Chavez uses assassination call to bolster Venezuelan support

CARACAS, Venezuela --\nA call by Pat Robertson for the United States to assassinate Hugo Chavez is playing into the Venezuelan leader's favor, putting him in the international limelight.\nChavez supporters said Wednesday the comments given by the religious broadcaster to "take him out" gave credence to Chavez's suggestion that the U.S. government is searching for ways to overthrow his leftist regime.\n"If anyone had a doubt, now they no longer do," said Maritza Uzcategui, a 50-year-old nurse and Chavez supporter. "He's been saying they want to kill him."\nU.S. officials called Robertson's on-air remarks inappropriate and repeated assurances that they are not considering killing Chavez despite their questions about his commitment to democracy and accusations he is spreading instability in Latin America.\nRobertson, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and host of "The 700 Club," apologized Wednesday, saying it was wrong to call for someone's assassination.\n"I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him," he said in a statement.\nFor months, Chavez has peppered his speeches with mentions of assassination plots and purported U.S. efforts to oust him. He warns that Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter, will cut off oil shipments to the United States if it backs any sort of conspiracy against him.\nChavez has been seeking to raise Venezuela's profile internationally, extending oil deals to countries from China to Argentina in an effort to strengthen alliances and line up alternative trading partners. The United States is the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan oil.\nBy legitimizing Chavez's suspicions, Robertson's words will raise the president's profile and bolster his already high domestic support, said Luis Vicente Leon, director of the Venezuelan polling firm Datanalisis.\n"What is certain is that the statement strengthens Chavez domestically and internationally," said Leon, whose polling firm said last month that Chavez has a 70 percent approval rating. "It amplifies the connection that Chavez has with the population who follows him."\nChavez signed a deal with Jamaica Tuesday night that is to be one of many across the Caribbean, pledging Venezuelan oil at special rates and allowing the island to pay through goods and services as well as low-interest loans.\nVenezuela already ships about 90,000 barrels of oil a day to Fidel Castro's government in Cuba and has started a plan called Petrocaribe to supply oil to Caribbean countries on favorable terms.\nWhen asked by reporters in Jamaica about Robertson's remarks, Chavez showed little concern, comparing Robertson and other critics to the "mad dogs with rabies" that chased after the characters in "Don Quixote," the classic novel by Miguel de Cervantes.\n"When the dogs bark it is because we are working all the time," Chavez said. "The dogs bark ... because we are advancing"