By calling for the armed forces and armed civilians to unite, Chavez has created a personal military, not unlike Hussein's Republican Guard, Carpio said. The former colonel accused Chavez of turning his political enemies into common criminals and wanting to bring the country to economic ruin so that he could establish a regime of hunger that he controls, such as Saddam did in Iraq.
Chavez has long enjoyed a friendly relationship with Saddam. In 2000, Chavez became the first Western head of state to visit Saddam since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Both are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Venezuela, the world's third-largest oil supplier, provides 13 percent of U.S. oil needs. Chavez has been a vocal opponent of the U.S. war against Iraq, citing civilian casualties, but has promised to honor oil contracts with the United States.***
President Hugo Chavez and his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe are due to meet on Wednesday in eastern Venezuela to try to defuse the controversy over the frontier and shore up ties battered by economic and political problems in both countries. Relations between the two Andean neighbors, who share a rugged 1,400-mile border, have been strained by accusations from Colombia -- denied in Caracas -- that Chavez's government is allowing Colombian Marxist rebels to operate from Venezuelan territory. ***