[news] Hugo Chavez on Columbus Day

[resist]

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Ken <knhiebert at shaw.ca>
To: project x <project-x at lists.resist.ca>
Subject: [pr-x] Hugo Chavez on Columbus Day
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2003 07:42:35 -0700




No Cheers for Columbus, Says Venezuela's Chavez



CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged
Latin
Americans on Saturday not to celebrate Columbus Day, saying the 1492
discovery of the Americas triggered a 150-year "genocide" of native
Indians
by foreign conquerors who behaved "worse than Hitler."


"Christopher Columbus was the spearhead of the biggest invasion and
genocide
ever seen in the history of humanity," the populist president told a
meeting
in Caracas of representatives of Indian peoples from across the
continent.


Columbus Day on Oct. 12 is celebrated as a holiday in the United States
and
several Latin American nations, but Chavez said it should be remembered
as
the "Day of Indian Resistance."


"We Venezuelans, we Latin Americans, have no reason to honor Columbus,"
he
added.


The Venezuelan leader said Spanish, Portuguese and other foreign
conquerors
had massacred South America's Indian inhabitants at an average rate of
roughly "one every 10 minutes." He described Spanish conquistadors like
Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro, as "worse than Hitler."


He said even the continent's geographical names, like America and
Venezuela,
were imposed by foreigners.


Chavez's opponents, who are seeking a referendum to try to vote him out
of
office, say his self-styled "revolution" in the world's No. 5 oil
exporter
is aimed at installing an anti-U.S. communist system like the one in
Cuba.
Chavez says his brand of left-wing nationalism will make Venezuela more
independent.


The Venezuelan leader hailed as heroes Indian chiefs who had fought
against
the invaders, such as Guaicaipuro who resisted the Spanish founders of
Caracas, and American Indian chief Sitting Bull, who defeated U.S. Gen.
George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.


"Long live Sitting Bull!" Chavez declared, drawing applause from his
audience, many of whom wore traditional native clothes and head-
dresses.