In a depressing May 29 story in the London Times, "'New Castro' threatens to take his feud with America nuclear," Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is quoted saying: "We want to initiate nuclear research and ask for help from countries like Iran." He said Latin America must prepare for the eventuality of oil running out, and asked other nations in the region to join him in pursuing nuclear development. Responding to the proposal to UPI May 24, Brazilian Vice President Jose Alencar said his country had agreements with Argentina, France and the US to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, but "there is no agreement with Iran or Venezuela." He said Brazil is open to nuclear cooperation with Venezuela, but not Iran.

What makes this so depressing is that the White House and "Axis of Evil" affiliates alike are treating nuclear power like a phallic symbol: Bush seeks to castrate the Third World, while Chavez and the Ayatollahs need to prove their manhood by standing up to Big Daddy US Imperialism and demanding their right to nukes. Nobody seems to appreciate the fundamental reality: NUCLEAR POWER IS POISON. Demanding the "right" to nukes is demanding the right to poison your own populace.

Pretty ironic to find Chavez and Bush both accepting the assumption that nuclear power is the only alternative to fossil fuels--a notion which even the New Scientist rejected in an editorial in its May 14 issue (reprinted by TruthOut).

Instead of jumping on the nuke bandwagon, Chavez should be looking to examples such as the electrification of rural Nicaragua with solar power now underway. Hopefully, more ecologically-minded voices will prevail in Venezuela.

See our last posts on the escalating crisis with Venezuela, Washington's destabilization campaign, possible assassination plots against Chavez, and Iran's Islamo-nuclear theocracy. We especially love how Bush is pushing an anti-nuclear agenda for Iran while pushing a vigorously pro-nuclear agenda for the US, regarding both power and weapons.