Chavez Warns ‘U.S. Pawn’ Uribe of Impending War

While people in this country and much of the world remain riveted by the U.S. election race, new trouble has been brewing between U.S.-backed Colombia and Venezuela. This comes as Condoleezza Rice leads a diplomatic mission to Colombia to push for a new free trade deal.According to this account from Argentine newspaper La Capital, President Chavez raised the stakes with his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe on Saturday when he said, “I accuse the Government of Colombia of plotting a conspiracy, an act of war against Venezuela, on orders from the United States, to which we will be obliged to respond in a way that could ignite a war. … Uribe is a pawn of Washington … he is a coward, a liar, a troublemaker, and a manipulator … a man like this doesn’t merit being the president of anything, let alone a country.”

Translated By Paula van de Werken

January 26, 2008

Argentina – La Capital – Original Article (Spanish)

In a further escalation of tension between the two countries, the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, accused Colombia’s President, Alvaro Uribe, of “devising a belligerent provocation,” on orders from the United States, “that could ignite a war.”

“I accuse the Government of Columbia of plotting a conspiracy, an act of war against Venezuela, on orders from the United States, to which we will be obliged to respond in a way that could ignite a war,” said Chavez during a press conference alongside his colleague Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua.

The press conference, held on the eve of the Sixth Summit Meeting of ALBA [Bolivarian Alternative for the People of Our America - Chavez' answer to Free Trade Agreements with the U.S.], the Venezuelan leader stressed that it was no coincidence that three senior officials of the United States, including Condoleezza Rice, had been in Colombia during the past few days.

“I am warning the world that an act of military aggression against Venezuela is being prepared by the United States, to be launched from Columbia. It is part of Operation Balboa, which is what the operation against Venezuela is called,” he declared.

“We have intelligence information about the plan, our own as well as from other Latin American countries. Rice’s visit is not a casual one, nor is that of the so-called “Drug Czar” John Walters, nor that of the American military commander (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Commander Admiral Michael Mullen,” Chavez said.

Chavez insisted that Columbia had become the “aircraft carrier” from which Washington is preparing its aggression against Venezuela and its Government. “Uribe is a pawn of Washington,” said the Venezuelan leader, as he did last Sunday when, during his program “Hello President,” he called his Colombian colleague, “a coward, a liar, a troublemaker, and a manipulator” and said that “a man like this doesn’t merit being the president of anything, let alone a country.”

He maintained that Uribe would go down on history as, “a pathetic peon of Imperial North America,” and he considered that recent “attacks” against the Venezuelan people and himself have originated in Columbia. “In recent days, the Colombian oligarchy has asked for reinforcements to attack,” he claimed last Sunday, referring to declarations by U.S. officials that questioned Venezuela’s role in the fight against drug-trafficking.

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