Venezuela has expelled a US embassy naval attache after accusing him of espionage for trying to get Venezuelan officers to hand over state secrets.
As tensions built between the US and Venezuela, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said of President Hugo Chavez: "He's a person who was elected legally, just as Adolf Hitler was elected legally and then consolidated power, and now is of course working closely with Fidel Castro and [Bolivian President Evo] Morales and others."
Mr Chavez warned he could expel the full US military mission if its officers were caught spying.
"We have declared persona non grata US naval captain John Correa, he must leave the country immediately," Mr Chavez said at a ceremony to celebrate his seven years in government.
A US State Department official in Washington rejected the espionage charges and the Pentagon said Mr Correa was a navy commander who had returned to the United States as part of his duties.
But Venezuelan authorities said last week they had "confidential evidence" that US embassy staff were involved with a group of Venezuelan military officers accused of passing state secrets to the US Defense Department.
Mr Chavez often calls President Bush "Mr. Danger," criticises his foreign policies and has repeatedly accused Washington of trying to overthrow his government since he survived a 2002 coup.
The Venezuelan leader has created a national reserve he says will help defend Venezuela against a US invasion and sought military equipment from Spain and Brazil with deals the United States says could destabilise the region.
"We must finish the exorcism, because they injected us with the devil of a military doctrine . . . the imperialist military doctrine," said Mr Chavez, a former paratrooper who himself led a coup six years before winning power at the ballot box.
Flush with oil cash, Mr Chavez has promoted himself as the frontman for a burgeoning left-wing resurgence in South America, where Evo Morales has become Bolivia's first indigenous president on the back of resistance to US-backed policies.