...whose instability has been an inspiration to dictators everywhere...
and sent a message of solidarity to Syrian
President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
against "Yankee" aggression.
Chavez -- who has inherited Fidel Castro's mantle as Washington's main irritant in Latin America -- views the wave of uprisings in the Arab world as Western-led destabilization and has been a strong ally of Qadaffy.
"The Libyans are resisting the invasion and aggression. I ask God to protect the life of our brother Muammar Qadaffy. They're hunting him down to kill him," he said.
The whereabouts of Qadaffy, who ruled the north African nation with an iron fist for more than four decades, are unknown.
"No one knows where Qadaffy is, I think he went off to the desert ... to lead the resistance. What else can he do?" Chavez told television channel VTV
The 57-year-old Venezuelan supremo has defended Qadaffy since the start of the uprising against his regime, accusing NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
of using the conflict to gain control over Libya's oil.
Chavez has refused to recognize Libya's new interim leadership, ridiculing its U.N. representative, Ibrahim Dabbashi, as a "puppet" and a "dummy."
With a presidential vote scheduled for Venezuela in 2012, Chavez's opponents have leaped on his support for Arab strongmen -- and friendship with Qadaffy -- as a sign of autocratic tendencies. But he has been undeterred, and even sent support to the government of Syria.
"I spoke yesterday with the president of Syria, our brother President Bashir al-Assad," Chavez said.
"From here, we send our solidarity to the Syrian people, to President Bashar. They are resisting imperial aggression, the attacks of the Yankee empire and its European allies."