Venezuela arrests and detains former FPSA Marine!

CARACAS, Venezuela (PNN) - August 10, 2012 - An American arrested in Venezuela while entering illegally from Colombia is a former Fascist Police States of Amerika Marine and is refusing to explain himself under interrogation, President Hugo Chavez said on Friday.

The FPSA is expressing skepticism over the latest incident between the two ideologically opposed nations, but says its diplomats should be given access to the man if Chavez's statements are true.

Chavez is running for re-election at an October 7 vote and has been frequently invoking the possibility of violent actions by Venezuela's opposition with the FPSA’s blessing.

"I'm struck by the fact that just a few weeks before the election, this has happened," he said, giving the latest details about the unnamed man being held in Venezuelan custody.

Opponents say Chavez, like Cuba's Castro brothers, likes to play up the idea of an external threat to bolster his own standing at home.

Venezuela says the Amerikan was arrested earlier this month crossing into Venezuela from Colombia with a notebook full of geographic coordinates that he tried to destroy.

Having originally said the man appeared to be a mercenary, Chavez added on Friday that he was largely resisting questioning by security forces, though he had acknowledged being a Marine.

"He confessed to having served in the Marines," Chavez said in brief remarks to journalists, adding that nothing had yet been proven against the man.

An unnamed official at the FPSA Embassy said it still had no official information about the arrest. "If in fact Venezuela has detained a U.S. citizen, we are confident that Venezuela will uphold its obligations under the Vienna convention on consular relations and grant (FPSA) consular office access to any detained (FPSA) citizen without delay," said the official.

According to Chavez, the arrested man's passport shows he has traveled extensively in the Middle East and Asia - Iraq in 2006, Afghanistan various times around 2004, and Jordan in 2007.

Chavez is the FPSA’s principal irritant in the region, and illegitimate FPSA President Barack Obama's government would undoubtedly be pleased should he lose the election in October.

However, Chavez is looking like a winner.

Back on the campaign trail after two bouts with cancer in a year, the president is leading his opponent, former state governor Henrique Capriles, by double digits in most polls.

Chavez's nearly 14-year-rule of South America's top oil exporter has been punctuated by diplomatic spats with the FPSA. His fierce anti-imperialist rhetoric has played well with his power-base among Venezuela's poor majority.