President Chavez Spews Venom

When the President of Venezuela walked up to the podium to address the United Nations, few were prepared to hear the venom that was about to be uttered. Hugo Chavez is clearly on record for his distasteful words about the President of the United States. He has called President Bush a “donkey,” “stupid” and “Mr. Danger.” But in this speech, he went as far as one man can go to create the image of an enemy. In a speech that lasted 23 minutes, the Venezuelan leader depicted an oil hungry president, referring to him as “The Devil.” He told the attendees at the 61st United Nations General Assembly that “The devil was here yesterday.” He has accused President Bush of trying to overthrow his government and he reiterated this sentiment Wednesday, at the Untied Nations. When asked about the verbal attacks by President Chavez, Condoleezza Rice said the remarks were “not becoming” a head of state.

John Bolten, the US Ambassador to the United Nations said that the speech showed “what kind of man” Chavez is. He responded to the speech by saying that the administration would “not address this sort of comic-strip approach to international affairs.” U.S. Officials have said that Chavez is undermining democracy in his own country and encouraging an aggression towards the United States, andÃ?¯Ã?¿Ã?½throughout Latin America. The sentiment that President Chavez expressed is felt by a very small minority, but the voice that it has given to that small minority is ringing loudly as it bellowed from the United Nations stage.

The Venezuelan elections will be held in December. Tom Casey, the US State Department spokesman, said “I’ll leave it to the Venezuelan people to determine whether President Chavez ….presented them in a way they would have liked to be seen.”