President Chavez: Bush Trying to Kill Me!

According to Reuters, on 20 February 2005, President Hugo Chavez informed Venezuelans that President Bush ordered a hit against him. As evidence to support his claim, Chavez cited recent declarations by U.S. government officials that he is a “negative force [and] source of instability” in Latin America. Fidel Castro (that cat of 9 lives who 9 U.S. presidents really wanted to kill) supported his claim.

You’d be forgiven the impulse to dismiss Chavez’s claim. After all, such an order would seem too brazen a betrayal of Bush’s religious mission to spread “democratic” values around the world.

Except that the documented record of US perfidy in this respect is too credible to overlook. For example, in his book Rouge State, William Blum (a former US State Department Contractor) documents CIA operations to kill Zhou Enlai of China in the 1950s; Jawaharlal Nehru of India in 1955; Gamal Nasser of Egypt in 1957; Norodum Sihanouk of Cambodia in 1959; “Papa Doc” Duvalier of Haiti, Patrice Lumumba of the Congo and Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic – all in 1961; Ngo Diem of South Vietnam and Sukarno of Indonesia in 1963; Che Guevara of Cuba in 1967; Salvador Allende of Chile in 1973; and Omar Torrijos of Panama in 1981 – just to name a few. (Incidentally, Noam Chomsky – internationally renowned Professor at MIT and ardent critic of US foreign policy – has documented similar claims.)

Still, like Castro, Chavez has become a real pain in the elephantine butt of America. More to the point, under the Bush doctrine, he is eminently deserving of a bulls-eye on his forehead. Indeed, since his election in 1999, Chavez seems to have relished every opportunity to defy America’s presumptive authority throughout the Western Hemisphere.

And his fraternizing with Castro is the least of his perceived transgressions. For example,

1. He has befriended unrepentant communists in China and Russia and touted them as more worthy partners in the exploration and exploitation of Venezuela’s oil.
2. He has repeatedly threatened to cut-off Venezuela’s daily supply to the US of a desperately needed 1.5 million barrels of oil.
3. He has flirted with the “hostile” notion of purchasing a fleet of advanced military jets and helicopters from Russia.
4. He has aided and abetted leftist rebels throughout the region, upsetting and even jeopardizing neighboring democracies like Columbia.

Given the above, devotees of American imperial power might think it’s no wonder Chavez has been targeted for elimination. Of course, Bush maintains that he has no intention of killing Chavez…but that “all options remain on the table” to deal with him.

Take cover Hugo!

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