Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is urging his military to defend Venezuela in the face of Colombia’s military bases agreement with the United States.
Chavez fumed that at the recent UNASUR summit in Ecuador, “Colombia’s representative had the audacity to apologize” saying he could not reveal details of the controversial military agreement for lack of “permission from the U.S. government.”
“Go with shame, feel sorry for others!” said Chavez, who continued to insist that Colombia is required to give details of the agreement to the entire region.
Both Venezuela and Brazil failed to explain to UNASUR their recent weapons purchases from Russia and Iran, among others.
Chavez said that Brazil has asked “for a guarantee that the United States forces would not make incursions into surrounding countries.”
According to Chavez, Colombia will give no guarantees. “[Venezuela] will not insist on guarantees, because if anything can be guaranteed its that they will use those military bases against us. … I have no doubt. So what we have to do here, generals and admirals, is prepare to defend this country,” he said.
The U.S. forces stationed in Colombia would “carry out intelligence, counterintelligence, and conspire against Venezuela,” President Chavez said.
Newspaper El Espectador reports that Chavez alleges that “the empire” (the USA) has plans to overthrow or even assassinate him in order to take control of Venezuela’s oil wealth, the world’s fifth largest oil exporter and fourth largest supplier of the United States.