Breaking News | Forum | UK News | USA News | World News | Political News | Sci-Tech News | War & Terrorism News | Sports News | Multimedia | Set Homepage

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

George Bush has accused the Venezuelan president of “praising terrorists” and of squandering his country’s oil wealth to fuel a campaign against the US.

The US president criticised Hugo Chavez’s reaction to a recent Colombian raid on a Farc rebel base in Ecuador that sparked a week-long diplomatic crisis in Latin America.

“The president of Venezuela praised the terrorist leader as a good revolutionary and ordered his troops to the Colombian border,” Bush said.

The US leader said the move was “the latest step in a disturbing pattern of provocative behaviour by the regime in Caracas”.

Bush also reaffirmed his support for the Alavaro Uribe, the Colombian president, and warned that the region was facing a choice over its future.

“The region is facing an increasingly stark choice: to quietly accept the vision of the terrorists and the demagogues, or to actively support democratic leaders like President Uribe.

“I’ve made my choice. I’m standing with courageous leadership that believes in freedom and peace.”

‘Empty promises’

Bush’s sharp criticism of Chavez came as the White House tried to portray the passage of a US-Colombia free trade agreement as critical to stem Chavez’s influence across Latin America.

Wednesday’s speech was made at the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

“As it tries to expand its influence in Latin America, the regime claims to promote social justice.

“In truth its agenda amounts to little more than empty promises and a thirst for power,” Bush said.

“It has squandered its oil wealth in an effort to promote its hostile anti-American vision; it has left its own citizens to face food shortages while it threatens its neighbours,” he added.

Colombian apology

Bush spoke just days after Latin American leaders agreed an end to a week-long crisis sparked by the cross-border raid inside Ecuador that killed a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) commander.

Ecuador also sent troops to the Colombian border and cut diplomatic ties with Bogota over the incident.

Colombia apologised and promised never to carry out such a raid again.

The recent crisis reflected a sharp political divide in South America, where Uribe, who has strong US backing, is opposed by Chavez and his allies who fiercely reject what they call US “imperialism”.

Chavez, who has called for a socialist revolution in Latin America to counter US influence, regularly criticises Bush and once called him the “devil” in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

Agencies

See More:Bush 

Have Your Say: George Bush lashes out at Hugo Chavez
Please note, only selected comments will be published.

Or discuss this report in our new forums

RSS TrackBack URL

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 2:02 am and is filed under New World Order . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Loading ...

ADVERTISEMENTS

SITE MAPS

7/7 Afghanistan Alternative Energy Art BBC Big Brother Bilderberg Biometrics Bush CIA Climate Change Cover Up Cults Culture Database State David Hicks David Ray Griffin Democrats Demos Drugs Education EU False Flag FBI Fraud Free Speech Freemasons G8 Globalization Guantanamo Health News History ID Cards Internet Iran Iraq Israel Law Marches MI5 MI6 Microsoft Military MoD Money Music NASA Neocons NSA Oil Pakistan Podcast Police State Propaganda RFID RINF Rumsfeld Science Secrecy Security Slavery Space Sports Spying Stephen Lendman Technology Terrorism Tony Blair Torture TV UK News UN USA News Video Voting Warfare White House Wolfowitz World News Yahoo
2003 - 2005 Archives | 2005 - 2007 Archives | 2007 - 2008 Archives | Current Archives | Past Version