A Catholic cardinal in Venezuela speaks truth to power: strongman president Hugo Chavez is well on his way to re-creating Castro's Cuba.
A Venezuelan cardinal accused President Hugo Chavez of accumulating too much power amid growing tensions between the government leaders of the Roman Catholic Church.Posted by Alan at July 19, 2005 12:42 AMCardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara said Sunday that Chavez's administration "has seized control of all the branches of government" in Venezuela, which is deeply divided over the president's populist policies and increasingly close relations with communist-led Cuba.
The president and the church have crossed words in the past. The Roman Catholic Church has been one of the most vocal critics of Chavez, who has in turn called the church leadership a "tumor."
Castillo Lara's statements came after Chavez, speaking during his weekly radio program, accused the cardinal of siding with Venezuela's "coup-plotting" opposition while ignoring his obligations to the poor.
The cardinal told the local Union Radio broadcaster "true democracy" does not exist in Venezuela and warned the president is steering the world's 5th largest oil exporter toward a Cuba-style dictatorship.
"The only solution is democratic, which must involve the resistance of all the people," Castillo Lara said.