CASTRO'S MINI-ME
Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez is using the oldest tyrant trick in the book to keep power: whip up fear of outside invasion. But who the heck wants to invade Venezuela?
Rafael Cabrices does not know whether the attack will come by sea, by land, or even from within Venezuela.But he is sure that US President George W Bush is plotting to oust leftist President Hugo Chavez - and Mr Cabrices is preparing his people to fight.
"That crazy man wants the petroleum," Mr Cabrices, 60, says in his office decorated with posters of Che Guevara, Simon Bolivar and President Chavez.
If we're intent on invading Venezuela, it's the best-kept secret in Washington. But our lack of interest in expanding the empire to the south isn't stopping Chavez from playing dangerous make-believe:
In the empty parking lot outside, civilian "corporals" bark commands at groups of adults and teenagers in white shirts and black caps and pants. They are marching around, training for battle.Over recent months, the populist president has warned that the US may invade Venezuela or try to assassinate him. He has called for Venezuelans to join a new civil reserve defence force, which, it is claimed, numbers two million members.
During a recent commemoration of a revolutionary war battle, Mr Chavez called for preparation for an "asymmetric war" against the world's most powerful nation.
"Asymmetric war" sounds an awful lot like terrorism. Which is a field Chavez seems to know something about.
During recent months, Venezuela has been buying 100,000 AK-47 rifles and military helicopters from Russia, as well as ships and planes from Brazil and Spain. The arms-buying spree worries Colombian leaders, while US officials have asked why Venezuela bought more rifles than it has soldiers. Those officials have suggested that excess rifles might be smuggled to illegal armed groups in Colombia."What in the world [is the threat] that Venezuela sees that makes them want to have all those weapons?" US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told the Miami Herald recently.
The US won't invade Venezuela. We have more pressing concerns elsewhere and we have no reason--unless Chaves unleashes his "asymmetric warfare" on US soil--to invade Venezuela. We won't attack Venezuela, and neither will anyone else, unless Chavez makes the first, terrible move.
I can only really see one outcome for Chavez' insistence on arming everyone and preaching what amounts to paranoid Communist revolution--expansionism. The former paratrooper may aim to follow a former corporal who also became dictator of a rich nation, and annex his neighbors by any means at his disposal.