President Hugo Chavez accused the United States of attempting to foment the secession of an oil-rich region in western Venezuela on Sunday and demanded independence for the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico.

Chavez said U.S. officials were working behind the scenes with the governor of Zulia state, which is home to much of Venezuela's all-important oil industry, to create a secession movement loyal to U.S. interests.

Of course the U.S. denies involvement. Sort of:

The head of the ruling MVR party, William Lara, has accused the U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, of meeting with the group. But the U.S. embassy in Caracas told the Daily Journal newspaper there is no record of such a meeting.

That's because they don't keep records of meetings like that.

The Venezuelan people are not standing still, as you might expect:

Broad sectors of Venezuelan society began mobilizing today to express their disapproval of secession plans by the wealthy state of Zulia, believed to be part of U.S. interventionist designs.

Apparently, a group called Rumbo Propio is planning to organize a referendum that would propose the establishment of the Republic of Zulia, with its own president and constitution, and a system of "liberal capitalism."

I'm sure you're shocked by the last bit of news, right? Yeah, "liberal capitalism," that's the ticket. The Venezuelan people, and the rest of Latin America, have done so well under that system.