Copa America: Venezuela 1 : US 0...
Both nations have long traded
insults and threats and now,
courtesy of a proxy battle
on and off the pitch,
there is a result
Chávez's self-styled socialist revolution
has prevailed against the US
Volunteers at the Copa America opening ceremony.
Che Guevara is thought to have said Latin America
would be free of US influence only when it swapped
baseball for football.
The empire, as Chavez calls the giant to the north,
lost its first two games due to ropey defending
Regardless of the outcome of its third game
last night against Colombia the team
was due to board a flight home
Venezuela, in a separate group,
scored enough points to progress to the final eight
for the first time in decades,
suggesting that the baseball-obsessed country
has finally embraced the beautiful game
Chavez & Ahmadinejad Bond: America's Right Wing Foams at the MouthUS Soccer Team Flops and Hands Victory to Chávez
Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution and Iran's Islamic revolution have the message of peace and brotherhood for all nations while they both stress powerful resistance against bullying and expansionist powers, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.
Speaking during a joint press conference with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez in southern Iran on Monday, Ahmadinejad described Chavez as a revolutionary and decisive man and voiced pleasure in his visit to Iran.
He also viewed the two countries' relations as profound, extensive, durable and brotherly, saying that both nations are revolutionary and have new, great and humanitarian ideas.
"As we have both frequently announced, there resides no impediment to the expansion of the two countries' relations.
"We view mightiness and progress of Venezuela as those of our own and due to the same reason the two governments and nations are moving on the path of construction hand in hand and with maximum power and strength," the Iranian president continued.
He further said that the two countries have many joint projects on their working agenda, and mentioned that the agreements and contracts signed during the present visit to Iran by Hugo Chavez will cause a giant leap in Tehran-Caracas ties.
Ahmadinejad underlined that cooperation, solidarity and unity of Iran and Venezuela serve the interests of both nations and will be beneficial to world security, peace and friendship.
"I am proud to say that under the intelligent and revolutionary management of Mr. Hugo Chavez and due to the efforts and decisiveness of the Venezuelan people, that country is now on the threshold of a technological, scientific and industrial revolution," he said, adding that the two states will always side with each other in all the different arenas.
"For those who are upset with the friendship of nations, we have just one sentence which is, if you are angry with the nations' friendship, go die of this anger and sadness," the president said.
After a week of euphoric pomp, last-minute preparations and poor defending the score is unofficial but unambiguous: Hugo Chávez 1, Empire 0.
The United States has crashed out of the Copa America, a regional football tournament, while the host, Venezuela, has made history by progressing to the second round.
Both nations have long traded insults and threats and now, courtesy of a proxy battle on and off the pitch, there is a result. Mr Chávez's self-styled socialist revolution has prevailed against the US.
The empire, as he calls the giant to the north, lost its first two games due to ropey defending. After the outcome of its third game last night against Colombia, which it lost 1-0, the team was due to board a flight home.
Venezuela, in a separate group, scored enough points to progress to the final eight for the first time in decades, suggesting that the baseball-obsessed country has finally embraced the beautiful game.
Venezuela's 2-0 win over Peru was only its second win in the tournament's history, the previous victory being against Bolivia 40 years ago.
Not only that, but Mr Chávez's government has so far defied predictions of an organisational fiasco by hosting a slick, successful tournament in a range of new and spruced up stadiums.
According to legend Che Guevara once said that Latin America would be free only after it swapped baseball, which was imported by US marines, for football.
Commentators on state television channels have hailed Venezuela's first-round results as a sign that the Bolivarian revolution, named after the 19th-century liberation hero Simón Bolívar, is on track.
That President George Bush's emissaries should be sent packing makes Venezuela's breakthrough all the sweeter, according to some football fans.
"They might have the best military in the world but they haven't stood a chance on the pitch," said Jorge Bernal, 41, a fruit seller.
Mr Chávez was worried that opposition protesters would try to embarrass him during the regional showpiece but so far the only sign of hostility has been chants in some stadiums.
State television has not aired footage of the chants.
Some analysts have attributed the relatively muted response to the government's decision to host all but one of the games outside the capital, Caracas, which is a hotbed of opposition.
Venezuela spent at least $1bn (£500m) on two new stadiums and renovations to seven others and to airports for the Copa America, which has brought together 12 national teams from the hemisphere.
Apart from dreadful results on the pitch, the US team - which anti-Chávez Venezuelans cheered with shouts of "viva el imperio" - was well treated until two federal agents who acted as bodyguards were accused of being terrorists.
"They jacked us around at the airport and then revoked the weapons permits," said William Brownfield, the American ambassador.
"It is an unusual way of doing business."
Rory Carroll @ Guardian