On Monday’s broadcast of the “700 Club,” Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, made some incendiary statements regarding the United States’ relationship to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Just what Pat Robertson meant by “If he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him [Chavez], I think we really ought to go ahead and do it,” is as of yet unclear. There is also significant ambiguity surrounding the statements, “We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability,” and , “We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.”
Apparently, Robertson was not calling for assassination. According to Robertson, “ ‘take him out’ can be a number of things.” What else could that phrase mean? Perhaps Robertson was suggesting we treat him to dinner.
Whatever Robertson claims he meant by his statements on Monday, it is clear that he was calling for the United States government to remove a democratically elected President from office. This type of action is not unheard of. In fact this practice could be considered US policy. Those of you who were reading the back page last year might remember the sudden US backed overthrow Haiti that ousted democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Officially internal rebels executed the coup. Many of these rebels were part of the CIA supported death squads that ran the country during the nineties, and if things had gone wrong, the 2,200 US Marines waiting patiently off the coast could have intervened.
Although Robertson blundered on Monday by suggesting the US assassination of Chavez, and again on Wednesday by trying to take it back, his statements expose true government policy. Venezuela is a major source of oil imports to the US, which receives nearly 50 percent of their annual production. Chavez has been attempting to decrease dependence on the US market by selling to other countries. This is, of course, unacceptable. As Saddam Hussein found out, even if we liked you in the eighties, if you start misbehaving, we will remove you from power. Even if that means taking you out.
