Santiago - Former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar said that the 'Castroism' of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez seems to him a dangerous threat for Latin America - almost as dangerous as 'Islamic fascism' is to the rest of the world. 'The excluding, radical populist slant of President Chavez, based on Castroism, seems to me to be a dangerous threat for the region,' Aznar said, in a lengthy interview published Thursday by Chilean daily El Mercurio.
The former Spanish prime minister, in a three-day visit to Chile that ends Friday, said he currently sees 'three very worrying phenomena in political terms'. Aznar spoke of what he called 'Islamic fascism' as the first, and said that it is the worst threat facing the world and 'the ideology that feeds terrorism.' He added that Latin America faces the remaining two: excluding, radical populism, with Cuban roots, and a form of 'indigenous extremism' based on ethnic criteria that according to Aznar brings to mind fanatic nationalism. |