Chavez warns foes against coup attempt

“If something like that occurs to you, our counterattack is going to be firm. I’m warning you,” Mr Chavez said.

The leftist leader, who has consolidated power in the years since the short-lived 2002 coup, said if opponents wanted to try again “they’d have to import an armed force”.

Mr Chavez was responding to a prediction by Newsweek magazine, which listed a coup in Venezuela among its world predictions for 2010. It also predicted Mr Chavez’s friend and mentor Fidel Castro would die.

“Newsweek magazine takes the liberty of predicting and saying that 2010 will be Fidel Castro’s last year on Earth. Well, could it be that he’s going to the moon?” Mr Chavez said with a chuckle, dismissing both predictions as the wishes of those who prepared the list.

He also repeated his near constant theme that Venezuela is facing threats from the US and neighbouring Colombia, and repeated his accusation that US military planes are using the nearby Dutch islands of Aruba and Curacao as hubs for intelligence operations.

The Dutch government has rejected those accusations, saying US soldiers do use civilian air fields on Curacao and Aruba but only for anti-drug trafficking efforts. Colombian and US officials have denied their militaries pose a threat to Venezuela.

As for President Barack Obama, Mr Chavez said: “This year we’ve witnessed the falling apart of Obama. Obama fell to pieces. Well, there wasn’t much hope really.”

Mr Chavez called the US hypocritical for criticising Venezuela’s democracy while recognising the recent presidential election in Honduras after the coup that ousted his ally, Manuel Zelaya.

Mr Chavez also said that he views Colombia as a “high risk” issue in the coming year. He has warned of a possible armed conflict if US troops use military bases in Colombia against Venezuela.