Chavez opens heart to supermodel Campbell

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has given an interview to supermodel Naomi Campbell in which he claims George Bush is out to kill him, hails Fidel Castro as a fashion icon and declares that the Duchess of Cornwall is not very good looking.

Campbell was granted an audience with the controversial politician for GQ magazine, where she has a new role as contributing editor.

Mr Chavez described the US government as “genocidal” and US President George Bush as “completely crazy”.

But in a wide-ranging interview, Campbell also found time to quiz the left-wing leader on sartorial matters.

Required to name “the most stylish world leader”, Mr Chavez replied: “Fidel, of course! His uniform is impeccable. His boots are polished, his beard is elegant.”

Campbell also asked Mr Chavez if he knew the Spice Girls.

“I have memories of them. I know the Queen of England, though. I sent her a present. Coming down from Buckingham Palace, I gave her a coin with her face on it,” he said.

Mr Chavez was keen to find out more about the Royal Family, asking Campbell: “Do you know Prince Charles?”

When she replied that she had met him and had known Diana, Princess of Wales, Mr Chavez declared: “I like the Prince. Now he has Camilla, his new girl. She’s not as attractive, is she?”

Campbell also wanted to know: “Would you you go topless like Vladimir Putin?”

“Why not? Touch my muscles!” he exclaimed.

The former paratrooper and friend of London Mayor Ken Livingstone used the interview to rage against the US, or “the Empire of the Eagle”, as he preferred to call it.

“”We’re seeing the fall of the Empire. When the world is in fear – that’s the first step before the fall,“ he said. ”Like the fairy tale, the Emperor is naked. We’ve seen the emperor’s ass.“

Of Mr Bush he said: “He’s completely crazy. But he’s on the way out,” then described Condoleezza Rice as “secretary of state of a genocidal government”.

Asked by Campbell if Mr Bush wanted to kill him, Mr Chavez said: “I think he does. Him and his companions.”

Venezuela is an oil-rich nation and Mr Chavez claimed: “The oil will run out in half of the world but we’ll have oil here for another hundred years. Fidel tells me, ’Don’t say that! Every time you say that, Bush has you in his sights’.”

Mr Chavez said Venezuela is a beacon of human rights – a claim which has been disputed.

“Here, we are just starting a peaceful revolution. We don’t have a single political prisoner. We have not shot anyone. We’ve prohibited the detention of anyone for political reasons. Everyone is presumed innocent and their human rights are respected. I don’t think there is any country in the world with more freedom of expression than here,” he insisted.

Writing in GQ, Campbell explained why she chose to interview Mr Chavez.

“I’d always heard Hugo Chavez was a people’s president and I wanted to see if that was true.

“Even though it was clear I wasn’t going to Venezuela for political reasons, I knew it was a controversial thing to do. People rarely understand that I do things that I may not push in the public eye.

“While my interview with him was the main reason for my visit to Venezuela, I also wanted Chavez to donate something to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which I represent, and I wanted to see his social programmes in action.

“I didn’t want to judge Chavez, or probe him for his political views, even though he gave them freely. I simply went to interview Hugo Chavez the man.”

She noted: “Since I was last in Venezuela 10 years ago, for a Sports Illustrated shoot, people seemed happier.”

Mr Chavez showed Campbell his library and paintings, and he revealed that he loved to sing, leading her to muse: “I believe if he wasn’t the president he’d be a very successful Latin singer.”

The President is no stranger to controversy – in 2006 he delivered a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in which he denounced President Bush as “the devil”.

In November, King Juan Carlos of Spain told Mr Chavez to “shut up” during a leaders’ summit in Chile, a clip of which has become one of the most popular videos on YouTube.

Campbell concluded: “Chavez certainly says what he feels. I found him to be fearless, but not threatening or unreasonable. I hope Venezuela’s relations with America will improve in the immediate future.

“Whatever the future holds, for me his role will always be that of a rebel angel.”

The Streatham-born supermodel will interview famous people from the worlds of politics, showbusiness and sport for GQ.

Her next subject will be Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.

:: The full interview is in the new issue of GQ, on sale Thursday.