Chavez warns US 01/10/2005 22:20  - (SA)

Brasilia - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has insisted his revolution cannot be exported - a concern voiced by Washington - and warned the United States that if it kills him, unrest would rock Venezuela and countries across Latin America. "Ours is a peaceful and democratic revolution, but it is a revolution. We have no ideas about exporting it. Revolutions are not for export; each country is unique," Chavez said at the first meeting of the South American Community of Nations here late Friday. With his coffers flush with oil earnings, Chavez offered to invest five billion dollars in a South American Development Bank. "What we do want is debate about the economic model, the social model," said Chavez, an elected leftist and close ally of communist Cuban President Fidel Castro. "The United States' threats against us are a serious thing. If they wipe me out, there could be unrest not only in Venezuela but also in other countries across the Americas," warned Chavez. "It is a (US) government that harbours terrorists, I am making that charge. It has plans to attack Venezuela and assault Venezuela directly," Chavez said. Chavez, whose country is a key US oil supplier, was outraged earlier in the week when a US judge in El Paso, Texas ruled that an anti-Castro militant wanted by Venezuela for bombing a Cuban airliner cannot be deported to Cuba or Venezuela because that might violate the provisions of an international convention banning torture. US Judge William Abbott, however, left open the possibility that Luis Posada Carriles could be deported to other countries, said a spokesperson for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Posada Carriles has denied he was the mastermind behind the 1976 bombing of a Venezuelan jet that claimed 73 lives. He was tried once in Venezuela and acquitted for the airliner bombing. But he fled prison in 1985 as a high court considered whether to confirm the acquittal. In a 1998 New York Times interview, Posada Carriles admitted he had plotted bombings of two Havana hotels in 1997, one of which killed an Italian tourist. He later retracted his statement. Lawyers for Pasada Carriles argued that he would be tortured if he was deported to Venezuela. The Cuban-born Venezuelan national faces immigration charges after he entered the United States illegally via Mexico last March. Chavez, in Brasilia, lashed out at Washington for not extraditing Posada Carriles, the man he calls "the bin Laden of Latin America." In Caracas, Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel warned Friday "there will be a decision made soon about continuing relations" with the United States. "I think that in the United States every effort is being made to set out a major provocation of Venezuela, to that we respond without thinking carefully, but they are not going to pull it off," Rangel told reporters. The United States has expressed concern that Chavez could destabilize the region and has stifled domestic opposition.

 Chavez Warns Bush to Back Off, or Face 10$ Per Gallon Gasoline

Threatening a cutoff of oil exports and a break in diplomatic ties, Chavez "demanded" the release of five Cubans being held in the United States for espionage. In this article from Venezuela's La Hora newspaper, Chavez is also reported to have said, "There has never been an empire more brutal, more cruel, more cynical,more savage, more hypocritical, and more dangerous than the one led by his counterpart, George Bush."

Venezuela Warns Against US Invasion

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has told thousands of visiting students that if US forces are to invade his South American country, they will be soundly defeated.

The US government has strongly denied Chavez's claims that it is considering military action against Cuba's closest ally in the Americas.

'WE'LL MAKE THEM BITE THE DUST' Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez attends the welcome ceremony of the 16th World Youth and Students Festival in Caracas, Venezuela August 8, 2005. More than 12,000 delegates are scheduled to attend the Youth and Students Festival in Venezuela this week. With the theme 'For Peace and Solidarity, We Struggle Against War and Imperialism,' the festival brings together leftist youth groups from around the world to discuss global issues. REUTERS/Handout/Miraflores Palace

But Chavez said the US government, which "won't stop caressing the idea of invading Cuba or invading Venezuela," should be warned of the consequences.

"If some day they get the crazy idea of coming to invade us, we'll make them bite the dust defending the freedom of our land," Chavez said to applause.

He spoke during the opening ceremony of a world youth festival bringing together student delegations from across the world and convened under the slogan "Against Imperialism and War."

