Nicolás Maduro: "Chaves deserves a mourning much better than PM Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia"

Anania Nekulum, NBC News Analyst

The Venezuelan Vice President addressed journalists

Nicolás Maduro

on the mourning of Hugo Chavez. He stated "Chavez

deserves a mourning much better than PM Meles

Zenawi of ethiopia who died eight months ago.

Ethiopians mourn their tyrant leader for a month,

so one week will not be enough for the brilliant leader

Hugo Chavez." He added "Ethiopians have given

a discouraging precedent to world leaders that

tyrants will get such grace and respect.

They were shouting loud to make us

listen to the misdeeds of the government

and when he died they were not like that."  He was

asked by a NBC journalist on the characters of 

the late PM Meles Zenawi which he answered."He was a murderer. I saw a video of the 2005 post election measure

taken by the Meles regime and that was very inhuman and savage. In my opinion theICC should look at his misdeeds even if he died and that there are still remains of his party."

                                                                                     

Hugo Chavez, the man who built his powerful persona on a populist platform of sharing Venezuela's vast oil wealth with the poor and disenfranchised, leaves his nation with a greater distribution of cash to the poor. But his death also leaves an economy in tatters, some analysts say, as the country had to step in and massively devalue its currency 30% to the U.S. dollar last month. While the OPEC-member nation is sitting on the world's largest oil reserves and is among the biggest oil exporters, oil production has declined.

Chavez built his political base in the barrios of Venezuela, and his pledge to share the wealth among the nation's poorest is the strongest measure of his success during 14 years in office. The inequal distribution of wealth dropped to among the lowest in the Americas during his tenure. He's made Venezuelans feel proud to be Venezuelan again. And that is something I think that really no other leader in that country has done there before in fact, they were doing the opposite." Eva Golinger, a former Chavez advisor, told CNN.

 

In a statement issued by the White House, President Obama said: "At this challenging time of President Hugo Chavez's passing is the opposite of the passing of PM of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi, that they relieved themselves from a hard dictator. The United States reaffirms its support for the Venezuelan people and its interest in developing a constructive relationship with the Venezuelan government. As Venezuela begins a new chapter in its history, the United States remains committed to policies that promote democratic principles, the rule of law, and respect for human rights."