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AP Rumsfeld Likens Chavez's Rise to Hitler's 2 hours, 36 minutes ago 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.
Click Here 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." And then we saw most of those countries, with the exception of Cuba, for the most part move towards democracies," he said. 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.
There have been increasing signs of hostility between Washington and Caracas, and on Monday Chavez said Venezuela's intelligence agencies have "infiltrated" a group of military officials from the US Embassy who were allegedly involved in espionage.
Responding to Venezuela's expulsion of a US naval officer from Caracas, the State Department on Friday declared a senior Venezuelan diplomat persona non grata and gave her 72 hours to leave the country. Spokesman Sean McCormack said Jeny Figueredo Frias, the embassy chief of staff, has been ordered to leave. On Thursday, Chavez had said that Venezuela was expelling naval attache John Correa for allegedly passing secret information from Venezuelan military officers to the Pentagon. McCormack said the US action was a direct response to Correa's expulsion. "They initiated this and we were forced to respond," he said.
US Defense Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld gestures during his speech, Thursday, Feb. Despite progress in fighting terrorism, the threat today may be greater than ever before because the available weapons are far more dangerous, Defense Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld said Thursday.
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