Chavez called the United States the "most savage, cruel and murderous empire that has existed in the history of the world."

The Venezuelan leader said "socialism is the only path," and told the students the collective goal is to "save a world threatened by the voracity of US imperialism."

Earlier, the students waved flags, danced in traditional dress, and held signs praising socialism, Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

More than 300 students from the United States shouted out their disapproval of US President George W Bush, chanting "Get out Bush!" Other students chanted: "Bush, fascist - you're a terrorist!"

Some 15,000 youths from 144 countries traveled to Venezuela for the week-long festival and conference, organizers said.

Chavez wore a red shirt like many of the students, and embraced delegation leaders as their groups marched past.

The ceremony was held in Venezuela's military headquarters in Caracas. Troops looked on while students passed carrying colored flags and shouting: "We will overcome!"

This year's World Festival of Students and Youth is the 16th. The first, in 1947, was held in Czechoslovakia, and during the Cold War most host countries were aligned with the Soviet bloc.

Apart from the former Soviet Union, other host countries have included Romania, Poland, Finland, Cuba, the former East Germany and North Korea.

The week-long gathering will include musical performances, panel discussions and an "Anti-imperialist Court," which in past years has condemned the US government's actions.

While tensions have grown between Chavez and Washington, the Venezuelan leader has built close ties with countries from Iran to China.

Chavez expressed his support for Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying he expected to continue strengthening relations.

He said that like Venezuela, Iran was a country that had been "attacked" for many years by "the hand of imperialism."

Chavez, whose country remains a major supplier of oil to the United States, also is sharply critical of the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

© 2005 Australian Associated Press

Chavez warns US against attack on Iran

Jim McIlroy, Caracas

In a series of fiery speeches on the closing day of the World Social Forum, January 29, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the US government that a US attack on Iran would be “10 times worse than Iraq”.

“Enough already with the imperialist aggression!”, Chavez said, according to the January 31 Caracas Daily Journal, listing countries from Panama to Iraq where the US military has intervened. “Down with the US empire!”

“We need militaries that don’t trample over [us] and that don’t sell themselves to the empire”, Chavez said. “If the empire of the United States thinks to come here and invade Venezuela, you can be certain that the 100-year war will begin and we will defeat the North American empire on this land”, Chavez added, to loud applause.

Earlier, US peace activist Cindy Sheehan, appearing on the president’s weekly television and radio address Alo Presidente, thanked Chavez for “supporting life and peace”. Sheehan announced her plans to camp outside US President George Bush’s ranch at Crawford, Texas, in April. Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, has been leading a revival of the anti-war movement in the US.

Putting an arm around Sheehan’s shoulder, Chavez noted that “soon, in Holy Week [Easter], she is going to put up her tent again in front of Mr Danger’s ranch”. “Mr Danger” is Chavez’s nickname for Bush, and he has also nicknamed Sheehan “Mrs Hope”. “She invited me to put up a tent. Maybe I’ll put up a tent also”, Chavez told the TV audience.

Chavez also called for a march on the US embassy in Caracas on International Women’s Day. “Organise committees to collect signatures in all the neighbourhoods, in all the towns and cities, and on March 8 a march [will take place] of mothers and daughters to the embassy of the United States to support the cause of peace and life”, he said during his January 29 Alo Presidente address.

Chavez invited “all of Venezuela to rise up and say: We demand independence for Puerto Rico” and the withdrawal of US soldiers from Iraq. As well as Sheehan, Chavez also welcomed onto the program Elma Beatriz Rodado, the wife of Puerto Rican nationalist Filiberto Ojeda Rios, who was killed in a shoot-out with the FBI in 2005.

“We must bury the empire in this century, so that the world will be truly free and there will be justice and peace ... either there will be a world for all or there won’t be a world for anyone”, Chavez concluded.

From Green Left Weekly, February 8, 2006.