Is US-backed Colombian intervention in Venezuela imminent?

The following report (abridged) from VHeadline.com 
correspondent Philip Stinard raises some interesting questions in 
regard to US ambitions in Latin America. Is the US planning to 
use Colombia (and possibly other states) to destabilise the 
situation in Venezuela and create an excuse for direct 
intervention and the overthrow of the popular Chavez 
Government?

On April 13, the Colombian Senate approved a resolution 
condemning the "dictatorial regime" of Venezuelan President Hugo 
Chavez and called for the Organisation of American States (OAS) 
to apply the Inter-American Democratic Charter to Venezuela.

Article 21 of the Charter says: "In the event of an 
unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that 
seriously impairs the democratic order in a member state, any 
member state or the Secretary General may request the immediate 
convocation of the Permanent Council to undertake a collective 
assessment of the situation and to take such decisions as it 
deems appropriate."

What is meant by "such decisions" is not made clear but it is 
generally accepted to include military intervention by OAS 
states, including the United States.

Immediate responses to the Colombian Senate resolution from both 
the Colombian and Venezuelan Governments were swift.

The first response came from Colombia's Delegation to the Andean 
Parliament, which stated that the views expressed by the 
Colombian Senate are not necessarily those of the Colombian 
Government and people and that the decision to invoke the 
Democratic Charter is in the hands of Colombian President Alvaro 
Uribe.

Only one OAS member state needs to make a request to invoke the 
Democratic Charter in order for the OAS Permanent Council to 
consider the request but it takes a two thirds vote of the OAS 
General Assembly to suspend a member state from the OAS, which is 
considered the ultimate sanction.

Jose Rangel, the Executive Vice President of Venezuela, observed 
that the Colombian Senate's proposal has as its basis the United 
States Government's campaign against Venezuela and its Plan 
Colombia. The US military is already deeply involved in Colombia.

Some Colombian social and political leaders point to the recent 
presence in Colombia of US Congressman Lincoln Balart, a 
cheerleader for the right-wing Cuban exile community in Florida 
who may have had an influence in the drafting of this document.

Venezuelan National Assembly deputy Tarek Saab characterised the 
Colombian resolution as a "vile pamphlet" which, besides being 
poorly written, appears as though it could have originally been 
written in English by the US State Department.

When asked by the Venezuelan press about the Colombian 
resolution, US Ambassador to Venezuela Charles Shapiro is quoted 
as saying, "I don't have an appreciation at this time of the 
resolution approved by the Colombian Senate. The idea that this 
resolution from the Colombian parliament has anything to do with 
the United States is untrue."

What could be behind the Colombian Senate resolution?

Many point to the US policy in Colombia under the program "Plan 
Colombia" and say that it is not so much about US anti-drug 
policy as it is about securing the Colombian oil industry that 
had been under attack by leftist guerrillas.

Besides outsourcing the task of taking back control of guerrilla-
controlled areas to paramilitary death squads responsible for the 
slaughter of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocents, and 
providing juicy multi-million dollar contracts to US companies 
such as Monsanto and DynCorp, there have been few visible 
accomplishments for "Plan Colombia".

It is not inconceivable that part of "Plan Colombia" would be to 
destabilise and overthrow the Chavez Government and install 
puppet leaders to make US access to Venezuelan petroleum 
resources easier and cheaper.

Perhaps it is to this end that the Colombian Government has 
purchased 40 AMX-30 tanks from Spain with US assistance. And, 
knowing how US covert operations have been conducted in the past, 
it is quite possible that the US has great interest in testing 
and observing how much support the Chavez Government has by, for 
instance, sending its surrogates to attack the hospital in 
Monagas State and watching the community response.

This could also extend to observing the Venezuelan diplomatic 
response to the provocation produced by the Colombian Senate 
resolution.

The Venezuelan National Assembly passed a resolution on April 15 
condemning the Colombian Senate resolution. Among other things, 
the resolution calls upon President Uribe to "speak to the issue 
of this anti-Venezuelan resolution".

The one person who has remained conspicuously silent on the 
Colombian Senate resolution is Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. 
His response is awaited.