PressEthic

Articles pop up all the time in which Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez says the US is planning to invade Venezuela. He’s promptly dismissed by government officials, and is left looking silly and alarmist. From an October 20 AP article:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that his government is preparing for a possible U.S. invasion, and he warned that such "aggression" would send gasoline prices in the United States soaring.

The U.S. government repeated that it is not planning any such thing.

Chavez, a vocal critic of "imperialism" and the Bush administration, said he was not against the American people -- just the current government.

"We are sure that it will be very difficult for the United States to attack Venezuela," Chavez said. He said his country has eight oil refineries and 14,000 gasoline stations in the United States."... A State Department spokesman responded by saying “I've stated many times before, the United States is prepared to work with any government in the region: left of center, center, right of center. Our issue is with states that don't govern in a democratic manner.”

This is a little hard to swallow, considering the history of US intervention in leftist Latin America. But that, of course, isn't mentioned by the AP reporter. Another article, published on October 11 by the NY Times, said:

The White House may be focused on Iraq and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez's most pressing concern seems to be the Bush administration. Or, as he frequently puts it, the administration's grand plans to kill him and invade this oil-rich country.

The threats are so great, Mr. Chavez has said, that he has been forced to cancel numerous public appearances and create a civilian militia force that will make the Yankee hordes ''bite the dust.'' And he warns that if the Americans are so foolish as to invade, ''you can forget the Venezuelan oil.''

As it turns out, Chavez’s fears might not be so silly. From Washington Post columnist William Arkin:

The Pentagon has begun contingency planning for potential military conflict with Venezuela as part of a broad post-Iraq evaluation of strategic threats to the United States.

The planning has been precipitated by general and specific directives issued by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his civilian policy assistants.

Internal documents associated with the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and preparation of the fiscal year 2008-2013 future defense plan identify five specific "threat" countries in three groups requiring "full-spectrum" planning.

The first group includes North Korea and Iran, both justified for their involvement in the development of weapons of mass destruction. China is listed as a "growing peer competitor" and threat of tomorrow. Syria and Venezuela are listed as "rogue nations."… Though most people believe that the United States has contingency plans for every country, this is far from the truth. In April 2004, Donald Rumsfeld signed the Top Secret Contingency Planning Guidance document that mandates that the military prepare 68 contingency plans in 11 "families" at four increasingly detailed levels. This "deliberative" planning process identifies countries like North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, and Syria for inclusion in conventional and nuclear plans.