Chavez should be careful what he wishes for:

Venezuela’s oil minister stated earlier today that they would support Iran with its nuclear dispute.

Hmm. Considering that Chavez has stated that he would like to develop a nuclear reactor, such an announcement doesn’t seem shocking. Iran gets another voice in the UN, while Chavez gets someone to help build his reactor.

It would be interesting to see how the world would view such a move. Venezuela has signed the NPT but that was before Chavez. You have to assume that Chavez wants nukes to protect his newfound empire and a reactor is always the first step.

Chavez should be careful with who he gets in bed with though. We thought helping the muslims in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union was good for our interests until the Soviet Union fell and the people we helped turned their guns on us. Considering Venezuela is Christian, they’re infidels’ jus as much as we are which means any Venezuela/Iran relationship would be just a short-term matter of convenience until they become enemies.