Venezuela: "You cannot fight terror with more terror"*
May 3, 2011
Caracas - The government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that 'you cannot fight terror with more terror,' a reference to the US raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden early Monday.
In a statement that was issued late Monday, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry denounced that the raid against bin Laden was conducted in Pakistan 'without informing the authorities of that country.'
'That dark character, trained and armed by US intelligence agencies during the 1980s, turned his terrorist practices against the United States in later years, and went on to become the best pretext to unleash the war that is being carried out to this day against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan,' the statement read.
The left-wing populist Chavez has long been an outspoken critic of the United States.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry demanded the immediate end of 'the occupation and the violence unleashed by the United States in Central Asia, with the alleged intention of neutralizing' bin Laden.
'In the face of the barbarity and the illegality of the methods used by the United States, the Venezuelan government remains convinced, as it warned in the year 2001, that you cannot fight terror with more terror, or violence with more violence,' the statement read.
The text insists, however, on Venezuela's solidarity with the people of the United States, 'especially the families of the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001.'
