[dehai-news] (guardian) Venezuelan president expels US ambassador amid claims of coup plot


New Message Reply About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view

From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Fri Sep 12 2008 - 15:56:46 EDT


Venezuela: Hugo Chávez expels US ambassador amid claims of coup plot
 
Expulsions and aggressive language raise stakes in long-running
diplomatic battle between US and Venezuela
 
Rory Carroll in Caracas
 
guardian.co.uk, Friday September 12 2008 08:37 BST
 
President Hugo Chávez last night ordered the US ambassador to leave
Venezuela within 72 hours and accused Washington of fomenting a coup
attempt against his socialist revolution.
 
Chávez also ordered Venezuela's ambassador to Washington to return home
and threatened to cut oil supplies, plunging relations between the
countries to a new low. "Go to hell a hundred times, fucking Yankees,"
he told a televised rally thronged with supporters clad in red.
 
The move came a day after Venezuela's ally Bolivia expelled its US
ambassador for allegedly backing opposition groups engaged in bloody
clashes with police and government supporters; turmoil which claimed
eight lives and split the country in two.
 
The expulsions and aggressive language dramatically raised the stakes in
a long-running diplomatic battle between South America's most radical
leftist governments and the superpower they term the "empire".
 
The US retaliated by expelling Bolivia's envoy to Washington and would
probably have done the same to Venezuela's envoy, Bernardo Alvarez, had
Chávez not recalled him to Caracas first.
 
In a day of intrigue and brinkmanship, Chávez announced that Venezuelan
military officers had plotted to assassinate him with US complicity.
"They're trying to do here what they were doing in Bolivia. That's
enough shit from you Yankees," he said.
 
Ties would be restored when the US had a new government that "respected"
Latin America, he added.
 
Coincidental or not, his accusation fell on the 35th anniversary of the
CIA-backed coup which replaced Chile's leftist president, Salvador
Allende, with the dictator Augusto Pinochet.
 
The US denied Chávez's claims. The Venezuelan president did not offer
evidence of wrongdoing by the ambassador, Patrick Duddy, or other US
officials, but he said several Venezuelan military officers had been
detained following an investigation by his intelligence services. During
his televised address he played a recording of purported conversations
between the alleged conspirators.
 
Earlier, the defence minister, General Gustavo Rangel Briceño, and a
pro-Chávez TV host, Mario Silva, named several senior officers from the
navy, air force and national guard as suspects.
 
None appeared to have been charged and details of the alleged plot were
scant. Venezuela's president has made previous claims about other
alleged conspiracies, which were never substantiated.
 
He has also made repeated threats to cut oil shipments to the US, a
warning he revived yesterday. Such a move would disrupt the US economy
but devastate Venezuela's - which may explain why Chávez has never
followed through. The markets tend to shrug off the threat as bluster.
 
The timing of yesterday's rhetoric prompted some to suspect political
theatre designed to distract voters. Chavez faces important municipal
and regional elections in November with inflation at 30%, Latin
America's highest, and a spate of damaging headlines about violent crime
and crumbling hospitals.
 
He has also been embarrassed by a trial in Miami linked to a suitcase
with $800,000 (£450,000) discovered in Buenos Aires, allegedly a
clandestine payment from Caracas to help Argentina's president, Cristina
Kirchner, win an election last year. The US also accused Chávez of
turning a blind eye to cocaine trafficking in Venezuela.
 
Those stories were eclipsed this week by two Russian bombers that
visited Venezuela at Chávez's invitation, a foray in advance of the
Russian navy squadron which is due to dock in November to underline
deepening ties between Caracas and Moscow.
 
In contrast to the heated but bloodless events in Venezuela the other
leading member of Latin America's "pink tide" of leftist governments,
Bolivia, has been reeling from violent riots.
 
Opposition groups opposed to President Evo Morales, a Chávez ally and
the Andean country's first indigenous leader, attacked government
offices, cut gas pipelines and clashed with police and government
supporters. Fighting in the remote northern province of Pando reportedly
left eight dead and at least 20 injured.
 
Morales expelled the US ambassador, Philip Goldberg, after accusing him
of supporting the opposition, a claim the envoy denied. In response, the
Bush administration ordered Bolivia's envoy, Gustavo Guzman, to leave
the US.
 
 

         ----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----


New Message Reply About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view

webmaster
© Copyright DEHAI-Eritrea OnLine, 1993-2008
All rights reserved