Posted on 06/28/2009 2:38:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put his troops on alert over a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was killed or kidnapped.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez speaks at the ALBA summit in Maracay, some 100 km west from Caracas June 24, 2009. (REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Files) 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 Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.
The Honduran army ousted Zelaya and exiled him on Sunday in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War, after he upset the army by trying to win re-election.
Chavez, on state television, said if the Venezuela ambassador was killed, or troops entered the Venezuela embassy, "that military junta would be entering a defacto state of war, we would have to act militarily." He said,"I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert."
The socialist Chavez leads a group of leftist countries that includes the government of Honduras and he has in the past threatened military action in the region but never followed through.
Chavez 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.
The United States has long accused the 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.
In 2008 Chavez ordered tanks to the border with Colombia after Colombian troops attacked a guerrilla base in Ecuador, which is part of a coalition of leftist Latin American countries that Venezuela heads. That crisis was diffused without violence a few days later.
Some Latin American leaders from Chavez's ALBA coalition are planning to meet in Nicaragua to discuss what action to take over the situation in Honduras. ALBA's nine members include Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Ecuador said on Sunday it will not recognize any new government in Honduras.
Obama’s got your back, dude...
What are they gonna do? Restrict Banana Imports?
The ONLY threat in this equation is Nicaraugua, and we’ll get the heads up as soon as Chavez begins transferring jets to Niccy airfields.
Perhaps Chavez is afraid of current trends.
Someone want to show Hugo where Honduras is on a map?
Just don’t screw with the Camacho Factory, please...
LOL Chavez is at least as much of a moron as our resident.
Bolivia has promised the use of their navy to transport a Venezuelan invasion force.
So it's OK if he interferes with other countries, but he tells the U.S. not to interfere in his country. And liberals sit around their focus group tables and say"OK, dude. No problem."
Then...we've got problems.
The only action the Obama administration has taken so far is to issue a press release...asking for "the restoration of order" and the reinstatement of President Zelaya!
This administration is taking the side of the Communist thugs.
What have they got. 3 fishing boats and a sampan?
It appears that the media is hoping this is done and over before they have to do much reporting on it that might end up showing Obozo for what he and his dictatorial pals are.
Someone want to show Hugo where Honduras is on a map?
Yeah, I was kind of wondering how he was going to get there. Unless some neighboring countries help him get there he’s just blowing smoke.
Not a “military coup”.
Their congress and supreme court ordered the president to step down because of illegal acts.
I agree completely. Because once one knows exactly what was involved, it's impossible to justify the administration's initial response.
The public clearly recognizes that the US government would be wrong to support communist tyrannies.
Let the light shine in...
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