By Andrew L. Jaffee

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s president, is threatening to expel the U.S. ambassador from his country. Chavez blames Ambassador William Brownfield for stirring up trouble, but it is Chavez who is the real provocateur — i.e., a lunatic, megalomaniac, and/or populist of the worst kind. Here’s Brownfield’s “crime,” from the AP:

Brownfield had visited a ballpark in Caracas’ Catia slums, a Chavez stronghold, to donate baseball equipment to a youth league.

The response to his visit Friday was the third time in three weeks that Brownfield has been met by protests. Earlier, demonstrators burned tires and torched an American flag.

Here’s Hugo’s response (provocation, incitement, slight?):

“I’m going to throw you out of Venezuela if you continue provoking the Venezuelan people,” Chavez said in a nationally televised speech addressed to U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield.

Perhaps “casus belli” would be a better term for Chavez’s dementia. G#d knows how many successful revolutions have been won with baseball equipment.