Maduro Wants Better Relations with US
…but based on respect for sovereingty
HAVANA TIMES — At the funeral of Hugo Chavez today, acting Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said that he wants good relations with the United States, but ones based on respect for sovereignty, reported the dpa news service.
Maduro thanked US President Barack Obama for sending former Massachusetts congressman Bill Delahunt (D) and New York lawmaker Gregory Meeks, along with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, to lead the US delegation to Chavez’s funeral.
“We love all the peoples of Our America, but we want relations of respect, of cooperation, of true peace. We want — as Commander Chavez wrote — a world without empires, without hegemonic nations, a world of peace that respects international law,” said Maduro in an emotional speech.
Chavez died on Tuesday at the age of 58 after battling cancer in his abdominal area. The ailment had been first detected in mid-2011.
Before leaving for Cuba for the last time in December, Chavez had announced his decision to choose Maduro as a possible successor in the event of a fatal outcome of the disease. He returned to Venezuela on February 18th.
Maduro spoke after Jesse Jackson — the only foreigner who had the right to speak at the funeral — who praised the Chavez administration for having helped the poor.
The acting president welcomed the presence of the two US congressmen sent to represent the world’s most powerful country.
“Here are several representatives who we salute and appreciate: Jesse Jackson and also Congressman Bill Delahunt and Congressman Gregory Meeks, who we salute them for having been sent here by President Obama – welcome,” he said.
On Tuesday though, just hours before Chavez’s death, Maduro had accused the United States of having inoculated the Bolivarian leader with cancer.
At that time Maduro said: “We have no doubt that the historic enemies of our country sought some means to harm the health of our commander. In his historical moment, we have sufficient clues related to this issue. This is a very serious issue from the historical point of view, one that will have to be investigated by a special committee of scientists.”
Grady, unfounded accusations which say that the US government is in anyway responsible for this act of God are ridiculous. I was in Cuba during the hurricanes in 2008. A few Cubans asked me if I thought the CIA had a satellite that could cause hurricanes. After I stopped laughing, I told them what I will tell you. Government is not the all-powerful OZ. In fact, if you rememer the movie, OZ was not the all-powerful OZ.
Cort, the US could replace Venezuelan oil with other OPEC suppliers. On the other hand, replacing the US for Venezuela? Not so easy. What is easy is for you to say Venezuela should turn back the clock and become like Cuba. Venezuelans who live in Venezuela think differently.
So a country who has been trying to overthrow the Bolivarian revolution since day one, supporting coups, oil strike, funding oppo’s and NGO’s to destabilize even till this day and may have helped kill the President, some want to be friends with.I don’t think the grassroots and militants would go for that, for sure.
If it was me and I have advocated this for years and heard Venezuelans say this, cut off the oil, kick out the 400 US companies along with the capitalists from Spain, China, Iran et al.
Complete the revolution and extend, stop playing games!
Rojo Rojito
Cort
Cancer cannot be induced by putting something in a person’s coffee. I’m surprised you seem to be giving credence to this silly conspiracy theory.
Cancer kills without discrimination. Sometimes even early diagnosis or previous good health is not enough to change the end result when an aggressive cancer strikes. I have a family member who passed away at the age of 40 from an aggressive cancer, and now another who is in the fight of his life at the age of 48.
I hope that Nicolas, if he wins the upcoming presidential election, will safeguard his health by being very cautious as to what he consumes at international conferences, on the one hand; and on the other hand, does not drink forty cups of strong coffee per day, as did our beloved Hugo.
Cancer is an equal opportunity killer, and can be contracted in so many ways.
My own feeling is that the CIA, quite likely–given its murderous history; given its complete lack of real patriotism or ethical considerations–did a job on Hugo. At this point, we don’t know for sure. Let’s see what the full, scientific investigation reveals.
What we do know for certain is that, as patriots of whatever country, we must keep struggling for a better, more sustainable world. Good luck and best wishes to the Venezuelan people.