Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas
The capitalist system headed by the US is like a "venomous snake", Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told an audience in the east of the country on May 20. "Capitalism is the science of the devil."
"The salvation of the world and its future will depend on the fate of the Venezuelan revolution", he added. Other countries are studying how to rebel against US imperialism, Chavez said, "because social necessities are more important and must be put above individual economies".
Later, responding to US President George Bush's May 22 statement of concern about the "erosion of democracy" in Venezuela, Chavez replied that Venezuela is worried because North American imperialism is eroding the possibility of peace and the very existence of life on the planet. He also called for the abolition of the International Monetary Fund.
Meanwhile, following the US government's announcement of a ban on further sales of military equipment to Venezuela, supposedly because of Chavez's refusal to co-operate in the "war against terrorism", Venezuelan Vice-President Vincent Rangel said on May 19, according to the May 20 Diario Vea, that the Venezuelan government "had not anticipated any rupture of relations with the United States, but at the same time it is clear that the initiative [to disrupt relations] was taken by them [the US]." He went on to say that the US government "has no proof" to accuse Venezuela of protecting terrorists.
On the contrary, Rangel said that it is North America that "fights terrorism but at the same time protects terrorists". He invited Washington to ask the Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, who was then visiting the US, "if Venezuela protects paramilitaries".
Rangel added that Venezuela could do "whatever we feel like" with the F-16 fighter planes previously acquired from the US. Venezuela had signed an agreement with Washington committing the US to supply parts for the planes until 2009. Now the US is refusing, and is trying to prohibit the sale of the planes to other countries.
Head of the Venezuelan armed forces General Raul Baduel said on May 19 that since last year Venezuela has been buying armaments from countries other than the US, "with the [consequent] transfer of technology", so as not to depend on the US. He emphasised the purchase from Russia of 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, with the first batch due to arrive at the end of May. Meanwhile, General Yuri Baluyevski, chief of the Russian army, was quoted in the May 25 Diario Vea as confirming that Russia was ready to sell Sukhoi fighter-bombers to Venezuela, despite the opposition of the US.
From Green Left Weekly, May 31, 2006.
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