US ramping up its spying: Venezuela's Chavez

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2006

CARACAS (AFP) — President Hugo Chavez has hit back at US intelligence, which announced earlier that it had named a special case manager to focus on Venezuela and Cuba.

The US special "manager" effectively puts the two Caribbean nations on a par with "axis of evil" states confronted on multiple levels by the administration of President George W. Bush.

Chavez said in his weekly broadcast, "Hello, Mr. President," that Venezuela's oligarchy had joined with the US "empire" to oust him.

"We are not going to allow the empire and its lackeys to return to the destabilization of 2002," when Chavez was removed from office by a two-day coup.

"I call on movements that believe in democracy: do not do what you did in December, because it is part of the...