Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rejected recent attacks by the US administration on his government, and slammed President George Bush as a "coward, murderer and responsible for genocide", in an outspoken talk on his weekly TV program Alo Presidente on March 19. Chavez was responding to criticism of Venezuela in the recently released US National Security Strategy.
The document alleges that "In Venezuela, a demagogue inundated with petrol money is undermining democracy and trying to destabilise the region". Chavez replied by blasting Bush over the war on Iraq, and contrasting popular support for himself with the international opposition to the US president.
Referring to the passage of three years since the US-led invasion of Iraq, Chavez reminded Bush that "the entire world opposes his imperialist war, his demented attitude of domination; that 70% of his own people are against him", according to a report on the television address in the March 20 Diario Vea newspaper.
"God save the world from this threat. You are a coward, murderer, and responsible for genocide. Why don't you go to Iraq and command your armed forces there?", Chavez demanded of the US president. He warned Bush that if some day it occurred to him to invade Venezuela, then the whole country would immediately rush to its defence, and that he himself "will be here waiting for you on the savanna, Mr Danger".
A poll quoted in the March 18 Diario Vea, conducted by the research company Seijas, noted "increasing support for President Chavez, with a popular backing of 82%" ahead of the December presidential election. "According to this poll, the head of state would win with ease against any possible opposition candidate", the paper noted. Seijas is linked to the Venezuelan opposition.
Commenting on the failure of the right-wing parties in Venezuela to endorse a serious candidate to challenge him in the presidential election, Chavez said: "This only confirms that Bush is the [real] chief of the Venezuelan opposition. I challenge his minions here [in Venezuela's media] to publicise the polls. They won't do it because no candidate of the opposition can do any better."
According to the March 18 Diario Vea, Venezuelan vice-president Jose Vincent Rangel strongly rejected Bush's attacks on Chavez, saying "it is a sign of the desperation, frustration and failure that has entered into the campaign led by Washington against Venezuela".
From Green Left Weekly, March 29, 2006.
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