Author: Reuters
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: October 11, 2003
URL: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031011/wl_nm/venezuela_columbus_dc
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
urged Latin Americans on Saturday not to celebrate Columbus Day, saying
the 1492 discovery of the Americas triggered a 150-year "genocide" of native
Indians by foreign conquerors who behaved "worse than Hitler."
"Christopher Columbus was the spearhead
of the biggest invasion and genocide ever seen in the history of humanity,"
the populist president told a meeting in Caracas of representatives of
Indian peoples from across the continent.
Columbus Day on Oct. 12 is celebrated
as a holiday in the United States and several Latin American nations, but
Chavez said it should be remembered as the "Day of Indian Resistance."
"We Venezuelans, we Latin Americans,
have no reason to honor Columbus," he added.
The Venezuelan leader said Spanish,
Portuguese and other foreign conquerors had massacred South America's Indian
inhabitants at an average rate of roughly "one every 10 minutes." He described
Spanish conquistadors like Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro, as "worse
than Hitler."
He said even the continent's geographical
names, like America and Venezuela, were imposed by foreigners.
Chavez's opponents, who are seeking
a referendum to try to vote him out of office, say his self-styled "revolution"
in the world's No. 5 oil exporter is aimed at installing an anti-U.S. communist
system like the one in Cuba. Chavez says his brand of left-wing nationalism
will make Venezuela more independent.
The Venezuelan leader hailed as
heroes Indian chiefs who had fought against the invaders, such as Guaicaipuro
who resisted the Spanish founders of Caracas, and American Indian chief
Sitting Bull, who defeated U.S. Gen. George Armstrong Custer at the Battle
of Little Bighorn in 1876.
"Long live Sitting Bull!" Chavez
declared, drawing applause from his audience, many of whom wore traditional
native clothes and head- dresses.