Castro Warns U.S. Against Plot on Chávez

[cal04]

President Fidel Castro warned the United States on Saturday against plotting to kill his ally President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.
"I say to world public opinion: if they assassinate Chávez, the responsibility will fall squarely on the president of the United States, George W. Bush," Mr. Castro said.

The Cuban leader, who was the target of C.I.A. assassination plots after his 1959 revolution steered Cuba toward Communism and the Soviet Union's sphere of influence, offered no evidence that Mr. Chávez's life was in danger.

But he said the United States would be responsible for killing Mr. Chávez even if the Venezuelan military carried out an assassination.
"If they can eliminate him, they will," Mr. Castro said.Mr. Chávez has led Venezuela into a close alliance with Cuba, raising fears in Washington because Venezuela is a major supplier of oil to the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/international/americas/13castro.html

Chavez on Saturday thanked the Cuban leader for his remarks.
"Thank you Fidel, it is true there are rumors, it is true there is information," he said while visiting areas affected by heavy rains outside Caracas. "They are not going to succeed, my dear friend, you will see they will not," he added the 50-year-old. "I will become an old man, like you."

http://cbsnewyork.com/topstories/topstories_story_043203437.html

[paineinthearse]

1. I don't get it

How can communist China be a most-favored trading partner, but puny Cuba be an arch enemy?

[Skink]

2. I'm fuckin moving to Cuba...

I love the Islands. I also heard in a Jazz clinic given by Charlie Haden that conditions for music and Mus. ed. there are A1.

[anarchy1999]

6. If not Cuba, why not Venezuela? Or many other areas of South America?

They are two hundred years ahead of us here in the US.

[98geoduck]

3. Castro proved his sanity when he called Bush "Deranged"

[cal04]

4. Chavez: US is a terrorist state

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has branded the United States a "terrorist state" while rejecting Washington's criticism of Caracas for its arms purchase from Russia.

Chavez, a fierce critic of US President George Bush and the US-led war in Iraq, on Saturday brushed aside US opposition to the agreement to buy 100,000 automatic rifles and about 40 military helicopters from Moscow.

"One has to ask whether there was transparency in the invasion of Iraq. The world knows President Bush lied openly about Iraq having chemical weapons," Chavez said."They keep on bombing cities, killing children, they have become a terrorist state," he said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E903D3CD-F65A-45B8-91CE-9956EE5C0169.htm

[ott]

5. FOX is on top of it

From News Hounds: Is Venezuela Next? FOX News Paves the Way!