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10/11/2005:

"Venezuelan Thrives on Seeing Threats From 'Mr. Danger'"

CARACAS, Venezuela - The White House may be focused on Iraq and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but in Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez'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. Chávez 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."

"If the government of the United States attempts to commit the foolhardy enterprise of attacking us, it would be embarked on a 100-year war," Mr. Chávez told Ted Koppel in a "Nightline" interview in September. "We are prepared. They would not manage to control Venezuela, the same way they haven't been able to control Iraq."

Wherever he can - in speeches, interviews, inaugurations of public works projects, his weekly television show - Mr. Chávez rings the alarm bell. "If something happens to me," he warned in August, "the responsible one will be President George W. Bush."

With every warning about Mr. Danger - the Venezuelan government's title for Mr. Bush - American officials offer weary denials, a flurry of them coming after Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster and Bush supporter, suggested this summer on his television show that the United States should assassinate the Venezuelan president.

[On the CNN program "Late Edition" on Oct. 9, Mr. Robertson was back on the attack, citing unidentified sources who accused Mr. Chávez of sending "either $1 million or $1.2 million in cash" to Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 attacks and asserting that Venezuela was trying to acquire a nuclear weapons capacity. The Venezuelan vice president, José Vicente Rangel, dismissed Mr. Robertson's remarks, saying, "He's crazy, at the very least."]

With each threat and criticism from the north, real or imagined, Mr. Chávez lashes back, seemingly thriving on the atmosphere of confrontation.
nytimes.com

Yeah right, crazy Chavez.