Chavez: 'US entering a phase of desperation'

venezuelanalysis: Venezuela's President Chavez, in his first extended response to Reverend Pat Robertson's call for Chavez's assassination, said that Robertson expresses "the desire of the elite that governs the U.S.A." Chavez added that this was nothing new because there is plenty of evidence that the U.S. supported plots for his assassination.

Chavez made the remarks during a ceremony in which the government paid its debt of back pay and retirement benefits to university employees that had accumulated during the years 1999 to 2001.

..According to Chavez, the dominant political and economic classes of the U.S. are "entering a phase of desperation now, at the beginning of the 21st century - which is why they are interested in resorting to acts such as assassination." Chavez also mentioned that the Fox News Channel had presented a former CIA agent, who said, "one must put an end to Chavez before he puts an end to us."

With regard to the U.S. governmen's official response to Pat Robertson, Chavez said that the U.S. "has not taken any action. What would happen here in Venezuela if someone gets on television asking my government to assassinate the president of the U.S.?" Read more

db: It's inconvenient for some that Chavez spreads billions of dollars of oil revenue around the country in support of good causes - it's also inconvenient that most of Venezuela's population seem to admire him - and vote for him - again and again. That is not enough though to guarantee him a long and healthy life - given that he takes the piss, and justifiably, so well. He is warm, funny, and an idealist - with the power to act on it. So perhaps he is also a 'dead man walking'. I hope not.

Regarding Robertson's comments - they are more interesting for the fact that they indicate the current political culture that exists in Bush's America - one of more or less open criminality. Robertson only slightly misjudged the mood - and it wasn't even what he said - more the way he said it.