or
AP - March 26, 2011
Venezuela's Chavez Offers Support to Syrian Leader Amid Protests, Blames U.S. for Unrest"
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed support for Syria's president on Saturday, calling him a "humanist" and a "brother" facing a wave of violent protests backed by the United States and its allies.
Chavez's support for President Bashar Assad follows his defense of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who is fighting rebels backed by international airstrikes.
Venezuela's socialist leader accused Washington of fomenting the protests in Syria as a pretext for Libya-style airstrikes.
"Now some supposed political protest movements have begun (in Syria), a few deaths ... and now they are accusing the president of killing his people and later the Yankees will come to bomb the people to save them," Chavez said in a televised speech....
Assad, who opponents have called a repressive autocrat, "is a humanist, doctor, educated in London, in no way an extremist; he is a man of great human sensitivity," said Chavez. "We salute him from here."