Be a man! These issues are meant to be discussed in these venues. You’re brave speaking at a distance, but a coward when it comes to talking face to face

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to Venezuelan comedian President Hugo Chavez at Monday’s Latin American Unity Summit. The two apparently got into quite a verbal row which included the flinging about of obscenities and Chavez accusing Uribe of planning to assassinate him. Cuban President Raul Castro, noting the irony of two Latin American leaders shouting at each other at a Latin American Unity Summit, stepped in to calm things down a bit. Strange times indeed when a Cuban communist dictator is the voice of reason at a multi-national summit.

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has weighed in on both Iran’s apparent Presidential election and the hubbub that has since erupted:

We call on the world to respect Iran because there are attempts to undermine the strength of the Iranian revolution…

Ahmadinejad’s triumph was a triumph all the way. They are trying to stain Ahmadinejad’s triumph and through that weaken the government and the Islamic revolution. I know they will not succeed.

I suspect our breezy friend Hugo is looking at what is currently happening in Iran and seeing one of his few geo-political allies in distress as well as possible difficulties with his own magnificent rule. Consider Chavez’s growing paranoia as he tightens the noose on his old media enemy, Globovision. Consider also that Chavez is backing a regime who, the world over, has been illustrated to react to political unrest with seemingly unrestrained deadly force. How will this resonate with both opponents and even proponents in Venezuela?

I remain skeptical regarding the possibility of Mir Hossein Mousavi to over turn what the Guardian Council has confirmed to be a “legit” election. But if he does (maybe even if he doesn’t) I suspect we’ll see a bit more than simple expressions of solidarity from opponents of the Chavez regime. Lot’s of media attention and analysis has gone toward the current disparity in Iran. None, that I’ve seen, read or heard, has given thought to the international consequences as various political opposition parties (like the hefty sort in Venezuela) may well take a nod from Iran and act out their own “green” uprising.

Any military personnel who receives via the Internet, text messaging or other media, electronic mail, offensive messages, criticism or analogies of different natures that are contrary to the system of government presided by our Commander in Chief, Lt. Col. Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, must notify its contents at once to his natural commander or to the intelligence directorate of the National Army

Order issued by Venezuela’s director of intelligence, General José Cristóbal Fuentes Torres.

Yes, I know, it’s tough to imagine why the leader of a socialist paradise should fear his own military.