/ 20 March 2006

Chávez: ‘George W Bush, you are a donkey’

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez flung fresh insults at his United States counterpart George Bush on Sunday, calling him a ”coward” over his handling of the Iraq war.

”Come here, Mr Danger, you are a coward, murderer, genocidal, alcoholic, drunk, immoral — you are the worst, Mr Danger, you are sick, and I know so personally,” Chávez said during his Sunday television programme, Hello, President, which has become increasingly a forum for his views on US foreign policy.

”You are a coward because you did not go to Iraq to lead your armed forces. It is very easy to command them from afar. If it occurs to you one day to invade Venezuela, I will be here waiting for you on the savanna, Mr Danger,” said Chávez, a former paratrooper.

Chávez also blasted Bush over the White House’s annual National Security Strategy, released last week, which called the leftist leader a ”demagogue awash in oil money” who is ”undermining democracy and seeking to destabilise the region.

”Mr Danger, George W Bush, you are a donkey,” Chávez said.

Venezuela is one of the largest suppliers of oil to the United States.

Chávez also pointed out that disapproval of Bush’s handling of Iraq hit a new low last week of 65%, according to a Newsweek poll.

”You are killing children who are not to blame for your illnesses, for your complexes, kid. Your soldiers are bombing cities. Yesterday we saw images of five murdered children,” Chávez said. – Sapa-AFP