Chavez: VS plant aanval op Venezuela met hulp van Nederland

quote:

Venezuela's Chavez accuses Dutch of aggression

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez on Thursday accused the Netherlands of planning "aggression" against Venezuela by allowing U.S. troops access to Dutch islands off the Caribbean coast of the OPEC nation.

"I am accusing the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with the Yankee empire, of preparing aggression against Venezuela," Chavez said at a meeting with leftist groups in Copenhagen, which was broadcast on Venezuelan state television.

Chavez, in the Danish capital to attend climate talks, is embroiled in a dispute with neighbor Colombia over a deal to give the United States more access to its military bases. The former soldier says Washington fears his socialist government and is surrounding Venezuela.

Chavez said the self-governing Dutch islands were located in Venezuelan territorial waters. The Dutch Embassy in Caracas was not immediately available for comment.

The United States has long had a military presence on the islands of Curacao and Aruba, with about 250 Air Force crew and ground staff involved in counternarcotics and surveillance operations over the Caribbean.

Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell operates a lubricants plant and a joint venture with Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA in the western Lake Maracaibo oil fields in the South American nation, according to Shell's website.

Chavez did not say why he was accusing the Netherlands of preparing aggression now. He also mentioned the reactivation last year of the U.S. Navy Fourth Fleet, which was disbanded in 1950.

The Fourth Fleet patrols the coasts of Latin America.

Colombia on Thursday demanded Venezuela hunt down and extradite around 15 guerrilla chiefs it says have taken refuge across the border [ID:nN17177297].

^{(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Xavier Briand)}

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Venezuela's Chavez sees US threat in Dutch islands

COPENHAGEN — Hugo Chavez accused the Netherlands on Thursday of allowing the United States to use Dutch islands off Venezuela's Caribbean coast to prepare a possible military attack against his country.

The Venezuelan leader said the U.S. military, to prepare for a possible offensive, has sent intelligence agents, war ships and spy planes to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, which are self-governing Dutch islands.

"They are three islands in Venezuela's territorial waters, but they are still under an imperial regime: the Netherlands," Chavez said during a speech at a climate change conference in Denmark. "Europe should know that the North American empire is filling these islands with weapons, assassins, American intelligence units, and spy planes and war ships."

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly denied that U.S. military personnel in the Caribbean are planning to attack Venezuela.

"These allegations are baseless. These are routine exercises. We seek cooperation with the region," Kelly said.

Chavez did not offer evidence supporting his accusations, but he blamed the Netherlands and said the European Union should take a stance.

"I would like to know that the European Union has to say about this," Chavez said. "The Netherlands is responsible for this."

Chavez claims it's part of a broader plan by Washington to undermine leftist governments throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, including Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba.

"It's a threat to all the people of Latin America and the Caribbean," he said in a speech on the sidelines of the climate change conference in Denmark.

The socialist leader has repeatedly accused President Barack Obama's administration of conspiring with neighboring Colombia to topple his government.

Chavez's latest remarks were his strongest yet directed at the Netherlands. Three years ago he also bickered with the Dutch government, calling its defense minister a "pawn of Washington" who was part of an orchestrated campaign to vilify him as a "tyrant making plans for invasions of neighboring countries."

Venezuela and Colombia have been feuding for months over an agreement between Bogota and Washington allowing the U.S. military to increase its presence at Colombian bases through a 10-year lease agreement. American troops also are stationed at airports in Aruba and Curacao.

"Venezuela is being surrounded by military bases," Chavez said.

Colombian and U.S. officials have dismissed Chavez's concerns that Colombian bases could be used as launching pads to try to unseat him, saying their sole objective to fight drug trafficking and leftist guerrillas within Colombia.

Chavez also took aim at Obama during Thursday's speech, saying the U.S. president did not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize because he is continuing warlike policies.

"Obama should give back the prize," Chavez said, suggesting that his close ally — Bolivian President Evo Morales — would have been a better choice.

<sup>Associated Press Writers Christopher Toothaker, in Caracas, Venezuela, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.</sup>

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Op vrijdag 18 december 2009 03:42 schreef reem het volgende:
HC, ooit wel eens één dag in Venezuela geweest? Die propagandapraatjes, daar gelooft niemand in.

Dat Chávez NL van agressie beschuldigt snap ik wel gezien de forward operating locations die we ter beschikking stellen aan de VS (en Chávez is - onterecht - bang voor een VS invasie). Aan de andere kant, de NLse en Venezolaanse marine doen regelmatig samen marineoefeningen.

Ben wel benieuwd naar de precieze uitspraken van Chávez ipv één of andere matige vertaling in het Engels. Een paar jaar geleden werd ook al in de media beweerd dat Chávez de Antillen claimde. Zelden zulke onzin gelezen.