In Venezuela, Chavez tries to boost Gaddafi

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/06/AR2011030603080.html?tid=wp_featuredstories



Moammar Gaddafi is hunkered down, some once-loyal aides have abandoned him for the rebel side and President Obama and other leaders are demanding he step down. But he still has a friend - the man who received the al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

Though uncharacteristically quiet as Libya slid into anarchy, Chavez has in recent days venerated Gaddafi for his revolutionary credentials and asserted that the United States is about to invade the North African country to seize its oil. He also convened a meeting Friday in the Venezuelan capital in which his allies, including Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia, agreed to a vague peace mission to end the violence in Libya.

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And then there was Simon Bolivar's sword - or rather, a replica of the sword used by Venezuela's venerated independence hero. In 2009, five years after Gaddafi honored Chavez with Libya's annual human rights prize, Chavez awarded Gaddafi a replica of the sword. "What Simon Bolivar is for Venezuelans, Moammar Gaddafi is for the Libyan people," Chavez said to Gaddafi, then making his first visit to the region.

Last week, Chavez said it "was a great lie" that Gaddafi's forces had attacked civilians, and he also stressed that Gaddafi would not be fleeing Libya anytime soon.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/0307/Chavez-bid-to-mediate-Libya-conflict-dims-further-with-official-s-indictment

I was going to wait to post it to see if it would be posted because it's "negative" news, but yeah.

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