IAC Condemns Pat Robertson’s Statements on Venezuela

Demands Immediate Retraction and calls for an end to U.S. Hostility against
Venezuela

The International Action Center strongly condemns Pat Robertson’s recent
public statements on Venezuela. Robertson is a founder of the Christian
Coalition of America and a former presidential candidate.

On August 22, Robertson stated on the Christian Broadcast Network’s “The 700
Club” that President Chavez is a “terrific danger" to the United States and
is turning Venezuela into a “launching pad for communist infiltration and
Muslim extremism". The U.S. has the “duty” to stop him he continued. He
openly called for the assassination of the popular and democratically
elected President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez Frías.

“You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he
thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go
ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war...” he declared.
“We have the ability to take him out, and...the time has come that we exercise
that ability." "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."

Such statements from a national public figure are not only disgraceful; they
are dangerous and should be seen as constituting terrorist threats against a
head of state, giving a green light to far-right ideologues in this country.
But most important they are a predictable by-product of the campaign of
hostility that the U.S. government has orchestrated against the sovereign
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela since President Chavez’ election.

These inflammatory statements go a long way in laying the basis among the
population in this country as well as around the world to go along with U.S.
military intervention in Venezuela. According to Robertson’s official
website the Christian Broadcasting Network “is one of the world’s largest
television ministries and produces programming seen in 200 nations and heard
in 70 languages including Russian, Arabic, Spanish, French and Chinese.
CBN’s flagship program, The 700 Club, which Mr. Robertson hosts, is one of
the longest running religious television shows and reaches an average of one
million American viewers daily (IAC emphasis)”.

The perilous campaign of lies and defamation against President Hugo Chavez
by President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others, has been constant and in recent months
has intensified.

Charges from the Bush administration include accusing President Chavez of
“being a negative force and destabilizing the region”, “promoting unrest”
and “financing terrorist organizations in Colombia and Bolivia”. These
charges constitute terrorist actions and are a grave danger to the
continent’s stabilization as well as to good neighbor relations.

The U.S. funding of groups in Venezuela opposing President Chavez is part of
this terrorist campaign and is designed to remove a democratically elected
President whose program has won nine electoral processes in only seven
years.

The threat of Venezuela as the Bush administration and friends see it is
that for the first time the profits of the national oil industry are being
used to finance free programs of education and health for the majority of
the poor who constitute 80% of the population. Venezuela is now a sovereign
nation, working on behalf of its people, not for the benefit of US oil
companies. The Venezuela government has proposed a program of integration of
the region based on solidarity, economic cooperation and respect for social
values, not gross profits. International financial institutions no longer
have free reign to carry out policies that bring immeasurable damage to the
population such as seen in other nations of the region.

The International Action Center demands:

1) An immediate public retraction from Mr. Robertson, the Christian
Broadcast Network as well as the Disney Corporation. The Disney Corporation
owns the Family Channel that carries the 700 Club. It makes huge profits and
boasts constantly of “family values.” Assassination threats against a
sovereign head of state should conflict with these values.

2) That President Bush and his administration cease its campaign of
hostility against Venezuela. In recent months plans have been discovered
precisely of assassination attempts against President Chavez.

3) Respect for international law, which demands that good relations be
established with all nations including the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
and its President, Hugo Chavez Frías.

In the last several weeks, the IAC has been able to gauge public support
against U.S. aggression in Venezuela. Last month, the IAC initiated a
national email campaign directed to the Bush Administration that received
over 25,000 signers in a few short hours.

The IAC is working with others to organize a mass public event in solidarity
with Venezuela for this fall at historic Town Hall, which is located in
Broadway’s theatre district in Manhattan.