[R-G] US, Colombia looking for war with Venezuela: Chavez

[Anthony Fenton]

US, Colombia looking for war with Venezuela: Chavez

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQlQOVZ3fnLCaTBYlZC-wIdbFecw

CARACAS (AFP) — President Hugo Chavez on Saturday charged that the  
United States and Colombia were plotting an incident that would spark  
a war with Venezuela.

"I alert the world of the following," said Chavez, speaking at the  
Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) summit. "The US empire  
is creating conditions to generate an armed conflict between Colombia  
and Venezuela."

Chavez, who made a similar accusation on Friday, did not offer proof,  
but did point to January visits to Colombia by US Secretary of State  
Condoleezza Rice; Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the US  
Joint Chiefs of Staff; and US 'drug czar' John Walters.

"Colombia is already taken over by the US empire," argued Chavez.

Chavez has many times said the United States is planning to kill him  
or topple his leftist government.

The Venezuelan leader also blasted Colombian Defense Minister Juan  
Manuel Santos, who on Friday said, without offering proof, that at  
least three leaders of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of  
Colombia (FARC) guerrillas were living in Venezuela.

Chavez also referred to an "adulterated video" in which the mayor of  
the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo is seen delivering weapons and  
supplies to another Colombian rebel group, the National Liberation  
Army (ELN).

"In a gesture of madness of that rancid oligarchy," Chavez said,  
Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderon "has said that,  
since that mayor is supporting the guerrillas, they are going to  
capture him and take him to Colombia. For that, war then."

Ties between Bogota and Caracas are at their lowest point in years,  
after Uribe in November asked Chavez to stop his mediating role in  
the release of FARC hostages.

Chavez's belligerent talk is designed to rally the nation around him  
at a time that he is losing political support, a former top  
Venezuelan official told Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper.

"I plead with the Colombian people to ignore this, ignore all this  
verbiage and lack of respect," said Venezuelan general Raul Baduel, a  
former defense minister under Chavez.

The ALBA group -- Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia -- at this  
gathering welcomed a new member, Dominica. They like-minded nations  
are, according to Chavez, determined to counter the "dictatorship of  
global capitalism."

ALBA also launched a regional development bank with start-up capital  
of one billion dollars.

"We are breaking a vehicle of capitalism," Chavez added. "This bank  
is a political instrument, for social and economic development; we'll  
just say it, there is no reason not to," added Chavez whose country's  
oil earnings fund most of the bank.