I'm here at the Heritage foundation for our weekly bloggers forum with Robert Bluey. Numerous bloggers are present including congressman Connie Mack from Florida who recently endorsed Mitt Romney.

Today we're talking about the impact of Hugo Chavez in the Americas. There's a great and informative website with a DVD: Crisis in the Americas.

Congressman Mack considers our current policy a failure. Chavez is "systematically trying to change" Venezuela to continue to intimidate his countrymen.

"Unless the administration gets serious about putting Chavez in a confined box we are heading for some rough times in Latin America."

"There is a clear difference in the Congress between those that think he is a threat and those that want to shield him from the bad things he is doing."

"The relationship that he has with Castro and the destruction of Democracy is a serious threat"

"If Hugo Chavez continues his relations with President Abedinejad and Chavez beings to allow Abedinejad to get a bigger footprint on our hemisphere we could see the same situation with Fidel, Cuba an Russia."

"I'm not looking for the administration or anyone else to call his worse names... we need a forceful discussion about this... whether its an embargo or something else. One of the things we haven't done very well is to tell the people of Venezuela that we support them."

On his endorsement of Mitt Romney:

Labels: connie mack, hugo chavez