Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has criticized President Bush in a new television interview, six months after referring to Mr. Bush as "the devil" before the United Nations General Assembly.
President Chavez said, in an exclusive interview airing Friday on the US television network ABC, that he thinks Mr. Bush is very ignorant about things actually happening in Latin America and the world. Mr. Chavez told journalist Barbara Walters that he might apologize for the remark comparing Mr. Bush to the devil. But the Venezuelan leader also said President Bush has caused "harm" by invading nations, an apparent reference to Iraq.
In the interview, President Chavez also accused the United States of supporting a military coup that briefly drove him from power in 2002. U.S. officials have denied the charge and have since accused the Venezuelan leader of, among other things, meddling in the affairs of neighboring countries and engaging in an out-sized military buildup.
Venezuela is the fifth-largest oil producer and a major supplier to the United States. Bilateral relations have grown increasingly strained under President Chavez.
During the ABC interview, Mr. Chavez reiterated his suspicion the CIA is plotting to assassinate him.
Earlier this month, the Venezuelan president said his government is increasing its efforts to detect and stop assassination plots. In a televised interview, he said he believes the CIA is out to kill him. He also called new U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte a professional killer. Negroponte in January denounced Mr. Chavez as a "threat to democracy." - VOA News
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Comments
#1 Nothing but Softballs
I am wondering why Ms. Walters didn't ask Hugo Chavez:
(1) Does he think that it is good for his country that he controls the legislature, judiciary, central bank and elections commission?
(2) Why is the person who was head of the election commission that he controls now the country's vice president?
(3) Why, in an oil wealthy country, are their food shortages, 45% inflaction, 45%-50% unemployment after 8 years of his rule?
(4) Why did people in government jobs who signed a recall petition in 2004 loose those jobs after he was elected?
(5) Why he is failing to renew the broadcast license of (he also controls this personally) RCTV, one of Venezuela's oldest broadcasting companies that has been critical of him?
(6) Why he is also going after another media outlet, Globovision, for the same reason.
(7) Why is he pushing for the elimination of all political parties save his own?
(8) Why one by one political rivals are being accused of a plot to assesinate him? (This is a convenient tool to have at one's disposal when one controls the judiciary).
(9) Why is he pushing for a constitutional convention that will enable him to run for president indefinitely.
(10) Why did Venezuela use vote counting machines manufactured by a company in which the government of Venezuela is a 25% owner?
I could go on and on with more of this, but I just wonder where these questions were. What a softball, wimpy interview. I know for some that this would be an almost impossible thing to say but, "thank God that we have Bush for a president and not this guy". Do your homework folks. Don't take Barbara Walters or any journalist or politician at their word.
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