Smash hit

He has bought 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles from Russia and military aircraft from Brazil. He has announced plans to buy radar equipment from China. A fleet of naval vessels are also on his shopping list. Mr Chávez has explained the purchases as “an honourable answer to President Bush’s intention of being the master of the world”.

But one particular American fear is that the military firepower may find its way into the hands of Farc guerrillas in neighbouring Colombia.

The US is spending millions of dollars to help its ally, President Uribe of Colombia, in the guerrilla war.

Yet Venezuela is becoming a terrorist safe haven. Farc fighters stray into Venezuelan territory where they are allowed to live freely, according to Colombian authorities.

As significant, the arms purchases have been coupled with an intensifying of anti-American rhetoric.

Señor Chávez whips up sentiment against Washington almost daily and feeds an increasing paranoia that Mr Bush will move against him.

Officials announced this week that they were tightening Señor Chávez’s personal security. Civilian militias also began training for an eventual confrontation with the US.

State TV shows video of US officials criticising Señor Chávez, such as Dr Rice’s description of the country as a “negative force in the region”, while playing the theme music from Star Wars.

Graffiti on the streets of Caracas, the capital, declare: “If they kill Chávez, he will return as millions.”

Militia volunteers, known as popular defence units, wear black hats as they chant for the cameras: “Fatherland or Death!”

CHÁVEZ ON . . .

Assassination: “If they kill me, there will be a really guilty party on this planet whose name is the President of the United States, George Bush”

Bush’s Administration: “It is a mafia, a true mafia of murderers”

Cuba: “I am the second Fidel Castro of Latin America”

Capitalism: “The Devil’s economic model . . . The capitalist exploitation model has destroyed oceans, entire oceans”

Saddam Hussein: “A brother”

Condoleezza Rice: “I cannot marry Condolencia (condolence), because I am much too busy. I have heard she dreams about me”

Gaddafi’s Libya: “A model of participatory democracy”

US relations: “We have invaded the United States, but with our oil”

His ‘revolution’: “Every little grain of sand goes toward building the mountain . . . It’s like love. You have to make love every day in many ways. Sometimes carnally, sometimes with your eyes, sometimes with your voice. A revolution is love”

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