Chavez Backs Ahmadinejad: Strengthens Tyranny at Home

With the ongoing crackdown in Iran sucking up most of the headlines, its important to watch these other thugs while we are at it. Getting rid of the patents and intellectual property pretty much destroys any chance for innovation, but his machine must be fed and if handicapping the future is the consequence, no biggie.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan officials plan to invalidate some pharmaceutical patents and allow domestic manufacturers to produce licensed medicines, an action that could cause shortages and scare off foreign investment, industry leaders said Sunday.Edgar Salas, president of Venezuela's pharmaceutical business chamber, warned that abolishing patents could prompt the world's largest drug manufacturers to stop exporting medicines to Venezuela.

"This could create obstacles to importing the newest medicines," Salas said.Commerce Minister Eduardo Saman — a close confidant of President Hugo Chavez — announced on Saturday that Venezuela's government would annul patents on some medicines under a reform of existing intellectual property laws.

Saman said the measure is aimed at making the interests of powerful drug companies secondary to the needs of Venezuelans suffering from diseases such as cancer or AIDS."We cannot allow transnational medicine companies to impose their rights on the Venezuelan people," Saman told state television. "Patents have become a barrier to production and we cannot allow barriers to the access of medicine."

Usual nonsense for to rationalize his theft, in addition the push against the final media outlet continues:

(CNN) -- The government of leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez heightened its battle Tuesday against the only critical private broadcaster left in the nation, launching a fourth investigation into the Globovision network.

And of course he knows which side he is on in Iran:

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is standing by his man in the Middle East, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even as hundreds of thousands of ordinary Iranians took to the streets Wednesday for the fifth straight day to protest his claim to a landslide re-election.

Chavez belongs to a small circle of political oddfellows who support Ahmadinejad, including the King of Swaziland; Hamas, the militant Palestinian organization; and Hezbollah, the radical Lebanese group.The Venezuelan government, "in the name of the people," hailed the "extraordinary democratic development" that resulted in Ahmadinejad's victory Friday, according to a foreign ministry statement.

"The Bolivarian government of Venezuela expresses its firm rejection of the ferocious and unfounded campaign to discredit, from abroad, that has been unleashed against Iran, with the objective of muddying the political climate of this brother country," said the statement issued late Tuesday. "We demand the immediate end to maneuvers to intimidate and destabilize the Islamic Revolution."

Chavez's support for Iran's beleaguered leader is no surprise. The two leaders have developed warm ties in recent years, based on their mutual antipathy for the U.S. Other than the fact they're both major oil producers and oppose U.S. foreign policy, the countries have little in common.

This support has led to criticisms from of all places The Daily Kos which has a post up labeling Chavez an idiot. Anyway thick as thieves the lot of them, these tyrants know who who their enemy is, the people of their nations.