People live in Venezuela.

Sofia at her baptism.

My wife Marbella, me and our Godchild Sofia in San Joaquin,
Carabobo, Venezuela.



Sofia partying.


Our kids at an amusement park in Carabobo.

There are plenty or other pictures from my wife's and my voyage to her homeland, Venezuela.

26 million people more or less live in Venezuela. The majority has spoken through election and plebiscite over and over that they approve of the government led by President Hugo Chavez. I am doing this blog in part to stress to my country's people that Venezuela is a nation of human beings who have a right to decide their own fate and who is to lead them and for how long he is to lead them. My country has a history of bothering and killing people like the people of Venezuela- I wish we'd stop doing these things in Iraq and Afghanistan, like we did in Vietnam and Nicaragua and not start doing them in Venezuela or anyplace else.

Venezuela's oil belongs to the people who live there and is not "our oil supply." After our country helped a group of renegades kidnap the elected President Hugo Chavez, after our country gave aid and comfort to an economic sabotage/ oil strike and lockout replete with terrorism against people who wanted to work - a sabotage that set Venezuela back a decade or more in terms of its economy- Venezuela is reasonably shopping around for other customers for its oil. Also it has taken over the control of its oil fields, its telecommunications, and its electrical system. These are reasonable actions any government might want to take. The government there has made sure that the oil wealth is shared by the entire country's people, and not just a few rich and foreigners. The government has said that a television station that helped orchestrate a violent overthrow of the government that was reversed by the people and patriotic soldiers and that broadcasts advertisement for prostitution over the airwaves that belong to the people must stop broadcasting once its license expires. This is more than reasonable. Had the owner of this television station, RCTV done these things here in the US he would be in prison and his property sold off at auction by the government.

What the United States ought to do is apologize to Venezuela for interfering and threatening and ask to start a new chapter in our relationship. We ought to comply with Venezuela's request that is supported by most world public opinion to extradite Posada Carriles so that he can face trial in the terrorist bombing of a civilian airliner and mass murder.

Most Venezuelan people harbor no ill will towards the ordinary people of the United States and in fact they admire many things about our country.

Perhaps the next president will have the common sense and intelligence to take these simple steps.