Repeating Islands

Here’s an odd piece of news . . . according to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the Dutch government is allowing the United States to use their territories in the Caribbean to prepare a possible military attack against his country. The Dutch are saying it is absolutely not true, but the conspiracy theorist in me finds it hard to dismiss it completely. Being Puerto Rican, of course, I am always waiting for the next Marine invasion. I think there are always oodles of Marines lurking somewhere in the region waiting to strike. Think about it . . . how many times has it happened? Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Grenada . . . you get the picture.

A spokesman says Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has asked Venezuela’s ambassador to clarify the claims made by Chavez in a speech Thursday at the climate summit in Copenhagen. Spokesman Bart Rijs told The Associated Press on Friday that “none of the countries in the (Dutch) kingdom recognize themselves in the comments of the president.” Isn’t that a lovely way of putting it? You can picture Aruba or Curaçao looking into the newspaper and saying “I don’t recognize myself in the news. . .” Tragic.

Rijs says the United States uses civilian air fields on the self-governing islands of Curacao and Aruba to combat narcotic trafficking and use unarmed aircraft. To that, I would say “Aha!, see, all they have to do is say that Venezuela in exporting drugs . . . and voilà. Invasion!”

You will pardon the paranoia. It is exam and paper grading season and perhaps it’s the lack of sleep.