Say It Ain't So, Hugo

It seems that the Global Financial Crisis (or GFC, as those in the know will call it) has hit hard south of the border. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who, for those who haven't been keeping score, is redder than an inflamed haemorrhoid (shout to Billy Birmingham), is quietly soliciting offers from Western oil companies.

But the shift also shows how the global financial crisis is hampering Mr. Chávez’s ideological agenda and demanding his pragmatic side. At stake are no less than Venezuela’s economic stability and the sustainability of his rule. With oil prices so low, the longstanding problems plaguing Petróleos de Venezuela, the national oil company that helps keep the country afloat, have become much harder to ignore.

O Hugo, how could you? What happened to your brilliant speech at the UN where you stuck it to George Dubya as only a wacky-South-American-socialist-with-visions-of-constitutional-reform-that-border-on-dictatorship can? "The Devil stood here yesterday," I believe were your words, shortly followed by, "It still smells of sulfur." We want that Hugo Chavez, the Alo Presidente TV show Chavez.

Just kidding Hugo, we've all gotta get that cash.