Peter Krupa

The Washington Post has rushed up an AP story on its Web site with the breathless headline:

AT UN, CHAVEZ CALLS BUSH ‘THE DEVIL’

In other words, dog bites man. OK, the dog bit the man in front of a whole bunch of UN dignitaries, but it is still a dog biting a man. Chavez has been calling Bush ‘The Devil’ on a weekly basis for years. The ambassador of the US to Venezuela actually carries around a note card with a list of all the crazy schemes of which Chavez has accused the US, one of those being “Operation Balboa,” the US government’s supposed plan to invade Venezuela.

On the other hand, I suppose it is news that Chavez is starting to look crazed in very public settings, and that major US newspapers are finally putting his looney rhetoric up top.

In other news, there is an uncharacteristically frank article in the LA Times about the brokenness of Cuba:

The lack of available or affordable parts, tools and building materials has had a cancerous effect on the alreadydegraded infrastructure. Doorknobs disappear from public buildings, screws from wall-mounted shelves and dispensers. Along the Malecon, not a single storm-drain cover survives to prevent rubbish from clogging the sewers, the square metal grates apparently useful to screen windows.

Rampant theft has engendered more bureaucracy, with office workers having to lock their doors when they go for coffee out of fear someone will snatch the wastebasket, stapler, lightbulbs, pens and paper. Inventory lists are posted in government offices, a hedge against the contents disappearing.

But it is the buildings themselves, as well as vehicles and farm equipment, that are at risk of collapse from the pilfering. A tow-truck driver describes how the vehicles he pulls tend to lose their spark plugs, air filters, lug nuts and rear-view mirrors from the point of collection to delivery. Because most cars and trucks are state property, they are seen as fair game by Cubans hoping to make a few dollars by selling the purloined parts.

It’s all true, I’ve seen it in the flesh, with my own eyes. You, however, will have to settle for pictures.