by the El Reportero’s news services
Hugo Chávez
COPENHAGEN — Hugo Chavez accused the Netherlands on Thursday of allowing the United States to use Dutch islands off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast to prepare a possible military attack against his country.
The Venezuelan leader said the U.S. military, to prepare for a possible offensive, has sent intelligence agents, war ships and spy planes to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, which are self-governing Dutch islands.
“They are three islands in Venezuela’s territorial waters, but they are still under an imperial regime: the Netherlands,” Chavez said during a speech at a climate change conference in Denmark. “Europe should know that the North American empire is filling these islands with weapons, assassins, American intelligence units, and spy planes and war ships.”
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly denied that U.S. military personnel in the Caribbean are planning to attack Venezuela.
“These allegations are baseless. These are routine exercises. We seek cooperation with the region,” Kelly said.
Chavez did not offer evidence supporting his accusations, but he blamed the Netherlands and said the European Union should take a stance.
Chile’s Enríquez-Ominami sets terms to Frei
Marco Enríquez-Ominami, the defeated independent candidate in the fi rst round of the elections, has effectively demanded the resignation of two more party leaders as the price for his support for Eduardo Frei, the presidential candidate from the ruling Concertación in the run-off on Jan. 17.
On Dec. 30 the leaders of two of the smaller parties in the quadripartite Concertación resigned.
Enríquez-Ominami immediately demanded that the leaders of the big two parties in the Concertación, Camilo Escalona (Partido Socialista) and Juan Carlos Latorre (Democracia Cristiana) should also go. Frei who finished well behind the rightwinger, Sebastián Piñera, in the fi rst round of the elections on 13 December, needs to attract around 80 percent of EnríquezOminami’s votes to stand any chance of winning the run-off.
