Chavez Rejects Colombia Election Charge as Mockus Rises in Poll
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Wait ’till he tweets about this one.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rejected charges by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that he is meddling in the Andean country’s political affairs ahead of presidential elections next month.
Chavez, who said last week that former Colombian defense minister and presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos could “generate a war” if elected, said last night that he has no preferred candidate for the May 30 election and will seek improved ties with his neighbor regardless. The comments came as Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus, who has reportedly said that he “admires” Chavez, begins to gain ground.
Continued, as excerpted from Bloomberg:
Chavez has cited Santos’s role in leading a 2008 military operation that killed a top guerrilla leader in Ecuadorean territory as a source of tension between the countries. The Ecuador strike prompted Chavez to send troops and tanks to Venezuela’s border with Colombia. Santos is now trying to take a conciliatory tone to win office, Chavez said.
“I don’t have a candidate in Colombia and I can’t have one. Hopefully someone comes along with whom I can talk, and not one that attacks neighboring countries with bombs,” Chavez said last night on state television. He then immediately retracted the statement by adding that, “I’m talking about Mr. Santos. Now he’s trying to disguise himself by putting a sheep’s skin on a wolf. If he wins, relations will be further strained.”
Uribe said yesterday that his government “won’t accept blackmail” by foreign governments trying to intimidate voters with threats of war.
“This intimidation, this undue interference by a foreign government, offends the Colombian people and offends all the candidates regardless of whether the candidate supports or opposes the government,” Uribe said in a statement from his office.
Mockus, who yesterday said he “admires” Chavez during an interview on La Zeta Radio, said in a subsequent interview on W Radio that he used the wrong verb.
“I respect President Chavez because he was elected and reelected democratically and anyone elected democratically is respectable,” Mockus, the former mayor of Bogota, said in the interview posted on W Radio’s website today. “I used the verb ‘admire’ and I’d like to change it to ‘respect.’”
Chavez said last night that he doesn’t know Mockus personally or his policies.
“The Colombian people will know who to choose,” Chavez said. “Santos wants to be president, and he has that right, but it would be extremely difficult with a personality like that. It would be a serious military threat to the region.”
A poll released yesterday by RCN Television showed that Mockus could win the election against Santos.