Hugo Chavez sends his solidarity to ‘brothers’ Qaddafi and Assad

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez said on Saturday he was praying for Libya’s deposed leader Muammar Qaddafi and sent a message of solidarity to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against “Yankee” aggression.

Chavez – who has inherited Fidel Castro’s mantle as Washington’s main irritant in Latin America – views the wave of uprisings in the Arab world as Western-led destabilization and has been a strong ally of Qaddafi.

“The Libyans are resisting the invasion and aggression. I ask God to protect the life of our brother Muammar Qaddafi. They’re hunting him down to kill him,” he said.

The whereabouts of Qaddafi, who ruled the north African nation with an iron fist for more than four decades, are unknown.

“No one knows where Qaddafi is, I think he went off to the desert ... to lead the resistance. What else can he do?” Chavez told television channel VTV

The 57-year-old Venezuelan leader has defended Qaddafi since the start of the uprising against his regime, accusing NATO of using the conflict to gain control over Libya’s oil.

Chavez has refused to recognize Libya’s new interim leadership, ridiculing its U.N. representative, Ibrahim Dabbashi, as a “puppet” and a “dummy.”

With a presidential vote scheduled for Venezuela in 2012, Chavez’s opponents have leaped on his support for Arab strongmen – and friendship with Qaddafi – as a sign of autocratic tendencies. But he has been undeterred, and even sent support to the government of Syria.

“I spoke yesterday with the president of Syria, our brother President Bashar al-Assad,” Chavez said.

“From here, we send our solidarity to the Syrian people, to President Bashar. They are resisting imperial aggression, the attacks of the Yankee empire and its European allies.”

Latin America’s ALBA block of leftist nations would soon send a mediation team to Syria to try to help promote a negotiated solution to the unrest, Chavez added. “This warlike madness is intended by President Obama and his imperial allies to destroy the Syrian people,” he said.

Chavez, who has led his South American OPEC member nation since 1999, spoke at length in several public appearances on Saturday, a further sign of vitality despite four sessions of chemotherapy for cancer treatment.

Earlier in the week, Chavez tossed a baseball in front of TV cameras to mock a U.S. media report that he was having emergency treatment in hospital.

“I have quite a surprise for those who want me dead and go round saying I’m in hospital, I’m paralyzed, I can’t talk,” he said. “I keep getting better, I’m stronger every day.”

As usual, