Evangelist 'hit' call sparks uproar

A call by Christian evangelist Pat Robertson for the United States to assassinate Venezuela's leader has sparked international controversy.

Robertson, who heads the Christian Coalition and has close links to the White House, said the US should kill President Hugo Chavez because he was turning his Catholic country into "the launch pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism".

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said. "We don't need another US$200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator.

"It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job."

Venezuela, whose relationship with the US has become increasingly bad, described the comments as a form of terrorism and demanded the White House condemn them.

Venezuelan Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel said: "This is a huge hypocrisy to maintain an anti-terrorist line and at the same time have such terrorist statements coming from the same country.

"The ball is in the US court now after this criminal statement by a citizen of that country."

A State Department spokesman described Robertson's comments as "inappropriate" and said they were from a private citizen and did not represent the Government's position.

Chavez, a failed revolutionary who later won power at the ballot boxes, has long been at odds with the US. In 2002 the Bush Administration offered support to Chavez's opponents, who briefly overthrew him.

The US also provided money to groups which last year organised a recall vote in a failed effort to dislodge the President.

Chavez has often accused the US of trying to assassinate him - echoing the claims of one of his closest allies, Fidel Castro, whom he was yesterday visiting in Cuba.

The organisation headed by Robertson, a former presidential candidate, claims to have more than two millions members.

- INDEPENDENT