Chavez: US denying visas to support staff

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused US authorities of denying visas to members of his security detail and his personal doctors before a visit to the UN General Assembly next week. "The gringos don't want me to go," Chavez told reporters at his red-carpet welcome to the Nonaligned Movement summit in Havana. "They denied a visa to my security, to my doctors. They don't want my advance team in New York." Chavez said he would travel to the UN session regardless. "I'll go even if it's alone," said Chavez, whose government is campaigning for a rotating seat on the UN Security Council, over opposition from the US, which is backing Guatemala. Later Thursday at a meeting of the Group of 15 developing nations, Chavez grinned widely after he announced he would push to move the United Nations headquarters out of the United States, possibly to Syria, the Brazilian capital, or any other city without an "empire that applies such irresponsible measures" as denying visas to visiting delegations.