Why do American academics love Hugo Chavez? I know he's a socialist lefty and all that, but it's not as if he loves them back.

Luis Carbonell, president of the Commission of Human Rights at the Venezuelan Association for the Advancement of Science (ASOVAC), told SciDev.Net that he believes the episode demonstrates Venezuelan scientists' lack of independence. "There is an official disdain towards critical thinking. Science centres are even banning researchers from expressing public opinions or making statements to the media without the official consent," he says. He gives other examples, such as universities restricting Internet access.

Jaime Requena lost this tenured academic job recently.
Requena says his work and his opposition to the government of president Hugo Chávez are the reasons for his dismissal.
Shocking stuff ... a tenured academic can lose his job for criticizing his president? Imagine the empty corridors at pretty much every university in the United States if that had been the case during the Bush years.