for what it's worth, my copy of the FT this morning has an article in it saying "convincing Chavez victory would be good for international oil companies". Someone in it is quoted as saying "Mr Chavez is now seen as someone we can do business with". Which usually means "he is seen as someone we're going to have to do business with whether we want to or not".
Looks to me as if the CIA has had the same problem in Vene as it did in Iraq; too much encouragement that "it will be really easy and the population is on our side" by pale-skinned chaps from the city with Scottish surnames (no offence meant to our own Mr Naismith, btw). dd -----Original Message----- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Perelman, Michael Sent: 08 August 2004 17:15 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Venezuela rightists falter With respect to this article, again, the polls here are supposed to be close. The Venezuela site says that they opposition polls show Chavez winning. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929