United States spying on Venezuela, says Chavez
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is convinced that the United States -- his nemesis -- is spying on the lefty Latin American nation.
Chavez claims that a U.S. Navy plane that flew into Venezuelan airspace on Saturday night (Los Angeles Times report here) during a purported anti-drug mission was actually involved in reconnaissance. Venezuela’s defense minister denounced the incident as ‘another link in the chain of provocations’ by the U.S. against the Venezuelan government.
‘They are spying, even testing our capacity to react,’ Chavez said in a televised speech. ‘We are not going to allow the violation of our sovereignty.’ Miami Herald. The U.S. State Department has described the event as an ‘error’ that the U.S. pilot quickly corrected. Tensions between Washington and Caracas have risen lately over U.S. allegations that Venezuela has supported FARC guerrillas battling in neighboring Colombia, and U.S. discussion of adding Venezuela to a list of terrorism-sponsoring nations. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City