"Iraq! Hold on! The world is rising up!" dozens of Chavez sympathizers chanted in a Caracas auditorium during the inauguration of the "Anti-imperialist Front of Solidarity with Iraq" on Wednesday night. Speakers denounced the attack on Iraq, and some expressed fears that Venezuela would be next. U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro has dismissed such a notion.
Washington is distrustful of Chavez, who maintains a tight friendship with Cuban President Fidel Castro, and who in 2000 became the first world leader to visit Iraqi President Saddam Hussein after the 1991 Gulf War. Chavez has condemned the strike on Iraq. Venezuelan-U.S. relations also remain strained over Washington's response to an April 2002 coup that briefly ousted Chavez. The United States initially blamed Chavez for his own downfall and only belatedly condemned the coup.
"We have to spread the idea that we have to defend ourselves," said lawmaker Victor Hugo Morales, a leader of Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement party and founder of the Anti-imperialist Front. "If we want to make progress we cannot allow ourselves to be colonized." Morales said he "never sympathized" with the Iraqi leader but insisted "the problem isn't Saddam Hussein. The problem is this is strategy to dominate the world."
Morales said the Anti-imperialist Front would organize marches and forums and promote a boycott of U.S. products. The first march will be Saturday on the British Embassy. The movement includes the so-called Bolivarian Circles, neighborhood organizations created by Chavez to help their communities and defend his self-described "revolution." Iraqi Ambassador Tahaal Abassi also addressed the crowd, expressing his gratitude for the initiative. The crowd responded to his speech with chants of "Hey, Hey! Saddam is here to stay!" [End]