Chavez Jealous of Iraq

The Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, today expressed his interest in engaging in a “respectful dialogue” with leaders from Latin America, including Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, and to “loosen” the restrictions on remittances sent by Cubans living in U.S. to their families.

In an interview with Caracol Radio in Florida, Obama said today that Chavez has exploited anti-American sentiment in Latin America largely because “the U.S. has been so obsessed with Iraq” that it has not been focusing “enough on the situation in Latin America.”

“While we spend a whole year talking about Iraq, we dedicate only a week to Latin America and this has created a vacuum that people like Hugo Chávez have been able to fill,” said the candidate, according to the radio station’s translation.

Obama said that what his country should do is to inform Chavez that they are not interested in further spreading the anti-American sentiment in the region, but that he is “interested in engaging in a respectful dialogue with everyone in America to find ways to improve their quality of life,” he emphasized.

Last week, the campaign of Republican candidate John McCain broadcasted a television commercial in which Obama is attacked using images of the Venezuelan president.

The video begins with Chavez communicating his decision to expel the U.S. ambassador in Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, and uses the images to criticize the decision of Obama to meet with foreign leaders “without conditions”.

Go to hell, Yankee shit, there is a worthy people here. Go to hell a hundred times,” said Chavez before ousting Duddy.

In the interview, the Democratic candidate added that “freedom of the Cuban people is of national interest,” and therefore must exercise pressure on that country’s president Raúl Castro and his government to secure the release of political prisoners and “create political freedom of speech, press and religion.”

For this reason, it is necessary for the U.S. to move “toward a new era with a different policy if it is to enter the 21st century and not stay in the 20th century.”

“You can start loosening the restrictions on remittances that are sent by the relatives of Cubans and also lifting travel restrictions so Cuban-Americans can visit their relatives on the island more frequently,” he said.

Those changes would send a signal that the U.S. is “prepared to consider another path,” but, nevertheless, clarified that the embargo on the Caribbean island will be upheld until they have “a clear signal that there is political freedom in Cuba, in order to maintain an advantage in the event of a direct negotiation.”