Politics

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, asked on Tuesday in Pretoria for an "apology" from the former colonial powers for the "horrible genocides" in Africa and Latin America.

"We demand that the genocides occurred in Africa and Latin America be condemned," Chávez said in a press conference during his first official visit to South Africa, AFP reported.

"Africa has suffered the greatest genocide in history," Chávez denounced, in reference to colonization and slavery.

"In this respect, we are brothers, because we have known such genocide in Latin America with the disappearance of Maya, Aztec and Inca civilizations, which were annihilated upon the arrival of conquistadors," said President Chávez.

"We have the obligation to remember this (...) It is our duty to tell future generations about what really happened," Cháves added, flanked by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who remained on the sidelines of Chávez's statements.