“So is Chavez that far off in expressing concern over the U.S’s imperial plan?”

I don’t think he is concerned at all about any “imperial plan”. He just want to make sure now that since George W. will no longer be in the white house that he will have another boogeyman to scare the little children at night. Of course, there is no boogeyman.

As much as Hugo Chavez and the U.S. government would like to make us believe otherwise, the fact is that they need each other. Chávez sells half Venezuela’s oil at preferential terms to Cuba and other countries in the Petrocaribe deal. It sells oil to China, but it subsidizes those sales by paying the freight costs. As is happens, the U.S. is the only customer that pays the full price for Venezuela’s oil.

Oh, and who process Venezuela’s heavy, sulfuric oil? Citgo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela. The U.S. knows that as much as Chávez likes to threatens to cut off oil supplies, he would not do it. Chávez nasty little secret is that Venezuela needs more the U.S. as a customer than the U.S. needs Venezuela as a supplier. Is easier for the U.S. to find another supplier than for Venezuela to find another buyer.