Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s efforts to aid Syrian strongman, Bashar al-Assad

Despite Massacre, Chávez Fueling Friendship With Syria

• In Venezuela, La Negra Hipolita is considered a latter-day saint. Born a slave, she cared for the infant Simón Bolívar, who grew up to become Latin America’s storied liberator, and later, the hero of President Hugo Chávez.
• Syrians would be forgiven for regarding Hipolita somewhat differently. In late May, militias loyal to Damascus killed over 100 noncombatants, including 49 children, in the farming town of Houla, while the Syrian government allegedly looked the other way. 
• Two days before the massacre, an oil tanker named for Bolivar’s favorite nanny arrived in the Syrian port of Banias with a shipment of 300,000 barrels of Venezuelan diesel. This time, La Negra Hipolita was nurturing Chávez’s new best friend, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

thedailybeast.com