Republican hopefuls get tough with Chavez, Cuba
MIAMI (AFP) — Republican presidential hopefuls on Sunday called Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez a dictator and vowed to maintain the US embargo against Cuba, in a debate on Univision Spanish language television.
"I ... would like to echo the words of (King) Juan Carlos, 'Por que no te callas?' 'Why don't you shut up?,'" Arizona Senator John McCain said about Chavez and the reprimand he received during a recent summit from Spain's King Juan Carlos.
Most of the candidates were critical of the leftist, anti-American Chavez, and praised the Venezuelan people for defeating his referendum a week ago on constitutional reform that would have expanded his powers.
"Chavez is acting like a dictator," former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani said in the debate that was simultaneously interpreted into Spanish for the audience.
"I think Chavez is going in actually the opposite direction" of where the Latin American people are headed, he said, adding that Chavez was repeating in Venezuela what ailing communist leader Fidel Castro had done in Cuba.
Only Texas lawmaker Ron Paul drew boos from the crowd when he said Chavez was the result of US foreign policy.
"We create the Chavezes of the world, we create the Castros of the world by interfering and creating chaos in their countries," he said.
He drew more disapproval when he suggested Chavez be treated "with friendship."
"We ... talked to Stalin, we talked to Khrushchev, we've talked to Mao, and we've talked to the world, and we get along with people," Paul said as the audience booed. He was referring to late Soviet leaders Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev and late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
Other Republican candidates indluding former senator and actor Fred Thompson drew applause when they supported the decades-long US embargo against Cuba.
Thompson said that if he is elected president he would end the Castro regime: "I'm going to make sure that he didn't survive 10 US presidents."
"The course for America is to continue our isolation of Cuba," said former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to the cheers of the Hispanic audience in Florida, whose Cuban-American community was pivotal in President George W. Bush's win in 2000 and promises a tight state battle for Republican and Democratic candidates in 2008.
