By Edgar Lopez

Translated By Paula van de Werken

February 5, 2006

Original Article (Spanish)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Speaks to Supporters Assembled on Bolivar
Avenue in Caracus on the Anniversary his Failed 1992 Attempted Coup against
then-President Carlos Andres Pereonz on Saturday. (above, below).

[LATEST NEWS PHOTOS: President Hugo Chavez].

To those who filled Bolivar Avenue, the speech of Hugo Chavez was focused on the call to defense by all means possible, including through arms, and the development of the Bolivarian Revolution: "I am going to accelerate building up the Military Reserve and Territorial Guard. I believe that the 100,000 recently contracted Russian rifles are not sufficient. Venezuela needs to have a million well-armed men and women. I have already begun contacting some countries, with whom the United States will have no power to impede the arming of this country."

He added that he would speak as soon as possible with the President of the National Assembly, Nicolas Maduro, in order to speed up allocating the additional funds necessary for the acquisition of "a lot [of weaponry]."

He said that he must not reveal what or how many weapons he would buy, nor from which country. With the emotion of someone with a knowledge of the weapons of war and their lethal power, he gave a hint: "We are going to buy really good, really modern, rocket launchers."

Chavez was not abounding with reasons for making this type of an investment, and said he understood that the people were more preoccupied with domestic problems, mentioning only potholes in the streets and avenues. But the announcement was accompanied by repeated references to an eventual invasion by the United States.

"God save us from a war, but we have to defend the homeland." He repeated that in case of such an invasion, all of the Latin American and Caribbean countries would support Venezuela during an outbreak of war which, according to Chavez, would last a hundred years.

'I'M HUNTING THEM'

At the beginning of his discourse in commemoration of the fourteenth anniversary of February 4, 1992, the President proclaimed: "Today the second battle of Santa Ines begins, heading onward toward next December 3" when Chavez hopes to get, at least, ten million votes to maintain his hold on power.

[Editor's Note: The gathering on Bolivar Ave. in Caracus, that this article is an account of, was called to commemorate Chavez' own failed coup, on Feb. 4, 1992. The Battle of Santa Ines took place on Dec. 10, 1859, and was a key confronation of the Venezuelan Federal War, in which the Federalists, led by General Ezequiel Zamora, were victorious ].

Chavez Supporters Rally Before He Speaks
On Bolivar Ave. on Saturday (above and below).





Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte
(2nd from left) Before Annual Senate Select Intelligence
Committee Hearing on Global Threats to the U.S.,
With (L-R) Principal Deputy Director of National
Intelligence Michael Hayden, CIA Director Porter Goss
and FBI Director Robert Muellern , Feb. 2.(below).

— C-SPAN VIDEO: U.S. Senate Intelligence
Committee Annual Hearing on Worldwide Threats to
the United States. Witnesses Include Dir. of Nat'l
Intelligence John Negroponte, Dir. of CIA
Porter Goss, and others, Feb. 2, 03:42:45





Diplomat Jeny Figueredo (RT), Expelled By Washington
Last Week, With Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel,
at an Event to Welcome Her Back to Caracas. (above).


More Photos of Saturday's Pro-Chavez March. (below)

According to the Chief of State, this new stage of sparring is not limited to exercising the vote. He explained that this (sparring) will neither be against the "old and worm-eaten" political parties nor against the rest of the opposition sectors, nor even against mainstream media. No, it is against the United States,"against the most murderous Empire and promoter of dictators in Latin America," he asserted.

He suggested that the mouthpieces of the North American Government had begun an orchestrated escalation of warning signals. Addressing U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, he retorted that it is George Bush who is like Adolf Hitler, and of National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, he said that he was like Agent 007, with a license to kill.

[At the National Press Club on Thursday, Rumsfeld is reported to have said: "I mean, we've got Chavez in Venezuela with a lot of oil money. He's a person who was elected legally - just as Adolf Hitler was elected legally - and then consolidated power and now is, of course, working closely with Fidel Castro and Mr. Morales and others]."

[Editor's Note: Negroponte was the ambassador to Honduras during the Regan Administration, and is not held in high regard in many Latin quarters, because of Washington's role there in the 1980s [].

He alluded to the "absence of reasons" when the spokesman of the State Department, Sean McCormack, announced the expulsion (from the U.S.) of the chief of staff of the Venezuelan Embassy, Jenny Figueredo, to whom Chavez rendered a tribute upon her return to Venezuela yesterday.

This concluded with the revelation of "some evidence" of espionage for which the naval attaché of the United States Embassy, John Correa, was declared "persona non grata" and expelled from the country.

He also warned that he would imprison American functionaries who continued to spy: "I know where they eat Reina Pepiada [a kind of filled tortilla], because they changed the tortilla maker to Jose Vicente" he said, drawing attention to the Vice-President. "I am hunting them. If they are reckless, I will take them prisoner and bring them to the [U.S.] Embassy. Here they will not do as they please. Venezuela must be respected."

"IT DOESN'T COST ME ANYTHING"

Chavez claimed that the Government of the United States, with the help of Venezuela's mainstream media, will persist in discrediting him. The media would persist in pointing out the errors of the Government. As an example, but very superficially, he referred to the attention given by the press to the crisis that the collapse of the Caracas-La Guaira Highway viaduct generated. [].

He also said that Washington promoted the manipulation of opinion polls to show that he has lost popularity. In this way, he reasoned, they would generate doubts over his eventual triumph in the presidential elections. If this strategy fails, continued the President, the repetition of the withdrawal of candidates, as occurred in the last parliamentary elections, is foreseeable. And if this also fails, he added, there even exists the possibility that the Government in Washington will incite a "coup d'etat," as it did in 2002.

Facing these scenarios, Chavez said that it costs him nothing to close Venezuelan refineries in the United States, like Citgo, and to negotiate

(the million and a half barrels of petroleum sold daily to the North American nation) with "true friends, like China, India, various European countries, and Latin American and Caribbean countries."

"We don't want to arrive at such extremes. They must decide. What we want is that they leave us alone, that that government finally understands that Venezuela is free and will never again be a colony of the United States," he added.