Hugo Chavez Would Like To Speak With "El Negro," Barack Obama

Sure, the United States probably isn't doing the best when it comes to diplomacy and foreign policy. But at least the President of our country didn't refer to a potential world leader as "the Black," right? Hugo Chavez -- leader of Venezuela, coca enthusiast, alleged FARC funder, dater of supermodels, hot piece -- recently expressed a desire to sit down with Barack Obama. Or, as Chavez, who is himself partly of Afro-Venezuelan descent, so eloquently dubbed him, "El Negro:"

"We're not asking that he become a revolutionary," Chavez has said. "We just want The Black who is about to become the President of the United States to have sufficient standing to deal with the circumstances that this world has him living in."

"I want to have a conversation with The Black, to have him know that here we are Indians, Blacks, the South American race. I'm preparing to sit down with him and open a dialogue... I want us to enter a new stage in understanding."

Spoken both nobly and savagely. Also, hi. On the world stage, as far as U.S.-Venezuelan relations are concerned, no one cares what Chavez's countrymen look like unless they happen to be molded out of oil or Russian nuclear technology. We know some might find it tempting to dismiss Chavez's statements as a product of cultural difference in talking about race, but this is a man who is in charge of a nation - not your uncle Tito watching "Sabado Gigante." We hope that when Barack Obama does eventually fly on a winged Sean Penn over to Venezuela to have tea with Chavez that the first thing he does is refer to him as "El Loco" and punch him in the throat. Chávez: "Quiero hablar con el negro" [El Pais] Earlier: Online Polls Show Latinos Exist, Don't Care If Barack Obama Sits Down With Hugo Chavez