The Pentagon's plans to invade Venezuela

The United States has military contingency plans aimed against Venezuela, contrary to the UN Charter and the document guiding relations between members of the Organizations of American States (OAS).

A recent article in the Washington Post--which has not been refuted by the Pentagon--affirms that the Defense Department has prepared a plan to create a potential conflict with the South American nation, considered a threat to US strategic security by the White House.

William M. Arkin, in a column published November 2, said that Venezuela was identified as a "threat" in this year's Pentagon analysis and is foreseen to remain so for the period 2008-2013.

The fifth greatest oil exporter in the world and among the principal exporters of crude to the US, Venezuela is included on the list of states which pose the most danger to the US, sharing that position with North Korea and Iran, both considered by the Bush administration as nuclear threats.

According to the daily, the White House sees President Hugo Chavez as promoting revolutions in Latin America and accuses him of financing rebels in Colombia—where there are US military advisors are participating in a long-term domestic conflict.

Venezuela has suffered from the instability of the situation in Colombia, particularly that country's use of paramilitary forces paid for by the interests behind the failed coup attempt against the Venezuelan leader.

But when we look into what the Pentagon has planned in the land of Bolivar, we cannot forget the history that explains the hostile escalation of actions by the current Republican administration against the Bolivarian Revolution.

The participation of both the CIA and the former US military mission in Caracas in the short-lived coup attempt headed by Pedro Carmona is not conjectural journalism.

The government of George W. Bush never condemned the coup attempt, despite the US being a signatory of the Democratic Letter of the OAS. On the contrary, they welcomed, encouraged and participated in the coup.

Nor is it a coincidence that military interests behind the coup which are responsible for planting bombs at the Colombian and Spanish diplomatic missions in Caracas are protected in the US, despite their being terrorists.

In Boca Raton, Florida lives Venezuelan business executive Nelson Mezarhane--a banker and stockholder of the opposition daily El Globo. He is wanted by the Venezuelan justice system for having participated in the assassination of Judge Danilo Anderson, who was bringing to trial those individuals who were implicated in the April 2002 coup attempt.

We must also mention the fact that terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, another fugitive of Venezuelan law, is a "guest" of the US immigration service, which has refused to extradite Posada Carriles to Caracas.

With such information, it should not come as a surprise that the Pentagon has included Venezuela in its plans for future "preventive wars," despite President Chavez' prediction that if this were to ever occur, Latin America would explode in a ball of fire.