Venezuela's Chavez condemns US report on terrorism

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
President Hugo Chavez on Friday condemned a US report that alleges Venezuela fails to cooperate in fighting terrorism and called on President Barack Obama to end the decades-long trade embargo against Cuba. Two weeks after Chavez and Obama exchanged smiles and handshakes at a summit in Trinidad and Tobago, the Venezuelan leader called the report "one more slander" that brings into question Obama's pledges of change. "In the name of the Venezuelan people, I reject this new aggression by the US empire," Chavez said. The US State Department's 2008 Country Reports on Terrorism criticized Chavez's "ideological sympathy" for leftist rebel groups in Colombia, saying it "limits Venezuelan cooperation with Colombia in combating terrorism." The report issued Thursday also accused the Venezuelan government of failing to systematically police its border with Colombia.