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Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, has vowed to freeze oil exports to the US and wage a “100-year war” if Washington ever tried to invade his country.
The US has repeatedly denied ever trying to overthrow Mr Chavez, but the leftist leader has accused Washington of being behind a failed 2002 coup and of funding opposition groups now seeking a recall referendum on his presidency. US officials say Washington supports peaceful elections in Venezuela.
But Mr Chavez accused the US of ousting the former Haitian President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and warned it not to “even think about trying something similar in Venezuela”.
Venezuela “has enough allies on this continent to start a 100-year war,” Mr Chavez said during his weekly television and radio show on Sunday.
“US citizens could forget about ever getting Venezuelan oil” if the US ever tried to invade.
If people wanted a referendum against him, they should seek one peacefully, he said.
In the rambling five-hour broadcast that mixed threats with appeals, he also said he regretted the deaths of eight people in the recent street protests by opponents calling for him to submit to a recall vote.
“So what is it this Government is trying to do? Destabilise its secure [oil] supplier?” Mr Chavez asked. He said the recent anti-Government protests were “made in the USA”. Venezuelan oil exports were not affected by them.
Venezuela provides about 15 per cent of US oil imports but relations between the two countries are rocky over Mr Chavez's friendship with Cuba's President, Fidel Castro, his criticism of US-led negotiations for a free trade zone in the Americas, and his opposition to the Iraq war.
The US was slow to condemn the 2002 coup attempt, initially accusing Mr Chavez of provoking his own downfall.
Mr Chavez has increasingly railed against US meddling in Venezuelan affairs as his opponents step up protests to demand the recall vote. American officials have recently accused Mr Chavez of becoming increasingly autocratic.
On Saturday, at least 500,000 Venezuelans marched in Caracas to protest against a National Elections Council decision last week that an opposition petition for the recall vote did not have enough valid signatures. Opponents turned in more than 3 million signatures on December 19 but the council ruled only 1.8 million were valid. It ordered more than one million citizens to confirm they had signed, and rejected more than 140,000 signatures.
Rioting over the decision killed eight people and injured scores more. The violence subsided after the Organisation of American States and the US-based Carter Centre pledged to help give citizens a fair chance to prove they signed.
Venezuela is riven between those who fear Mr Chavez is trying to impose Cuba-style socialism and those who say he has given an unprecedented political voice to the impoverished majority.
Mr Chavez insists election officials have reason to believe the recall petition is fraud-ridden. He claims many signatures belong to dead people, minors and foreigners.
