Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chávez, said he would resist an ”imperialist attack” after Washington announced it would pursue an ”inoculation strategy” against his government by creating a united front against its policies.
The rhetoric reflected a rapid deterioration in relations between the two countries after Venezuelan espionage allegations against the United States and tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats.
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, used her harshest language to date in testimony to Congress on Thursday in which she called Venezuela and Cuba ”sidekicks” of Iran, and launched a campaign to rally international opposition to the Chávez government.
Rice said the campaign amounts to ”an inoculation strategy” against Venezuela, which she accused of ”attempting to influence neighbours away from democratic processes”.
She said: ”We’re working with others to try to make certain that there is a kind of united front against some of the kinds of things that Venezuela gets involved in.”
As an example, Rice cited Nicaragua, where US officials suspect Venezuela of backing an alliance of former presidents Daniel Ortega and Arnoldo Alemán with the alleged aim of destabilising the pro-American government of Enrique Bolaños.
She said she has asked the European Union to pay closer attention to human rights in Venezuela and, in particular, to the trial of leaders of Súmate, an election rights organisation charged with ”conspiracy against the republican form of the nation” for accepting a $31 000 grant from the US National Endowment for Democracy.
”This kangaroo trial of Súmate is a disgrace,” Rice said. She also urged international labour unions to back a lorry drivers’ strike in Venezuela. ”The international community has just got to be much more active in supporting and defending the Venezuelan people,” she said.
In response, Chávez said: ”She said something very serious and she let the world know that she is calling foreign ministers, that she called the ministers of Spain, Brazil and Austria, to alert them about Venezuela.”
He said his government is ready to ”resist the imperialist attack”.
The two countries have been at odds since Chávez came to power in 1998. There was a lull in the rhetoric last year, but that came to an end when Chávez expelled the naval attaché at the US embassy earlier this month, accusing him of being a spy and conspiring with Venezuelan officers against the government. In retaliation, the Bush administration expelled the chief of staff to the Venezuelan ambassador in Washington.
The US has complained that Venezuela has forged close relations with undemocratic countries such as Cuba, Iran and North Korea.
Earlier this month, the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, compared Chávez to Hitler.
Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said the ”inoculation strategy” is too late to stop the rise of left-wing and anti-American politics in the region. — Guardian Unlimited