CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez has long accused the United States of conspiring to topple his government and possibly backing plots to assassinate him -- a claim Washington has vehemently denied.
But a call by Pat Robertson for American agents to ''take out'' Chavez reignited the issue Tuesday. The religious broadcaster said killing the Venezuelan president would stop the South American country from becoming a ''launching pad for communist influence and Muslim extremism.''
Although U.S. officials quickly condemned Robertson's remarks, the fallout appeared likely to aggravate tensions between Washington and the world's fifth-largest oil exporting country.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said the U.S. response to Robertson would be a test of its anti-terrorist policy and that Venezuela was studying its legal options. ''The ball is in the U.S. court, after this criminal statement by a citizen of that country,'' Rangel said. ''It's a huge hypocrisy to maintain this discourse against terrorism and at the same time, in the heart of that country, there are entirely terrorist statements like those.''
(snip)
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-ven24.htmlQuip?
from dictionary.com
# A clever, witty remark often prompted by the occasion.
# A clever, often sarcastic remark; a gibe. See Synonyms at joke.
Not sure how this qualifies as a quip.
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