Western Hemisphere
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez said on Wednesday that the concerns expressed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its report about Venezuela in the World Factbook represent a “declaration of war.”

The “CIA World Factbook”, which features information about all the countries in the world, considers that Hugo Chávez’s Administration “purports to alleviate social ills while at the same time attacking globalization and undermining regional stability.”

“The first two things are true,” Chávez said at an official event. “We are alleviating the great ills that capitalism left as a heavy burden on (the shoulders) of the Venezuelan people,” he stated.

“They say that we are attacking globalization. Of course, we are. We buried the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas, promoted by the United States) in Mar del Plata (an Argentine city)” in 2005, during the Fourth Summit of the Americas, the Venezuelan Head of State added, as reported by AFP.

“What do they mean by (regional) stability? Dominance? Yes, we are undermining the Yankee hegemony, we are weakening it, and we will continue to do so,” he said amidst a round of applause.

Chávez considers that the concerns of the CIA are “a declaration of war.” “They are sending a signal to the world for it to set its eyes on us,” he said.

Among the concerns expressed by the CIA in its report, it also states that a “weakening of democratic institutions, political polarization, a politicized military, drug-related violence along the Colombian border, increasing internal drug consumption, overdependence on the petroleum industry with its price fluctuations, and irresponsible mining operations.”

Chávez has said on several occasions that the intelligence agency of the United States is promoting “destabilization” against his government, supported by Venezuelan opposition leaders.

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas”