Chávez tells Blair to go to hell
Simon Jeffery and agencies
Thursday February 9, 2006
The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez talks to his supporters during a rally in Caracas. Photograph: Nicolas Pineda/EPA
When Tony Blair left the Commons chamber after question time, he probably thought David Cameron's accusation that he was "flip-flopping" over school reform was the worst verbal jab he would face this week.
Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan president, had other ideas. In a characteristically forthright tirade, he described the prime minister as "a pawn of imperialism" and told him to "go right to hell".
Mr Chávez was inveighing against comments on Venezuela's attitude to democracy made by Mr Blair in the chamber. The prime minister's observation that Venezuela should abide by the rules of the international community if it wanted to be respected by it showed that he believed "we're still in times of imperialism and colonialism", Mr Chávez said.
"Go right to hell, Mr Blair," he told the prime minister during a speech in western Venezuela, using local slang to deliver the line. His exact words, "váyase largo al cipote", have no direct translation into English.
Mr Chávez described Mr Blair as "the main ally of Hitler" - an accusation that he is siding with the US president in its confrontation with Venezuela. Mr Chávez has taken to calling George Bush "Mr Danger" and "Danger Bush Hitler" among other epithets, and added that he would now need similar nicknames for Mr Blair.
"You messed with me, so put up with me," he told the prime minister. Quoting the lyrics of a Venuezuelan folk song that he also recited when he called Mexico's president Vicente Fox a "lapdog" of the United States, he added: "I sting those who rattle me, Mr Blair".
Relations between the Venezuela and US, whose lead Mr Chávez accused Mr Blair of following, are at their lowest point for several years after the two governments expelled each other's diplomats in a spying row last week.
The barney started when Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, compared Mr Chávez to Adolf Hitler. Speaking at a mass rally on Saturday commemorating the failed 1992 coup that he led as a lieutenant colonel, Mr Chávez then remarked that the Nazi leader "would be like a suckling baby next to George W Bush".
Venezuela, which supplies 15% of the US's foreign oil, has previously attempted to rattle Washington by offering humanitarian aid to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina and cheap heating oil to residents of Massachusetts, and forging relations with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran and Fidel Castro's Cuba.
The spark for his attack on Mr Blair was a question from Labour MP Colin Burgon on whether British policy in South America was shaped by a "rightwing US Republican agenda". The prime minister replied that Venezuela needed to take care when it formed a close alliance with a non-democracy such as Cuba.
"If they want to be respected members of the international community, they should abide by the rules of the international community," he told MPs. "I say with the greatest respect to the president of Venezuela that when he forms an alliance with Cuba, I would prefer to see Cuba a proper functioning democracy."
Mr Chávez said the remarks showed Mr Blair was "nothing but a pawn of imperialism trying now to attack us from Europe". He added that Mr Blair lacked the moral standing to make them.
"You, Mr Blair, do not have the morality to call on anyone to respect the rules of the international community," he said. "You are precisely the one who has flouted international law the most [...] siding with Mr Danger to trample the people in Iraq.
"I'm going to be closely watching what you say and what you do. Because the British government has no moral standing - and even less yourself - to get involved in Venezuela's affairs."
A Downing Street spokeswoman said Mr Chávez was "entitled to his views".
The president came to prominence in a failed coup attempt in 1992 but won a democratic election in 1998 and was re-elected in 2000.
guardian.co.uk
Simon Jeffery and agencies
Thursday February 9, 2006
The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez talks to his supporters during a rally in Caracas. Photograph: Nicolas Pineda/EPA
When Tony Blair left the Commons chamber after question time, he probably thought David Cameron's accusation that he was "flip-flopping" over school reform was the worst verbal jab he would face this week.
Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan president, had other ideas. In a characteristically forthright tirade, he described the prime minister as "a pawn of imperialism" and told him to "go right to hell".
Mr Chávez was inveighing against comments on Venezuela's attitude to democracy made by Mr Blair in the chamber. The prime minister's observation that Venezuela should abide by the rules of the international community if it wanted to be respected by it showed that he believed "we're still in times of imperialism and colonialism", Mr Chávez said.
"Go right to hell, Mr Blair," he told the prime minister during a speech in western Venezuela, using local slang to deliver the line. His exact words, "váyase largo al cipote", have no direct translation into English.
Mr Chávez described Mr Blair as "the main ally of Hitler" - an accusation that he is siding with the US president in its confrontation with Venezuela. Mr Chávez has taken to calling George Bush "Mr Danger" and "Danger Bush Hitler" among other epithets, and added that he would now need similar nicknames for Mr Blair.
"You messed with me, so put up with me," he told the prime minister. Quoting the lyrics of a Venuezuelan folk song that he also recited when he called Mexico's president Vicente Fox a "lapdog" of the United States, he added: "I sting those who rattle me, Mr Blair".
Relations between the Venezuela and US, whose lead Mr Chávez accused Mr Blair of following, are at their lowest point for several years after the two governments expelled each other's diplomats in a spying row last week.
The barney started when Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, compared Mr Chávez to Adolf Hitler. Speaking at a mass rally on Saturday commemorating the failed 1992 coup that he led as a lieutenant colonel, Mr Chávez then remarked that the Nazi leader "would be like a suckling baby next to George W Bush".
Venezuela, which supplies 15% of the US's foreign oil, has previously attempted to rattle Washington by offering humanitarian aid to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina and cheap heating oil to residents of Massachusetts, and forging relations with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran and Fidel Castro's Cuba.
The spark for his attack on Mr Blair was a question from Labour MP Colin Burgon on whether British policy in South America was shaped by a "rightwing US Republican agenda". The prime minister replied that Venezuela needed to take care when it formed a close alliance with a non-democracy such as Cuba.
"If they want to be respected members of the international community, they should abide by the rules of the international community," he told MPs. "I say with the greatest respect to the president of Venezuela that when he forms an alliance with Cuba, I would prefer to see Cuba a proper functioning democracy."
Mr Chávez said the remarks showed Mr Blair was "nothing but a pawn of imperialism trying now to attack us from Europe". He added that Mr Blair lacked the moral standing to make them.
"You, Mr Blair, do not have the morality to call on anyone to respect the rules of the international community," he said. "You are precisely the one who has flouted international law the most [...] siding with Mr Danger to trample the people in Iraq.
"I'm going to be closely watching what you say and what you do. Because the British government has no moral standing - and even less yourself - to get involved in Venezuela's affairs."
A Downing Street spokeswoman said Mr Chávez was "entitled to his views".
The president came to prominence in a failed coup attempt in 1992 but won a democratic election in 1998 and was re-elected in 2000.
guardian.co.uk
