Jimmy Carter Calls Hugo Chavez “Increasingly Random”

Former president Jimmy Carter continued with his Fuck It, I’m Old Now And I’ll Say Whatever I Want campaign by sitting down with Colombian newspaper El Tiempo to dish on Hugo Chavez. After saying he thinks the Venezuelan president did a lot of good for his country initially, he lets this one fly:

What I think is that, as far as international relations are concerned, both Venezuela and Chavez would be better off if Chavez stopped his attacks and insults against the U.S. that, to me, are increasingly random in nature, and unjustified.

But that’s the only thing we like about Hugo Chavez! Carter’s criticism is in reference to the fact that we now have a new president–you know, El Negro–and Chavez is no longer justified in his beliefs that the U.S. officially hates Chavez’s guts. (Carter thinks that the Bush administration totally new about the aborted coup against Chavez in 2002 and thinks it’s possible we were directly involved.) But Chavez remains el paranoidio. Also, a bit authorian-y, says Carter:

I am increasingly concerned about Chavez’s inclination to consolidate all political power incrementally in his own office and away from the influence of an independent–and necessary–judiciary, and sometimes away from autonomous bodies within the administration who are apart from the legislature that he controls almost completely now [...] Personally I was disappointed to see him depart from what I think was a fair chance that was honestly the result of legitimate elections, to an increasing domination on his part that led him to have a more authoritarian government.

We await Chavez’s rebuttal which, no doubt, will be increasingly random in nature and unjustified. Perhaps, “Your peanuts have cancer!”

Ex presidente estadounidense Jimmy Carter lamenta el rumbo adoptado por Hugo Chávez en Venezuela [El Tiempo]