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Photo from Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n So Coke-chewing Hugo Chavez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 cheese slid off his cracker-again-as he accused Columbia and the United States of plotting against him-again-according to a Miami Herald<\/a> article;<\/p>\n President Hugo Ch\u00c3\u00a1vez on Friday accused neighboring Colombia and the United States of plotting a military \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc\u00e2\u20ac\u2122aggression’\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 against Venezuela.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc\u00e2\u20ac\u2122I accuse the government of Colombia of devising a conspiracy, acting as a pawn of the U.S. empire, of devising a military provocation against Venezuela,’\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Ch\u00c3\u00a1vez said.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc\u00e2\u20ac\u2122A military aggression is being prepared,’\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Ch\u00c3\u00a1vez added. He did not offer evidence to support his claim.<\/p>\n But he warned Colombia not to attempt a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc\u00e2\u20ac\u2122provocation’\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and said Venezuela would cut off all oil exports in the event of a military strike from the neighboring country.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc\u00e2\u20ac\u2122In that scenario, write it down: The price of oil would reach $300, because there wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be oil for anyone,’\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Ch\u00c3\u00a1vez said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The invaders would have to step over our dead bodies.’\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Well, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a way to rally the people around you – promise them that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d die before Chavez would allow himself to be killed. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beginning to sound like another former Latin American leader who dared to stand up to the United States by hiding behind his pueblo<\/em>.<\/p>\n In the meantime, The Devil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Excrement<\/a> is reporting that on of the Chavez-hired thugs in the Maleta-gate investigation has changed his plea to guilty of intimidating a US witness in the case;<\/p>\n Moises Maionica one of the men charged in the US with being an agent of the Venezuelan Government in US territory in the Maletagate scandal, changed his plea to guilty in a sign that he is now coopertaing with US authorities. Immediately the Venezuelan Foreign Minister said Maionica was lying through his teeth in declaring himself guilty. Maionica was facing 15 years in jail if found guilty after declaring himself innocent, but has probably changed his plea now in exchange for immunity and reportedly, a US visa.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Daniel at Venezuela News and Views<\/a> says this won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t affect Chavez much in Venezuela but impacts his world-wide image;<\/p>\n In Venezuela Chavez has little to fear. After all the judicial system is now inexistent and certainly not about to investigate Chavez on anything. No matter what the trials of Miami in the coming months might reveal, we can be assured that the most that will happen will be a delightfully botched operation such as the one on the Danilo Anderson assassination. That one lead to nowhere, though ensuring that at least a few political opponents were put in trouble for nothing, one still in exile. No, even if there were to be a judge willing to take on Chavez, or at least his corrupt camarilla, even if the other 3 in Miami were to plead guilty now and start talking, Chavez has much worse problems than Antonini to face anyway.<\/p>\n Because the HMS-Chavez seems to make water from all sides these days.<\/p>\n First, at least for Chavez, his foreign policy front, the only aspect of his rule that he really cares about, is collapsing right and left.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And that probably explains his macho muscle flexing in public. Katy at Caracas Chronicles<\/a> says he has domestic problems, too;<\/p>\n However, I get the feeling that the government is slowly entering into panic mode. Increasingly, the tone I get – from the scandals, from what bureaucrats are saying in public, from what chavista talking heads say on the air – is that the revolution is in trouble, perhaps more trouble than we on the other side acknowledge.<\/p>\n Repeated defeats at the hand of chavismo have taught us not to have high expectations. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to shake the sense that chavistas are on the verge of a nervous breakdown.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![](\"http:\/\/d.yimg.com\/us.yimg.com\/p\/rids\/20080126\/i\/r2851737522.jpg?x=400&y=283&sig=rYvFwBWrEzK3dq7u3Q4hzw--\")
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