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11/27/2005:

"Venezuela's Leader Covets a Nuclear Energy Program"

BRASÍLIA - With his country sitting on top of some of the world's largest oil and gas reserves, and with his constant talk of socialist revolution and criticism of the Bush administration, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela has acquired a certain notoriety in Washington and with some of his Latin American neighbors.

But he has seldom sent eyebrows so high as when he recently announced plans to start a nuclear energy program with the help of Brazil and Argentina. Coupled with his talk of a spending binge on weapons like rifles, ships and combat aircraft, and his support of Iran's right to develop a nuclear program, his moves have set off a debate about his motives.

Mr. Chávez and his government dismiss the concerns, saying the world should worry less about what is happening in Caracas than in Washington.

"It cannot be that the countries that have developed nuclear energy prohibit those of the third world from developing it," Mr. Chávez argued recently. "We are not the ones developing atomic bombs, it's others who do that," he added in an interview with a Brazilian newspaper.
nytimes.com