VENEZUELA EYES THE ANTILLIES

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An English translation by this writer, taken from De Telegraaf, Wednesday, 29 August. The original article in Dutch is in the foregoing log. In connection with this article, I've written another commentary at another blog which should serve as preliminary reading to this article: "Change of Direction?"

Briefly said, I find this article highly suspicious, but would welcome any knowledgeable response as to the reasons why suddenly the Dutch government finds the Antilles threatened. Since this is "second rate news", not drawing much popular readership worldwide and therefore getting little publication, I may have missed something.

'Congress/Parliament' fears invasion

A majority of the Second Chamber (House of Representatives/Commons) is greatly worried about the safety of the Netherlands Antilles. They're afraid that the circumstances in surrounding countries as Venezuela, Haiti and Cuba will lead to political unrest, possibly even leading to a military invasion of the Antillies.

CDA, VVD and LPF (conservative parties) want ministers Kamp of Defense and Pechtold of Kingdom Relations to quickly take stock of the dangers. Second Chamber member Roland Kortenhorst (CDA) points to Cuba as an example.

UNREST

Fidel Castro will breathe his last breath there at any moment, after which a battle for his successor will burst out, which in all probability will happen with (civil) unrest. VVD'er Zsolt Szabo is especially worried about Venezuela where president Chavez is regularly threatening with warlike language in the direction of the Antillies. "He has already said that if the Netherlands takes one foot from the islands, he will step in with two", according to Szabo. (n.b. I am not aware of this from Dutch or Venezuelen news - Earl)

The Liberal (economic liberal, not political - Earl) comes forward with hard numbers: Chevez is busy enlarging his army reserves from 150,000 to 2 million, he has recently ordered 100,000 AK-47 machine guns (sic) in Russia and wants to purchase patrol boats and military transport planes from Spain. (n.b. An AK047 is an older model infantry rifle in common use around the world, not a machine gun, and all this was in defensive response to threats from the U.S. - Earl).

Against this, the Netherlands must take pre-emptive measures, the Second Chamber thinks. "The Antillies are are a great Swiss cheese (full of holes)", says Szabo. "The time for dallying is past. This is about the safety of our kingdom borders."

Together with Mat Herben (LPF) he wants to broaden the intelligence gathering to drugs transport, human smugglers and weapons dealing.

The ministers Kamp and Pechtold are meeting today on the Antilles about the safety question. The marines and coast guard have a total of about a thousand men on the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. They have a frigate at their disposal and a support ship.

Besides this, there are twelve super fast speedboats, so-called rhibs, and three patrol ships. For air support there are two Fokker 60 patrol aircraft and two helicopters.

Comments

[Geplaatst door: Johnito]

I think those Dutch politicians are trying to sow some seeds to reap support for a pre-emptive war against Venezuela. People must understand that the VVD, CDA en LPF always have been very sympathetic to the US' neo-conservative policies, and they are not very amused by the growing "anti-american" tendencies in Dutch society. Which in reality means that the Dutch are becoming more and more critical towards the Bush-regime.

I hope my english is understandable for international readers, by the way...

[Geplaatst door: Johnito]

I think "reap" should be replaced by "harvest"

[Geplaatst door: Earl]

You are thinking as I am, Johnito. My thoughts came from connecting a few dots, likely as you did, too. And your English is perfect! Better than my Dutch LOL. Thanks for your comments.

[Geplaatst door: Mac]

Surprised me when reading this...
Invade the Antilles...? Seems like paranoia on someone's part...
Venezuela or US neocons or Dutch Parliament...?

Googled lots of ways to look at this...
Some interesting sites I found:
http://www.sargasso.nl/archief/2006/03/29/venezolanen-niet-bewust-van-invasie/#more-2858
http://caracaschronicles.blogspot.com/2006/03/dutch-parliament-scared-of-chavez.html
http://weblog.leidenuniv.nl/let/cnws/kijkennaardepers/archives/2005/11/08/venezuela_de_antillen_en_nederland.html
http://www.zachtei.nl/2006/03/10/001138.html
http://www.planet.nl/planet/show/id=62967/contentid=696657/voted=true/sc=84c7c4

What's the Nederlands to do...?
Call on NATO forces to help...!
US neocons to the rescue...!

But with most in the US only know that the 'Neatherlands' ;-) is that tiny little 'old' European country that is dope smokin and gay lovin - so help may be slow coming from the religious right...

But with BushCo GWOT Inc...? And OIL in the mix...? It's a Done Deal...!

Just hold off on it until late summer - month or two before November should be good...

Got it penciled in... ;)