Chavez threatens military action over Honduras coup

[phk]

Chavez threatens military action over Honduras coup
Sun Jun 28, 2009 5:50pm EDT

By Frank Jack Daniel and Enrique Andres Pretel

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put troops on alert after a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was kidnapped or killed.

Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the army's coup against his leftist ally, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

The Honduran army ousted Zelaya and exiled him in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War, after he upset the army by trying to win re-election.

Chavez said on state television if his ambassador to Venezuela was killed, or if troops entered the Venezuelan Embassy, "that military junta would be entering a de facto state of war. We would have to act militarily ... I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert."

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, part of a coalition of leftist governments headed by Chavez that includes Honduras, said he would support military action if Ecuador's diplomats or those of its allies were threatened.

The socialist Chavez has in the past threatened to use his armed forces in the region but never followed through. He said that if a new government is sworn in after the coup it would be defeated.

"We will bring them down, we will bring them down, I tell you," he said, while hundreds of red-shirted supporters gathered outside Venezuela's presidential palace in solidarity with Zelaya.

HISTORY OF COUPS

The United States has long accused the Venezuelan former soldier of being a destabilizing force in Latin America. Chavez himself tried to take power in a coup in 1992 and was briefly ousted in a 2002 putsch but was reinstated after protests.

Chavez, who accused the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush of backing his removal, said there should be an investigation into whether Washington had a hand in Zelaya's ouster.

"They will have to get to the bottom of how much of a hand the CIA and other imperial bodies had in this," he said.

The White House denied any U.S. participation in the coup. "There was no U.S. involvement in this action against President Zelaya," a White House official told Reuters.

President Barack Obama said he was deeply concerned by the events in Honduras and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton condemned the action taken against Zelaya. A senior U.S. official said Washington recognizes only Zelaya as president.

The United States supported a number of military coups in Central America during the Cold War and used Honduras as a base for its counter-insurgency operations in the region in the 1980s.

Washington still has several hundred troops stationed at Soto Cano Air Base, a Honduran military installation that is also the headquarters for a regional U.S. joint task force that conducts humanitarian, drug and disaster relief operations.

Chavez and other Latin American leaders from his ALBA coalition, including Ecuador's President Rafael Correa and Bolivia's President Evo Morales, were headed to Nicaragua on Sunday to discuss what action to take over Honduras.

ALBA's nine members also include Cuba, Honduras and Nicaragua. Ecuador said Sunday it will not recognize any new government in Honduras.

(Editing by Chris Wilson)

[??????????]

We need another Pinochet in the region badly.

[Jacobtm]

We need another Pinochet in the region badly.

Part of the reason that Chavez is around is because of our short-sighted support of dictators like Pinochet.

And "the region", as far as Latin America broadly, is doing much better now than it was in the 70's and 80's, more dictatorships sponsored by our country would not only hurt the people of those countries, but degrade our influence with anyone who values freedom.

[ag]

We need another Pinochet in the region badly.

No.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

We need another Pinochet in the region badly.

No.

[© tweed]

I'm not sure how Chavez is acting incorrectly, here...?  some/most posters here just seem to see his name and then react negatively and start waving their USA flags.

[War on Want]

I'm not sure how Chavez is acting incorrectly, here...?  some/most posters here just seem to see his name and then react negatively and start waving their USA flags.

I might hate Chavez but his reaction here makes sense. Did anyone in this thread attacking Chavez, actually read about the coup?

[Gustaf]

I'm not sure how Chavez is acting incorrectly, here...?  some/most posters here just seem to see his name and then react negatively and start waving their USA flags.

I might hate Chavez but his reaction here makes sense. Did anyone in this thread attacking Chavez, actually read about the coup?

I agree. Invading another country for strategic purposes was never a bad idea.

[ag]

I'm not sure how Chavez is acting incorrectly, here...?  some/most posters here just seem to see his name and then react negatively and start waving their USA flags.

I might hate Chavez but his reaction here makes sense. Did anyone in this thread attacking Chavez, actually read about the coup?

You mean the Honduran coup? Well, there were few things that could top the idiocy of Zelaya, but the rest of the Honduran politicians did manage to this, stumbling into the most pathetically idiotic coup imaginable. The only thing that would make them look sane, though, would be the sight of Chavez ordering an invasion of Honduras - that would be the idiocy for all times. If he does, every future dictionary, in Spanish or English, would have to illustrate the word "idiot" with Chavez's portrait. Fortunately, though, he does not seem to be such an idiot - it's all a lot of hot air.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

How could Chavez invade Honduras anyway? Is the Venezuelan Navy and capacities for amphibious invasion a powerhouse?

[War on Want]

I'm not sure how Chavez is acting incorrectly, here...?  some/most posters here just seem to see his name and then react negatively and start waving their USA flags.

I might hate Chavez but his reaction here makes sense. Did anyone in this thread attacking Chavez, actually read about the coup?

I agree. Invading another country for strategic purposes was never a bad idea.

There is no way he could invade Honduras, this is all rhetoric...

[War on Want]

I'm not sure how Chavez is acting incorrectly, here...?  some/most posters here just seem to see his name and then react negatively and start waving their USA flags.

I might hate Chavez but his reaction here makes sense. Did anyone in this thread attacking Chavez, actually read about the coup?

You mean the Honduran coup? Well, there were few things that could top the idiocy of Zelaya, but the rest of the Honduran politicians did manage to this, stumbling into the most pathetically idiotic coup imaginable. The only thing that would make them look sane, though, would be the sight of Chavez ordering an invasion of Honduras - that would be the idiocy for all times. If he does, every future dictionary, in Spanish or English, would have to illustrate the word "idiot" with Chavez's portrait. Fortunately, though, he does not seem to be such an idiot - it's all a lot of hot air.

That is what my above post says, I just somewhat agree with Chavez.

[ag]

I'm not sure how Chavez is acting incorrectly, here...?  some/most posters here just seem to see his name and then react negatively and start waving their USA flags.

I might hate Chavez but his reaction here makes sense. Did anyone in this thread attacking Chavez, actually read about the coup?

You mean the Honduran coup? Well, there were few things that could top the idiocy of Zelaya, but the rest of the Honduran politicians did manage to this, stumbling into the most pathetically idiotic coup imaginable. The only thing that would make them look sane, though, would be the sight of Chavez ordering an invasion of Honduras - that would be the idiocy for all times. If he does, every future dictionary, in Spanish or English, would have to illustrate the word "idiot" with Chavez's portrait. Fortunately, though, he does not seem to be such an idiot - it's all a lot of hot air.

That is what my above post says, I just somewhat agree with Chavez.

You somewhat agree w/ Chavez making idiotic statements (evenif he doesn't mean what he is saying)?

[Gustaf]

Well, it would be fitting for him to invade a foreign country, given how Chavez is the world's leading anti-imperialist, no?

[JSojourner]

GM3, are you there?  Could you please post your attention whore pic in this thread?

"Oh my, they sure are paying a lot of attention to Iran.  And North Korea.  And Pakistan.  And Afgahnistan.  HEY YOU UP THERE!!! NOTICE ME!"

That's about the size of it.

[The Man From G.O.P.]

What's more "phoney" a military coup or a foreign country invading and re-installing the old gov't?

[The Mikado]

Did anyone look at the article?  Chavez threatened action if his ambassador was killed or his embassy stormed.  Frankly, I think that's a perfectly respectable attitude, even if I have no respect for Chavez whatsoever.