Banana Republics

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's marxist President, has been tossing oil money around in Latin America to buy influence, and influence elections. Now he has turned his attention to the US, unfortunately. Stephen Johnson, in the Washington Times:

His government supports the Venezuela Information Office, a firm employing writers and publicists operating under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Allied pro-Chavez activist groups called "Bolivarian Circles" have now surfaced in Miami, Chicago and other cities.
This weekend, Venezuela's embassy helped organize a National Solidarity Conference on Venezuela at George Washington University along with the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Committee for Indigenous Solidarity-D.C. Zapatistas, and Code Pink-D.C., all a stale wind from the 1980s, when radical groups agitated to build support for Nicaragua's Sandinistas and Salvador's guerrillas.
Last fall, Mr. Chavez negotiated with selected members of Congress to sell small amounts of discount heating oil to poor neighborhoods in Northern U.S. cities, helping these officials gain political clout. Appreciated as it may have been by consumers, it came as a result of overall higher oil prices Mr. Chavez obtained by prodding fellow OPEC members to limit production. (Weeks ago, in a schizophrenic reversal, Mr. Chavez threatened to stop all exports to the United States.)

Dennis Byrne did a story on this over a month ago in RCP, highlighting Venezuela's ownership of Citgo and Chavez' offer of $15 million in fuel oil credits to the Chicago Transit Authority. And as a side benefit, Chavez bolsters the political fortunes of potential mayoral candidate Luis Gutierrez, currently a US congressman (D-IL, of course).

Chavez must think Illinois is a Banana Republic. Or something.