By Andrew L. Jaffee

In a wonderful example of democratic/capitalist voting with your feet, “Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel.” Hugo Chavez can call President Bush “el diablo” at the UN — a speech funded by American taxpayer dollars — but U.S. corporations and consumers can tell Chavez to take his oil and shove it where the sun don’t shine. From the Chicago Tribune:

Chavez has called President George W. Bush the devil and an alcoholic. The U.S. government has warned that Chavez is a destabilizing force in Latin America.

7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris said that, “Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans’ concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez.”

Of course, the Left will be up in arms against 7-Eleven, proving they have no understanding of the democratic and capitalist system, which they live so comfortably in. Stalinism is the Left’s answer, as long as it is in someone else’s back yard.

But I would remind the Left that Hugo Chavez is a dictator whose “election” to power is far from being considered fair. Under Hugo, “press freedom has deteriorated markedly in Venezuela amid restrictive laws and harassment of journalists.” Chavez is the ultimate hypocrite, who fills his pockets with the profits from his country’s oil (Citgo), while claiming, “capitalism was a ‘destructive’ system and that ’socialism is the way forward’.” Hugo’s hero is Fidel Castro, who executes and imprisons dissidents, and whose populace is on the verge of starvation. Chavez is friendly with Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who has urged that Israel be “wiped off the map,” and denied that the Holocaust ever occurred. Ahmadinejad fervently believes in — has a “presidential obsession” with — mahdaviat, “the restorer of religion and justice who will rule before the end of the world.” Even Congressman Charles Rangel criticized Chavez’s calling Bush el diablo: “I want to express my extreme displeasure with statements by the President of Venezuela attacking U.S. President George Bush in such a personal and disparaging way during his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly.”

In one ear and out the other…

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Related: United States, Dictator Watch, Economy, Latin America, Communism / Socialism, United Nations (UN)

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