Bush is asked to prevent hemispheric ‘Axis of Evil’ and back ouster of Venezuela’s Chavez

The Chairman of the House International Relations Committee has called on President Bush to disrupt the possible formation of an Axis of Evil in the Western Hemisphere, and to support the ouster of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez.

Concerned about Washington’s lack apparent concern for a hostile potential triad of Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Venezuela’s Chavez, and the possible election this weekend of the leftist Lula da Silva in Brazil, Rep. Henry Hyde urges Bush in a strongly-worded letter to break with the continued Clinton policy of tolerating Chavez.

“This is the time for the Bush administration to set the factual and historical record straight: the current regime of President Chavez is illegitimate because it is based upon the systematic violation of the Venezuelan constitution in force in 1999,” Hyde writes. “The Bush administration should also declare itself in sympathy with the pro-democratic civil-military coalition in Venezuela which seeks to restore democracy and should do so at once.”

According to Hyde, “all the pro-democracy elements of the society including the genuinely democratic political parties, the labor unions, business associations, and religious institutions have been gathered for two days in coalition with a group of active duty military officers of flag rank demanding that President Hugo Chavez resign and that new, free and open elections be held.”

Hyde is especially concerned that da Silva would make good on his statements to build and proliferate nuclear weapons: “There is a real prospect that Castro, Chavez, and Lula da Siva could constitute an axis of evil in the Americas which might soon have nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles (which Brazil had developed ended in 1990). This is the time to support the prodemocratic coalition in Venezuela and to help the people of Brazil understand the truth about Chavez so that they do not make a similar mistake and elect another pro-Castro radical who will neither help the poor, nor help their economy, nor live at peace with democratic neighbors.”