Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said U.S. President-elect Barack Obama does the Pentagon's bidding and is "meddling" in Venezuela's campaign for a February referendum on lifting term limits for elected officials, including himself.
"You all can't see that Obama is already meddling in the campaign. The head of the empire is meddling in the campaign," Chavez told a rally of supporters, using his nickname for the United States. Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th U.S. president on Jan. 20.
Chavez, a leftist seeking access to unlimited reelection through a constitutional amendment that passed Congress and now awaits the people's verdict by plebiscite, said Venezuelan opposition members were plotting to defeat the measure. He said a grup of opposition leaders traveled to New York and Miami to "put all the money in the world and use all the dirty tricks in the book" to defeat the Feb. 15 amendment.
As the new U.S. president, he added, Obama "follows a script from the Pentagon.
"Because if the president of the United States were to disobey orders from the
empire, Obama would be killed like [John F.] Kennedy, like Martin Luther King or
Abraham Lincoln."
Chavez said he had hoped Obama would "reconsider...but he has already become mixed up in our internal struggle and is backing internal advisers" of the opposition. Chavez expelled the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela in September, but said a constructive dialogue with Washington was possible after Obama won the Nov. 4 US election.
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