It saddens me that this ambassador tries to cover up for Chavez, of course what choice does he have? He is the ambassador for Hugo Chavez not for Venezuela... I chuckled at his comment on intelligence and Hugo Chavez style of governing... I remember when in high school in Venezuela I was in 10th grade and there was the new socialist-communist movement trying to brain wash kids in believing this was the way to go "down with the imperialists USA" and I remember how they portray US Presidents with horns! Hence the Satan comments by Chavez on Bush??? I remember it as if it was yesterday! This is where Hugo's beliefs came from... He is trying to make people think that he is living what Simon Bolivar dreamt for Venezuela, but what he is doing is use this ideal to cover up his affiliation with all the frustrated socialists in Venezuela that couldn't quite see there ideals realized and Fidel Castro (which is not very discreet situation) and the very belief system that doesn't allow freedom of speech or anything else that has to do with democracy. The day my friends decided to sign a protest letter disagreeing on his plans for the oil companies in Venezuela five years ago, it was dooms day for them and all of those that voiced their opinion. Instead Chavez made sure they would be fired from their jobs and never again (as long as he was president) have a job in the oil companies...Is this the new democracy you are talking about? Where you have to walk around in fear of saying and voicing your opinion? In the past Venezuela has had the misfortune to be governed by Presidents that either ate up the money or were not allowed to governed properly, Hugo Chavez has no excuse, he has the power that no other president in Venezuela has ever had, and yet what has he done? Instead of providing the proper democracy and services Venezuela needs, he is trying to create a super power of frustrated communists and socialists, handing gobs of money all over South America and Cuba, while the poor in Venezuela get poorer and the once rich poor... A lot of Venezuelans say "this won't last" but who are you kidding? Look what happened to Cuba, and I'm sure a lot of Cubans in Cuba are really happy??? Castro has lived his dream through them and shown the world that if a man with his ideals wants to screw up a country "royally" he can and the world will let him??? Just like the world is letting many run countries to the ground in the name of dead ideals. Oh by the way, tell Chavez that changing the code of arms or making me have a Venezuelan passport to enter the country of my birth for me to feel Venezuelan will not affect me one bit, I was born Venezuelan and I will die Venezuelan none of this crap changes or increases my sense of who I am or who I represent! Tell him there is still time for him to show Venezuelans that he cares for this country we all love and ache for. Enough with the clowning around??? To get off his high horse and start to govern Venezuela with "cojones" like Bolivar would have done!

Sent by Lisa | 5:50 PM ET | 08-01-2007