Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Reuters: Politics: Romney slams Obama for playing down threat of Hugo Chavez

Posted by Melody on 10:05 PM

Reuters: Politics
Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com
Romney slams Obama for playing down threat of Hugo Chavez
Jul 12th 2012, 04:25

  • Tweet
  • Share this
  • Email
  • Print
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks at the NAACP convention in Houston July 11, 2012. REUTERS/Richard Carson

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks at the NAACP convention in Houston July 11, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Richard Carson

WASHINGTON | Thu Jul 12, 2012 12:25am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Mitt Romney chided President Barack Obama on Wednesday for playing down "the threat" posed by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez as he sought to portray the Democrat as soft on national security, an issue that may resonate with Latino voters in November's election.

Romney was reacting to remarks Obama made to a Spanish language television station that Chavez's actions over recent years had "not had a serious national security impact" on America.

"This is a stunning and shocking comment by the president. It is disturbing to see him downplaying the threat posed to U.S. interests by a regime that openly wishes us ill," Romney said in a statement. "President Obama's remarks continue a pattern of weakness in his foreign policy, one that has emboldened adversaries and diminished U.S. influence."

Pushing back, Obama's campaign team accused Romney of playing into the hands of the leftist Venezuelan leader by granting him the international attention that he craved.

"Hugo Chavez has become increasingly marginalized and his influence has waned. It's baffling that Mitt Romney is so scared of a leader like Chavez whose power is fading," said Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt.

Chavez, an avowed socialist, is a close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro and the Romney's comments may find favor with Cuban-American voters in the battleground state of Florida, where many oppose Castro's rule.

Obama was asked about Chavez's support for Iran during an interview with WJAN in Miami, aired on Tuesday.

"The truth is that we're always concerned about Iran engaging in destabilizing activity around the globe," Obama responded. "But overall, my sense is, is that what Mr. Chavez has done over the last several years has not had a serious national security impact on us."

Both Iran and Venezuela are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting countries (OPEC) and Venezuela supplies oil to the United States. Chavez has threatened more than once to cut that supply, but has never followed through. The United States could almost certainly tap supplies from other oil-producing nations if the flow from Venezuela is disrupted.

(Reporting By Alister Bull; editing by Christopher Wilson)

  • Tweet this
  • Link this
  • Share this
  • Digg this
  • Email
  • Reprints
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/

Comments (0)

Be the first to comment on reuters.com.

Add yours using the box above.
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com.

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

 
Great HTML Templates from easytemplates.com.