‘Kill Chavez’ call set to bolster president’s popularity

US EVANGELIST Pat Robertson may have apologised, but his call for the US to assassinate Hugo Chavez is playing into the Venezuelan leader’s political hands, bolstering his claim that Washington wants to kill him, putting him in the international limelight and probably boosting his popularity at home.

Chavez supporters said the suggestion by the religious broadcaster that the United States should “take him out” gave credence to the Venezuelan president’s warnings that the US government is searching for ways to overthrow his leftist regime.

“If anyone had a doubt, now they no longer do,” said Maritza Uzcategui, a 50-year-old nurse and Chavez supporter.

“He’s been saying they want to kill him.”

US officials called Mr Robertson’s on-air remarks inappropriate and repeated assurances that the US was not considering killing Chavez, despite its questions about his commitment to democracy and accusations he is spreading instability in Latin America.

Mr Robertson apologised late on Wednesday, saying it was wrong to call for someone’s assassination.

“I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the US is out to kill him,” he said in a statement.

For months, Mr Chavez has peppered his speeches with mentions of assassination plots and purported US efforts to oust him. He has warned that Venezuela, the world’s fifth-largest petroleum exporter, will cut off oil shipments to the US if it backs any sort of conspiracy against him.

At the same time, Mr Chavez has been seeking to raise Venezuela’s profile internationally, extending preferential oil deals to countries from China to Argentina in an effort to strengthen alliances and line up alternative trade partners to the US, which is the number one buyer of Venezuelan oil.

By legitimising Mr Chavez’s warnings about plots, Robertson’s words will raise the president’s profile and bolster his already high domestic support, which is drawn primarily from the country’s poor majority, said Luis Vicente Leon, director of the polling firm Datanalisis.

“What is certain is that the statement strengthens Chavez domestically and internationally,” said Mr Leon, whose polling firm said last month that Chavez had a 70% approval rating.

Mr Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and supporter of George Bush’s re-election bid, said on his TV show, The 700 Club, that the US should stop Chavez from making Venezuela a “launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism”.

“If he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s state-run television began broadcasting a brief segment blending images of MrRobertson and Mr Bush while displaying the message: “Who Gives Orders to Whom?”

The controversy arose while Mr Chavez was on a trip to Cuba, Jamaica and Martinique. He signed a deal with Jamaica on Tuesday night that is to be one of many across the Caribbean, pledging Venezuelan oil at special rates and allowing the island to pay through goods and services as well as low-interest loans.

“Don’t thank us. It is the call of conscience,” he said.

Venezuela already ships about 90,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba on preferential terms, and it has started a plan to supply oil to Caribbean countries.

On Tuesday, Mr Chavez also offered to help poor US communities by selling them gasoline directly.