Brazil’s Lula to Discuss Venezuela in Talks with Obama

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has given the “green light” to Brazilian President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva’s request to “debate” with Barack Obama regarding Venezuela during their upcoming bilateral meeting. March 5, 2009 (venezuelanalysis.com)– Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has given the “green light” to Brazilian President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva’s request to “debate” with Barack Obama regarding Venezuela during their bilateral meeting scheduled for March 14.

Chavez said Lula personally called him on the phone with the request because he was concerned about recent declarations regarding Venezuela from the Obama administration. Chavez accepted the offer “due to Lula and his good faith, although in principle we don’t need any intermediaries to talk with any government on this planet,” he said.

“We are a fully democratic and sovereign country,” Chavez continued, during a televised broadcast of a Cabinet meeting. “We aren’t asking for anything [from the U.S. government], we just demand respect.”

The differences between Obama and Chavez may be difficult to overcome, however, with Obama continuing two military occupations that Chavez has vehemently opposed.

“This isn’t about Venezuela, it’s about the whole world,” Chavez explained. “The United States must dismantle the savage empire it has created on this planet, removing its military bases across the world which are used to attack nations.”

Chavez divulged that his next meeting with Lula would take place May 26 in Bahia, Brazil, where the leaders would continue work on bilateral integration projects. Their last meeting was January of this year, in the western Venezuela oil-producing state of Zulia.