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Web posted at: 3/18/2008 8:21:37

Chavez calls Bush ‘responsible for

genocide’
Source ::: AFP

CARACAS • Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez yesterday lashed back at US

President George W Bush calling him a "terrorist" responsible for "genocide." Bush, a
nemesis of the staunch leftist Chavez, on Wednesday had accused Chavez of backing
"terrorists" in neighbouring Colombia and fueling an anti-American campaign with his
country's oil wealth.
"The president of the United States himself has come out and attacked us and
attacked me personally, calling me a demagogue. Well, I am calling him a terrorist
and genocidal," Chavez said on his weekly "Alo, Presidente" television and radio
show.
"And now Bush says I have Venezuelans here going hungry," Chavez said, insisting
Bush outght to take a look at the economic consitions in the United States.
"Venezuela's people today are better fed than ever," Chavez said. "The people taking
hits from their own government are in the United States, which has an economic
crisis," Chavez argued. Venezuela "has squandered its oil wealth in an effort to
promote its hostile anti-American vision, it has left its own citizens to face food
shortages while it threatens its neighbours," the US president charged.
Bush's sharp criticisms of Chavez came as the White House tried to portray stalled
passage of a US-Colombia free trade agreement as critical to curbing the influence of
Chavez throughout Latin America.
Two weeks ago Venezuela promised to line the Colombian border with tanks - but
yesterday tens of thousands of concert goers crowded the frontier to celebrate how
the tanks never arrived.
From a stage on the bridge linking the countries, pop stars including Spain's
Alejandro Sanz and Colombian rock singer Juanes led the "Peace Without Borders"
concert to cheer the resolution of the Andes' worst diplomatic crisis in years.
The crisis began when Colombian forces attacked leftist guerrillas in Ecuador. This
prompted Ecuador to cut ties with Colombia and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
to order troops and tanks to the border, although the three nations resolved the
dispute before the tanks arrived.
"This is a celebration of the unity between Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia,"
Colombian singer Carlos Vives said from the stage.
"We want our police and military officers to go home," he said, calling on leftist FARC
guerrillas to release hostages held as part of Colombia's four-decade-old civil war.
Tens of thousands of fans gathered below the international Simon Bolivar bridge to
see the lineup, which also included Dominican merengue star Juan Luis Guerra and
Mexican pop-rock band Mana.