Chavez: U.S. Plans to Invade Venezuela
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (search) said Friday he has documentary evidence that the United States plans to invade his country.
Chavez, interviewed on ABC’s “Nightline,” said the plan is called “Balboa” and involves aircraft carriers and planes. A transcript of the interview was made available by “Nightline.”
He said U.S. soldiers recently went to Curacao, an island off Venezuela’s (search) northwest coast. He described as a “lie” the official U.S. explanation that they visited Curacao (search) for rest and recreation.
“They were doing movements. They were doing maneuvers,” Chavez said, speaking through a translator.
He added: “We are coming up with the counter-Balboa plan. That is to say if the government of the United States attempts to commit the foolhardy enterprise of attacking us, it would be embarked on a 100-year war. We are prepared.”…
To prove U.S. intentions to invade Venezuela, Chavez offered to send “Nightline” host Ted Koppel maps and other documentation.
“What I can’t tell you his how we got it, to protect the sources, how we got it through military intelligence,” he said.
In the event of a U.S. invasion, Chavez said the United States can “just forget” about receiving any more oil from his country.
U.S. Military in Paraguay Prepares To “Spread Democracy”
Controversy is raging in Paraguay, where the U.S. military is conducting secretive operations. 500 U.S. troops arrived in the country on July 1st with planes, weapons and ammunition. Eyewitness reports prove that an airbase exists in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, which is 200 kilometers from the border with Bolivia and may be utilized by the U.S.
military. Officials in Paraguay claim the military operations are routine humanitarian efforts and deny that any plans are underway for a U.S. base. Yet human rights groups in the area are deeply worried. White House officials are using rhetoric about terrorist threats in the tri-border region (where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet) in order to build their case for military operations, in many ways reminiscent to the build up to the invasion of Iraq. (1)The tri-border area is home to the Guarani Aquifer, one of the world’s largest reserves of water. Near the Estigarribia airbase are Bolivia’s natural gas reserves, the second largest in Latin America. Political analysts believe U.S. operations in Paraguay are part of a preventative war to control these natural resources and suppress social uprisings in Bolivia.
Argentine Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel commented on the situation in Paraguay, “Once the United States arrives, it takes it a long time to leave. And that really frightens me.” (2)
The Estigarribia airbase was constructed in the 1980s for U.S. technicians hired by the Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner, and is capable of housing 16,000 troops. A journalist writing for the Argentine newspaper Clarin, recently visited the base and reported it to be in perfect condition, capable of handling large military planes. It’s oversized for the Paraguayan air force, which only has a handful of small aircraft. The base has an enormous radar system, huge hangars and an air traffic control tower. The airstrip itself is larger than the one at the international airport in Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital. Near the base is a military camp which has recently grown in size. (3)
“Estigarribia is ideal because it is operable throughout the year…I am sure that the U.S. presence will increase,” said Paraguayan defense analyst Horacio Galeano Perrone. (4)
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=20&ItemID=8744
Let’s see. Operation Iranian Freedom, Operation Syrian Freedom, Operation South American Freedom.
Plus Iraq, plus Afghanistan, plus “rebuilding” New Orleans.
Luckily, Bush spoke with Greenspan immediately after the storm hit, to discuss economic impact, so everything is looking good!
