US warns Castro and oil-rich ally

Telegraph
Aug. 19, 2005

Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary, accused Venezuela's radical president Hugo Chavez yesterday of "anti-social, destabilising behaviour" that threatened regional security.

Mr Rumsfeld said that the oil-rich Venezuelan strongman and his Cuban ally Fidel Castro, had interfered in the affairs of Bolivia, lending support to a presidential candidate who has fought US efforts to eradicate cocaine production.

Speaking in the Peruvian capital Lima at the end of a regional tour, Mr Rumsfeld said: "There certainly is evidence that both Cuba and Venezuela have been involved in the situation in Bolivia in unhelpful ways."

Despatching the bluntly-spoken Mr Rumsfeld to the region appeared to be a message to both regimes that the Bush administration was turning its attention to them after being absorbed by the "war on terror".

The two men stand accused of trying to blend South America's many grievances into an anti-American coalition. The Venezuelan-Cuban alliance has taken a number of steps viewed as threatening by Washington, including establishing an anti-American satellite television station called Telesur.

The Venezuelans have also offered cheap oil to some Latin American countries and Caribbean states, allegedly hoping to buy votes in groupings like the Organisation of American States.

Venezuela also expelled US drug enforcement agents this month, saying they were spies.

Most significantly, Venezuela has threatened to cut off oil supplies to the United States. Taken together with the decision to throw out American military advisers four months ago, relations between Caracas and Washington are at a low ebb.