Fifteen Thousand Venezuelan Troops in the Frontier with Colombia

Press agencies have informed that Venezuelan ruler, Lt. Col. Hugo Rafael Chávez, has ordered the mobilization of fifteen thousand soldiers to the frontier with Colombia in his unbounded urge to proclaim the existence of a supposed imminent aggression, or something like it, on the part of Colombia. For a long time now Chávez has been accusing the government of Alvaro Uribe of a conspiracy against Venezuela. He decries the treaty signed by Colombia allowing the United States of America to use seven military bases, as a conspiracy of both governments against his regime and against those governments that are his allies in the region.

Chávez has been involved in mobilizing influences and subversive activities in the region, participating in the Honduras case in a significant way, where he has helped with arms, money and private planes the efforts of ousted President Manuel Zelaya to restore his regime in Tegucigalpa. To this must be added, of course, the tense situation that he has purposely created with respect to the democratic regime that Alvaro Uribe presides in Colombia. Of course, Chávez’s participation in these activities is not limited to Honduras and Colombia; it has ramifications in terms of his alliances with other governments in the hemisphere and far away countries, such as the case of Iran which is very dangerous for the Western world.

The mobilization of these fifteen thousand troops is one more demagogic outrage in an effort to awaken patriotic feelings which, in the final analysis, are jingoism. Fortunately, in Venezuela there are huge numbers of people who know how to interpret these maneuvers on the part of Chávez and they do not accept his outrageous slogans against the “empire”, which is how he calls the United Sates of America, or those against other countries, especially Colombia.

The expenditures involved in the mobilization of fifteen thousand soldiers, if the number is actually true, is in sharp contrast with the poverty that is weighing down on the people of Venezuela, with the lack of electric power and staples, something that is known by all because its reality prevents any cover-up. Anyone who visits Venezuela or who keeps abreast of what is happening there knows that the country is undergoing a strong economic crisis that affects the people, excluding the government, of course.