Chavistas now number in the tens of thousands as Venezuela begins a move to increase their armed forces personnel to one million. Recently, Chavez stated that the 100,000 rifles purchased from Russia were not enough and that the country needed one million well-equipped and well-armed men and women to be ready for the possibility of a US invasion.

In the past several months, relationships between Washington and Venezuela have been tense because on US criticism of the purchases of military equipment, including 100,000 Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifles.

Chavez also responded to comments made on Feb. 3, by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who compared Chavez to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

"The imperialist, mass-murdering, fascist attitude of the president of the US doesn't have limits," Chavez said. "I think Hitler could be a nursery baby next to George W. Bush.

Chavez gained the support of the most affluent and powerful countries in Latin America, when he stood against the CAFTA plan calling it perverse. Venezuela has been funding rebel movements in the Latin American countries as part of his 'Bolivarian Revolution'.

According to Chavez and his allies, the magic word is 'integration': Latin America must become one fraternal unity, a Patria Grande, the Big Fatherland Simon Bolivar was dreaming of two centuries ago - the counterpart of the dominance of North America and the beginning of a continental revolution.