In New York this week, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez blustered continuously about a U.S. naval ship port call to Curacao last February, arguing against our own American Thinker scoop that said a minor contingent of U.S. troops who visited the island were just tired U.S. sailors on rest and recreation for a few hours. According to Chavez, the ship's visit was much more than that, and he claimed they went on anti—Venezuela manuevers to plan an invasion. Yeah, right.

There's a lot more going on in the Netherlands Antilles than anyone imagined. Chavez has imperial designs on Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba, which are democratic territories that are part of the Netherlands, as well as other British and French overseas territories in the region. Chavez seeks to annex them to his communist empire. The Netherlands doesn't like the sound of this and is beginning to send military reinforcements to the islands and sound the alarm in the European Union. It intends to bring in similarly threatened Britain and France.

Via VCrisis, StrategyPage has the entire story of how Chavez has made new historic claims on the islands, is calling the democratic territories'
status "colonial servitude" and is planning further confrontation. If so, this may be a major test for Europe as a regional predator grows more aggressive.

A.M. Mora y Leon   09 18 05