Chávez laments death: "Gaddafi was a martyr"
The President of Venezuela expressed discontent not only with the way the former Libyan dictator was executed: "We must remember him as a great fighter, a revolutionary and a martyr," said the Venezuelan about the man who ruled Libya for more than 40 years.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez expressed his displeasure with the death of Muammar Gaddafi, calling the event an "offense" and saying that the deposed Libyan leader was a "martyr," AFP reported. "Unfortunately, Gaddafi's death has been confirmed," said Chávez, who has just returned to Venezuela after cancer treatment in Cuba. "They assassinated him; it's another outrage. We must remember him as a great fighter, a revolutionary, and a martyr," he said.
Chávez has defended Gaddafi since the beginning of the uprising against his regime in February and accused the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of using the conflict to control Libyan oil. "The saddest thing is that, in their attempt to dominate the world, the empire and its allies are doing it with fire," Chávez said, referring to the United States.
The Venezuelan president refused to recognize the new Libyan regime and ridiculed the country's new representative to the UN as a "puppet" and a "dummy." In 2004, Chávez won the Gaddafi Human Rights Prize, awarded by the former Libyan leader. Other winners included Fidel Castro of Cuba and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua.