We are no threat, Obama a good guy, says Hugo Chavez
President Hugo Chavez denied on Friday that Venezuela was a threat to anyone, after US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney criticised Barack Obama for playing down the risk posed by the socialist leader.
Obama told a Spanish-language television station in an interview screened this week that Chavez’s actions over recent years had not had a serious impact on the national security of the US. Romney said Obama’s comments were “stunning and shocking” and showed a pattern of weakness in the Democratic president’s foreign policy.
In an interview to a local television station on Friday, Chavez dismissed the allegations he posed any danger. “The Venezuela of today is no threat to anyone,” he said.
“It has all been a hoax by the imperialists and global far right: that uranium is being enriched in Venezuela, that we’re setting up missiles here, that we’re supporting terrorism.”
With both Chavez and Obama running for re-election this year, Chavez struck a conciliatory tone, saying the latest comments by his US counterpart needed to seen in context.
“Obama is campaigning. He’s a candidate. I hope the real revolutionaries understand well. I think that Barack Obama — aside from ‘the president’ — is a good guy,” he said.
Chavez is trying to appeal to the third of Venezuelans who may not have decided yet who to vote for in the October 7 election, when he will seek a new six-year term despite undergoing three cancer operations in Cuba over the last year.
Chavez also cited his friendship with Juan Manuel Santos, the conservative leader of neighbouring Colombia, as proof of his benign influence on Latin American affairs.
