Alas, for their ruling and political classes, South and Latin America have habits of churning out ill-bred, ill-educated, gun-happy nutters with deeply entrenched egotistical flaws and personality-cult complexes - and this twat is no different.
Now when Suez happened, it was ostensibly to allow UK and France to reclaim the Canal, which Nasser had just 'nationalised' - problem was Eden's ruse-de-guerre in getting Israel to invade Egypt as a precursor his military action being seen as stepping in to separate the two waring factions and quietly retake the Canal during proceedings. Oh, that - and he forgot to tell the US President, who failed to back the action and demand it be halted. The rest, as they say, is history.
One of any war planners questions has be: do we have national interests which might necessitate military action? In Suez, the French and the British did: in Iraq, we don't and never did, but that's another story.
Any way - if Chávez does go for gold and retakes US and European oil interests in that benighted country, then that will certainly count as having 'national interests' to defend; skin the game, so to speak.
Question now is, will US, UK and others (unlikely that 'others' would put boots on the ground, but they might join a hastily assembled 'coalition of the willing') be prepared to retake those assets? And will that involve military invasion?
Read this below to understand just how out-on-a-porch hat stand Chávez is.
Chávez arms community groups as he anticipates US invasion
By Alfonso Daniels in Caracas, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:59pm BST 21/04/2007
A dozen people gather inside a rudimentary, two-storey brick house in Catia, the most dangerous of all the slums that ring the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.
President Chávez is arming community groups
They talk excitedly about plans to repair crumbling walls, clear sewage and help local enterprises. It is the business of civic leaders everywhere - yet this gathering is also the vanguard of Leftist president Hugo Chávez's 21st-century "socialist revolution".
By the time they have been trained and armed, they will also be ready to defend Venezuela against outside interference, including the US invasion that Mr Chávez says he expects.
"El Comandante (Mr Chávez) told us to create communal groups and to tackle problems ourselves," said Lenny Guerrero, 35, to nods of assent from others in the room. "Some government officials came here to help us create the groups. Power will now rest with the people."
On Mr Chávez's order, 17,000 communal councils have now been set up across the country, and an estimated Ł1 billion earmarked to fund them. As the official slogan, "Build power from below", proclaims, their stated purpose is to promote grass-roots democracy and hand power directly to the people - in particular the urban poor who make up the bulk of his most fervent supporters.
But as well as grappling with the grim conditions in slums such as Catia, members of these voluntary groups will constitute a nationwide militia, schooled in Cuban-style tactics for both guerrilla warfare and counter-insurgency.
Gen Alberto Mueller, an advisor to Mr Chávez, told The Sunday Telegraph: "Some communal groups have already received military training. They'll train in their own neighbourhoods and will be equipped with any arms - guns, grenades, knifes - the community can provide. We have a right to defend ourselves, like the UK has, and be sure we'll do it."
The move has caused alarm among Mr Chávez's critics, who claim the groups will be used to repress internal dissent. They point out that, unlike Venezuela's military reservists, the communal councils come under Mr Chávez's direct control, including the appointments of their oversight committees and allocation of funding.
They are being created in tandem with plans to expand Venezuela's military reserve fivefold, from about 200,000 people to one million - a move Mr Chávez has introduced in the belief that his sworn foe America is planning some kind of military intervention.
Tensions with Washington and the West are likely to escalate further next month, when the Chávez government plans to begin taking control of the main European and American-owned oil fields in Venezuela - a move ordered by presidential decree in February.
The communal councils project is being overseen by David Velasquez, a communist who is the president's new "minister of the popular power for participation and social development".
Although the favoured blueprint for the scheme is the Paris Commune of 1871, under which socialism briefly reigned in the French capital, critics say it is more reminiscent of "mini-Soviets", which will be used to monopolise Venezuelan local politics.
Emilio Grateron, an opposition councillor from the rich Chacao area, claimed that communal councils which did not toe the Chávez line were usually denied permission to set up. "When we went to the ministry to set them up, they asked us our political affiliation. When they saw we're not Chavistas they didn't say no, but flooded us with requests until you feel like giving up," he said.
Luis Enrique Lander, a sociologist at the Central University of Venezuela, said that some official regulatory committee members were pushing for "non-Chavista" groups to be denied acceptance and funding.
Ironically the new communal council in Catia has been devoting its energy to fighting the expansion of the nearby Fabricio Ojeda industrial complex, which is built with state oil money and which the Chávez administration portrays as an example of its new socialist co-operative model. Local residents are sceptical of promises to resettle them in better conditions.
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"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat its mistakes..."
