EL UNIVERSAL

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who verbally attacked his US counterpart George W. Bush at the United Nations 61st General Assembly in New York last Wednesday, is now revered -because of his daring- by Hezbollah Shiite militias in Lebanon, AFP reported.

"Thank you, Chávez," read huge placards posted by activists across the suburbs in southern Beirut. Last July and August, this place suffered heavy shelling from the Israeli aviation.

In another placard hanging from a bridge destroyed by the Israeli aviation, Chávez is depicted next to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The poster reminds "the coalition from Gaza to Beirut, passing by Damascus, Tehran and our brother Chávez," quoting the Shiite leader.

With his virulent attacks on Bush, Chávez exceeded the expectations and displaced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Washington's number one enemy worldwide, US press reports claimed.

"Iran? Venezuela takes the lead in the battle of speeches," was the headline of the New York Times article on Chávez' address before the 61st UN General Assembly.

"Even under the standards of the United Nations, where the United States is often questioned as the world's super power, Chávez anti-US speech was extraordinarily inflammatory," said The Washington Post.

Meanwhile, former US President Bill Clinton, in an interview at Larry King show on CNN, said he rejected the kind of "personal demonization" Chávez is waging and warned against the fatal consequences of such a practice.

"He could say he disagrees with President Bush, rather than calling him devil," he said. "The problem with this kind of divisive policy is that you never know where it will end up."

In Washington, the director of the independent Council for Hemispheric Affairs Larry Birns told Buenos Aires newspaper Clarín that "many of the things he (Chávez) said are true, but he chose the wrong wrap and tribune. He thought he was talking to his followers in Caracas rather than to the most important audience he has ever had since he took office."

"I think after this address he lost the seat he was seeking at the UN Security Council," Birns added.

Meanwhile, in an editorial, Montevideo newspaper El País stated: "Chávez has taken the candidacy of his country (to the UN Security Council) as a personal obsession, and he is determined to make his constant attacks on Washington more visible. In order to achieve such a goal, the talkative Caribbean ruler has not spared the money of his people."

Further, the European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner called Chávez' address at the UN General Assembly unworthy.

"I think this is something that does not deserve any comment," she declared.

Translated by Maryflor Suárez R.