At this very moment there’s a dramatic military stand-off that’s been gone largely unnoticed – between armed forces of the US of A and unapologetically anti-American OPEC nation Venezuela. The US has been conducting military maneuvers in the Caribean that have been suspiciously close to the Northern Coast of Venezuela. That nation’s populist government under General Hugo Chavéz has been a bit paranoid about the US’ activities ever since the so-called opposition movement almost turned into a CIA-backed coup four years ago. They got all the reason to be worried – with over a million barrells of oil shipped to the US each day they’re the fifth largest source for US oil imports.
Now the Venezuelans mobilized 13,500 men and launched a large-scale maneuver called Operation Integral Defence Patriot Navy that will last until June 15th. There’s a pretty good chance Venezuelan F-F-16s, ships or helicopters will encounter their American counterparts.
In the meantime Venezuela has become the main travel destination for lefties and Sandalistas from all over the world, just like Cuba, Nicaragua and Chiapas before. Chavéz has created armed militias though that supposedly are a civilian defense force. Looking at the examples of Guatemala and El Salvador in the 80s civil militias have never been a good idea for any Latin American country though.
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See Chavéz taunting Bush.
