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Americas Rev. Jackson defends Venezuelan head
(BBC NEWS, 28 August 2005)
US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has offered his support to the Venezuelan president after a call by a US TV evangelist for his assassination. . . . Rev Jackson denounced Pat Robertson's suggestion that US agents should kill Hugo Chavez as "immoral" and "illegal". . . . The two countries should work out their differences through diplomacy, he said during a visit to Venezuela. . . . Last week's comments come amid tense relations between Caracas and Washington. . . . President Chavez is a regular critic of Washington, which regards the left-wing leader as a possible source of instability in the region. . . . The Venezuelan leader has said that US President George W Bush will be to blame if he is attacked. . . . Rev Jackson urged US authorities to take action against Mr Robertson's statements. . . . "We must choose a civilized policy of rational conversation," he told reporters during his three-day visit to speak at a ceremony. . . . Rev Jackson later met and shook hands with Mr Chavez during the Venezuelan leader's weekly radio and television programme, the Associated Press reports. . . . Senior members of Mr Chavez's government have said they take the threat from the US very seriously. . . . The two nations have recently broken off co-operation on combating illegal drugs, though America still buys Venezuelan oil. The nation is the world's fifth-largest producer.

posted by LoZo 3:21 PM

    War on Venezuela Archives     War on Venezuela [Home]

 

Venezuela Says Robertson Call to Kill Chavez Criminal
(Bloomberg, Aug. 23)
Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said that calls by U.S. television evangelist Pat Robertson to kill Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez were "criminal." U.S. Senators Norm Coleman and Mel Martinez called Robertson's statements "irresponsible" and "incredibly stupid." . . . "It's the height of hypocrisy for the U.S. to continue talking about the war against terrorism when at the same time you have someone making obvious terrorist declarations in the heart of the country," Rangel said. . . . Robertson, a television evangelist, said yesterday on a broadcast of his "700 Club" program that Chavez is a "dangerous enemy." He said killing Chavez would be cheaper than going to war with Venezuela to remove him. . . . "It was an incredibly stupid statement and has no reflection on reality," Coleman, the chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations subcommittee on the western Hemisphere, told reporters while on a trip to Rio de Janeiro. "I met with President Chavez on my last visit a couple of months ago and he related that concern to me, about how the U.S. was out to assassinate him. I told him not to lose any sleep about it." [COMMENT by Lorenzo: Be sure to look through the archives for this section, as there is a lot of background information available that backs up Chavez's point of view.] . . . Chavez, 51, in June said there was "evidence" that the U.S. wanted him dead, an act that would violate an assassination ban first signed by Gerald Ford in 1976. The Venezuelan leader has repeatedly accused President George W. Bush of backing efforts to topple his government, a charge the U.S. denies. . . . "This type of statement justifies the Venezuelan government's worry about preserving the life of its president," Rangel said. "President Bush said yesterday that his government rejects all forms of terrorism. The reaction of the U.S. to this presumably religious man will put to the test U.S. rhetoric." . . . The U.S. has alleged Venezuela is using its oil wealth to undermine democracy in Latin America. Venezuela, the U.S.'s fourth-largest oil supplier, has threatened to cut off supplies. . . . "I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said of Chavez. "This is a dangerous enemy to our south controlling a huge pool of oil." . . . Robertson, 75, made the comments on Chavez yesterday on his program, an audiotape of which was posted on the Web site of the Christian Broadcasting Network, founded by the cleric in 1960 and based in Virginia. . . . "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come to exercise that ability," Robertson said. . . . Chavez, who became president in February 1999, was overthrown in a coup in April 2002 and regained power two days later. The U.S., which didn't immediately condemn the overthrow of the Venezuelan leader, has rejected accusations by Chavez that it helped plan the coup.

posted by LoZo 3:28 PM

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Chavez says US drug agents spying
(BBC NEWS, 7 August 2005)
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accused the US Drug Enforcement Administration of using its agents to spy on the South American country. . . . Mr Chavez said his country would sever its ties with the DEA and no longer collaborate with the US. . . . Last month Venezuelan prosecutors opened an investigation into the activities of DEA. . . . Mr Chavez said the country would continue to work with other international groups. . . . "The DEA was using the fight against drug trafficking as a mask, to support drug trafficking, to carry out intelligence in Venezuela against the government," Mr Chavez said. . . . "Under those circumstances we have decided to make a clean break with those accord," he added. . . . President Chavez also criticised the US policy on drugs for concentrating on the supply rather than the demand of drugs.

posted by LoZo 6:42 AM