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02/03/2006:

"Rumsfeld likens Venezuela’s Chavez to Hitler"

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld likened Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Adolf Hitler, reflecting continuing tension in relations between the United States and the Latin American government.

Rumsfeld, asked during a National Press Club appearance Thursday about indications of a deteriorating general relationship between Washington and parts of Latin America, said he believes such a characterization “misses the mark.”

“We saw dictatorships there. And then we saw most of those countries, with the exception of Cuba, for the most part move towards democracies,” he said. “We also saw corruption in that part of the world. And corruption is something that is corrosive of democracy.”

The secretary acknowledged that “we’ve seen some populist leadership appealing to masses of people in those countries. And elections like Evo Morales in Bolivia take place that clearly are worrisome.”

“I mean, we’ve got Chavez in Venezuela with a lot of oil money,” Rumsfeld added. “He’s a person who was elected legally — just as Adolf Hitler was elected legally — and then consolidated power and now is, of course, working closely with Fidel Castro and Mr. Morales and others.”
msnbc.msn.com

The 'worrisome' thing in US history has been when corrupt dictatorships, which the US government takes to like pigs to mud, do their inevitable crumbling and the aspirations of the people are finally heard. Hey but we don't know much history around here. I think the lid needs to be blown on this whole 'democracy' thing. A sham, right from the start. Do regular people in the US have anything to say about the actions of this government? No. Will they stop this coming war? No. Where is democracy then.