THE HAGUE: The Dutch government denied Friday that it is allowing the United States to use Caribbean islands to prepare a possible military attack against Venezuela as that country’s president contends.
A spokesman said Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen had asked Venezuela’s ambassador to clarify the claims made by President Hugo Chavez in a speech Thursday at the climate summit in Copenhagen.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Bart Rijs said the United States does use civilian airfields on the self-governing islands of Curacao and Aruba, but the US forces are solely combating narcotic trafficking and use unarmed aircraft.
The Venezuelan leader had accused the US military of sending intelligence agents, warships and spy planes to Aruba, Curacao and another self-governing Dutch island, Bonaire, in preparation for an attack to topple him from power. “They are three islands in Venezuela’s territorial waters, but they are still under an imperial regime, the Netherlands,” Chavez said during his Copenhagen speech. “Europe should know that the North American empire is filling these islands with weapons, assassins, American intelligence units, and spy planes and warships.” In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly denied that US military personnel in the Caribbean are planning to attack Venezuela. “These allegations are baseless. These are routine exercises. We seek cooperation with the region,” Kelly said.
Chavez did not offer evidence supporting his accusations, but he blamed the Netherlands and said the European Union should take a stance.
The remarks were Chavez’s strongest yet directed at the Netherlands. Three years ago he also bickered with the Dutch government, calling its defense minister a “pawn of Washington” who was part of an orchestrated campaign to vilify him as a “tyrant making plans for invasions of neighboring countries.”
Venezuela and Colombia have been feuding for months over an agreement between Bogota and Washington that allows the US military to increase its presence at Colombian bases through a 10-year lease agreement.
