CARACAS, Venezuela - The Rev. Jesse Jackson offered support for President Hugo Chavez on Sunday, saying a call for his assassination by a U.S. religious broadcaster was a criminal act and that Washington and Venezuela should work out their differences through diplomacy.
The U.S. civil rights leader condemned last week's suggestion by Pat Robertson that American agents should kill the leftist Venezuelan leader, calling the conservative commentator's statements "immoral" and "illegal."
Jackson urged U.S. authorities to take action, and said the U.S. government must choose "diplomacy over any threats of sabotage or isolation or assassination."
"We must choose a civilized policy of rational conversation," he told reporters at a news conference.
Chavez, a self-styled "revolutionary," has repeatedly accused President Bush's government of planning to overthrow him. He warned Friday that some American leaders have considered killing him. . . .
Jackson later met and shook hands with Chavez during the Venezuelan leader's weekly radio and television program.
"Reverend Jackson, you can be sure that we will continue fighting for the ideas of Martin Luther King, for Christ the Redeemer's idea of loving one another and building a society of equals through our peaceful and democratic revolution," said Chavez.
He told Jackson he wanted to discuss the possibility of sending oil at preferential terms to poor communities in the United States.
What a load of horse hockey. Peaceful, democratic revolution? Give me a break. Chavez originally came to power by violent coup. Once in power, he took the "democratic" measures of pushing through legislation that allows him to rule by decree and then using that power to suspend property rights and set up a council (under his control) that can unilaterally overturn legislation and court rulings (as well as replace legislators and judges) without the consent of anyone but himself.
And Jackson is down there "lending" this guy "support," according to the AP's headline.
Despite the leftist fawning over this guy, he is a communist dictator. Period. Robertson's comments may have been ill-advised, but Jackson is clearly going too far in the other direction.
Sec. of State Rice said, earlier this year, that no more should America "pursue stability at the expense of democracy." That is the approach we need to take with Chavez. His regime is not democratic. Regimes that are not democratic breed oppression, which in turn breeds international instability and terrorism.
I wish people like Rev. Jackson got this.