With the passing of President Reagan, critiques of the Iran-Contra scandal and the illegal US sponsored war against the Sandinistas have again entered the public consciousness. It should be noted that conditions are ripe for this situation to play out again, only this time in Venezuela with President Hugo Chavez as the target. Already, military tensions are rising between the U.S. backed government in Colombia and Venezuela. Much like Honduras served as a staging ground for the U.S. proxy war against Nicaragua, Colombia could serve that role against Venezuela. The Bush administration is trying to up the number of military and mercenary forces from the U.S. in Colombia but the House has voted the measure down. The Senate will be voting soon on the bill. If you would like to contact Senator Carl Levin and tell him to vote against this troop increase, go here for more information. Like the coverage of Sandinistas in the eighties, the mainstream media's coverage of the Chavez administration has been extremely negative and biased. As the Bush administration starts to rachet up the covert war agianst Chavez, we can expect to see even more mainstream press coverage condemning him as a dictator and an autocrat, despite the fact that he was elected, unlike our current President, by a substantial majority of the population.