Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas and Porlamar,Margarita Island, Venezuela.
A Reuters story at
www.reuters.com
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday almost told German Chancellor Angela Merkel to go to hell, but stopped short of insulting the woman leader on Mother's Day.
Instead he called her a political descendant of Adolf Hitler and German fascism.
"Ms. Chancellor, you can go to ...," he said, pausing for effect and eliciting giggles from the audience, a group of military officers, cabinet ministers and government officials. "Because she's a woman I won't say anything else."
The leftist leader, who famously called U.S. President George W. Bush "the devil" at a United Nations assembly, slammed Merkel for calling on Latin American leaders to distance themselves from Chavez.
"She is from the German right, the same that supported Hitler, that supported fascism, that's the Chancellor of Germany today," he said.
Chavez said he could confront her about the statements if he attends an upcoming summit of heads of state from Europe and Latin America in Peru.
"Maybe I'll say something to her and she'll get mad and say 'why don't you shut up?'" he said, referencing Spanish King Juan Carlos' 2007 admonition of the loquacious Chavez that touched off a bilateral dispute with Spain.
Chavez on Sunday called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a "liar" who "shouldn't even run a corner store."
In the past, he has called U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "one of the dogs of the devil" and then-President of Mexico Vicente Fox the "lap-dog of the empire."
(Reuters reporting by Brian Ellsworth, editing by Todd Eastham)
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas and Porlamar,Margarita Island, Venezuela.
Venezuela's Chavez withdraws lawsuit against ex-wife over custody of daughter
CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is withdrawing a lawsuit against his ex-wife involving their 10-year-old daughter, saying he does not want to become a spectacle in a legal battle.
Chavez says ex-wife Marisabel Rodriguez has prevented him from seeing their daughter, Rosines. Venezuela's president says he will attempt to resolve the dispute without taking Rodriguez to court.
Rodriguez denies that she has not permitted the president to visit their daughter.
Chavez accused Rodriguez on Sunday of trying to put Rosines in the middle of what he called "a media show."
Rodriguez said last week that she was consulting with her lawyer after a court notified her of the suit. She declined to give details.
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas and Porlamar,Margarita Island, Venezuela.
