He accused "enemies of the fatherland" in Venezuela and abroad, particularly the United States, of seeking to undermine democracy in Venezuela.
Now the economy is starting to slow, hit by the woes of the United States and Venezuela, Colombia's main export markets.
But it is the "benign neglect" policy of the United States toward Venezuela that may also end up enticing Chavez to overstep.
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, and other Bush administration officials have been working hard behind the scenes to lobby Latin American countries and other U.N. member states to choose Guatemala instead of Venezuela to fill a rotating seat on the Security Council.
Washington (CNN) -- Diplomatic tensions between the United States and Venezuela showed no signs of slowing Monday as the State Department announced that two Venezuelan diplomats had been expelled.
The United States should take the lead in creating an international support group for Nicaragua (modeled after that organized to assist Guyana) consisting of the United States, Japan, Venezuela, Mexico and the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
U.S. diplomatic officials view Maduro as a pragmatist and the fact that he was supportive of initiating closer ties with the United States last year suggests that this could continue, especially in light of Venezuela's economic troubles and the need to increase revenues through trade.
Going forward, the United States should explore ways of strengthening its ties with Venezuela and other Latin American nations.
The United States is by far the most important trading partner of Venezuela.
Her chief of staff Alberto Fernandez wrote an editorial in the daily La Nacion where he accused the United States Justice Department of trying to create a rift between Venezuela and Argentina.
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From being poor in oil, China is now the fifth largest oil producer in the world, behind Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States and Iran, but ahead of Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Kuwait and Nigeria.
To add to this, former US Ambassador to Colombia, Myles Frechette reported that the US government has clear evidence, based on information provided by radar technology that airplanes loaded with heroine depart from Venezuela to the United States and other parts of the world.
General Assembly has been the scene of another clash, this one between the United States and Venezuela.
He is in the United States, having been released on bail from charges in Venezuela of circumventing government currency rules to gain US dollars.
That means that we, as one of the biggest consumers of oil -- 25 percent of the world's oil -- have to have an energy strategy not just to deal with Russia, but to deal with many of the rogue states we've talked about, Iran, Venezuela.
Venezuela still exports most of its oil to the United States, and the two countries long had close ties.
Relations between the United States and Venezuela, historically close, grew progressively worse under the presidencies of Chavez and George Bush.
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The rising political tension in Venezuela spilled over into a meeting of the Organization of American States on Wednesday.
Overall, Venezuela is the fifth largest exporter of oil to the United States, selling 1.5 million barrels of oil every day.
These organizations do not directly demand the release of political prisoners nor do they call for special meetings of their member states to condemn in unison what is now taking place in Venezuela.
Mexico, Central America (except Belize) and Colombia are supporting the rival candidacy of Guatemala, announced before Venezuela's and backed by the United States.
Venezuela is the fourth-largest exporter of oil to the United States.
This is why Western Hemisphere countries have accepted Venezuela as a democracy, as have the Organization of American States (OAS) and Mercosur (The South American Common Market).
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With an extended foot in Venezuela, Iran had even a claim on the backyard of the United States.
Its members are the thirty-five independent states of the Americas, including the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela.
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It has formed a convenient alliance with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and with radical Islam due to a shared hatred of the United States.
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Venezuela has slipped from being the top supplier of crude to the United States, its natural market, to the fourth-biggest (or second when oil products are added).
Some Republicans in the United States have seized upon the computer cache as grounds for declaring Venezuela to be a state sponsor of terrorism.
Think of the national security implications of the United States becoming free of the need to import oil from countries like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Venezuela.
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