to sway public opinion, etc, etc. Of course there is an element of truth to that, but other countries dont get criticised for it when they send aid, and that not the only reason he's doing it, the oil to the poor is for ideological reasons, and of course for propaganda.

Chavez is constantly criticizing the US. Of course his motivations look suspicious. Chavez also called Shrub "the devil" (I don't actually disagree with that, but it's pretty rare that one President calls another a "devil"). And, one thing I noticed about Chavez's foreign policy towards autocrats, is that if the autocrat in question hates the US, Chavez likes him. So your inability to understand why Americans don't like him is the "funny" thing.

 

[RedRalph]

America = capitalist. haven't you been reading your Cold War propaganda lately, comrade?

No country is inherently capitalist or communist, witness how China and Russia re both now capitalist. dont tell Stalin I said that if yiou see him

 

[RedRalph]

No, I meant anti-American, as in anti-American government. His words speak louder than his actions, and the US government is not going to seek cooperation with a leader that constantly criticizes it.

Well, he was anti the last government, but so was the rest of the world. He certaiontly wont be cheerleading this one, however I doubt the relationship will be anywhere near as bad.

Chavez is constantly criticizing the US. Of course his motivations look suspicious. Chavez also called Shrub "the devil" (I don't actually disagree with that, but it's pretty rare that one President calls another a "devil"). And, one thing I noticed about Chavez's foreign policy towards autocrats, is that if the autocrat in question hates the US, Chavez likes him. So your inability to understand why Americans don't like him is the "funny" thing.

I know why some of them, if not most of them dont like him, but dont forget is only 6 years since most of your country hated France because the president told them too, so I doubt its a well though out thing.

and yes, I agree, Chavez is too much of the "enemy of my enemy" school of foreign relations for my likiing, however so is the rest of the world. Not least the US.

 

[Phlegmak]

I know why some of them, if not most of them dont like him, but dont forget is only 6 years since most of your country hated France because the president told them too, so I doubt its a well though out thing.

and yes, I agree, Chavez is too much of the "enemy of my enemy" school of foreign relations for my likiing, however so is the rest of the world. Not least the US.

My countrymen who hate France because France didn't join the US in Iraq are dunderheaded buffoons. The stupidity of said people cannot be overstated.

 

[Agent327]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7978135.stm

Now there's a true friend of America's.