Venezuela condemned US religious broadcaster Pat Robertson for suggesting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should be killed, saying he committed a crime that is punishable in the US.
Officials in Washington distanced themselves from Robertson, saying that his statements did not reflect the position of the US government.
Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said his government was considering legal action against Robertson for saying US agents should "take out" Chavez, an outspoken critic of US President George W. Bush and close ally of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
"There is a legal measure in the United States that condemns and punishes statements of this nature," Rangel said, referring to laws dealing with television broadcasts.
He said the US response to Robertson's suggestion on Monday that the US should assassinate Chavez would be a test of its anti-terrorism policy.
"What is the US government going to do regarding this criminal statement? The ball is in the US' court," Rangel said.
"It's a huge hypocrisy to maintain this discourse against terrorism and at the same time, in the heart of that country, there are entirely terrorist statements like those," he added.
Robertson said Chavez should be assassinated to stop Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, from becoming a "launching pad for communist influence and Muslim extremism."
The statements made by the conservative commentator could exacerbate already tense relations between Caracas and Washington.
Chavez, speaking to reporters late on Tuesday at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica, compared Robertson and other vocal critics of his government to the "rather mad dogs with rabies" that chased after the main characters in Don Quixote, the classic novel by Miguel de Cervantes.
"When the dogs bark it is because we are working all the time," Chavez said as Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson sat beside him. "The dogs bark ... because we are advancing."
Earlier on Tuesday in Cuba, when reporters asked Chavez about Robertson's comments, he said he would prefer to "talk about life."
"What they say doesn't matter to me a bit," he said.
Castro, who stood next to Chavez stroking his beard, referred to Robertson's statements by saying that he thought "only God can punish crimes of such magnitude."
"I always say that God helps Chavez," he added.
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said he knew of no consideration ever being given to the idea of assassinating Chavez.
"Our department doesn't do that kind of thing. It's against the law," he said.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called Robertson's remarks "inappropriate."
"This is not the policy of the United States government. We do not share his views," he said.
On Monday, Robertson said on the Christian Broadcast Network's The 700 Club: "We have the ability to take him [Chavez] out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability."
"We don't need another US$200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS