Venezuela's Chavez Calls Peru Candidate Garcia A 'Thief'
(all this hullaballoo over black gold - not shiny metal)
CARACAS (AP)--Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Peruvian presidential candidate Alan Garcia a "thief" on Friday and threatened to withdraw his ambassador from Peru if the former leader is elected amid an escalating exchange of insults.
The Venezuelan president's angry reaction was in response to comments by Garcia likening Chavez and his close ally, Bolivian President Evo Morales, to a couple of spoiled children.
"You are corrupt, shameless, a thief," Chavez said during a speech in Caracas.
"If by some work of the devil, Mr. Garcia is elected president of Peru, I'm going to withdraw my ambassador from Peru because Venezuela cannot have relations with a president like that," he said.
Garcia, who was president of Peru from 1985-90, said earlier that Chavez and Morales act like a couple of "spoiled kids" for criticizing Peru and Colombia on their decisions to reach free-trade pacts with the U.S.
"Mr. Chavez talks because he has oil," Garcia said. "He's a person of scarce political resources who has found himself with a huge lottery, which is the oil that Venezuela has."
Chavez, a fierce critic of U.S.-backed trade liberalization efforts in the region, characterized Garcia as "the White House candidate who plans to continue enslaving and dominating the people (of Peru)."
Chavez, accusing Garcia of having plundered Peru, took a jibe at his disastrous presidency that left Peru's economy in shambles facing more than 7,000% annual inflation.
"Let's see if I go to a summit and he robs me of this bill," Chavez said.
Chavez reiterated his backing for nationalist and former military officer Ollanta Humala in the Peruvian elections, which are to be decided in an expected May 28 runoff.
"I hope that Ollanta Humala becomes president of Peru," he said, defiantly rejecting claims that such statements were meddling in Peruvian affairs.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez suggested in an interview with the Venezuela-based Telesur TV station on Thursday that Garcia appears to feel obliged by the campaign to attack Chavez and Morales.
"What's going on is that the Venezuelan president has become an obligatory reference and Alan Garcia is showing immaturity by calling Chavez and Morales spoiled kids," Rodriguez said, according to a Telesur statement.
Rodriguez suggested it comes down to a different worldview. "Now they call us spoiled because we don't give in" to the U.S. government, he said.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 28, 2006 14:44 ET (18:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 02 44 PM EDT 04-28-06 |
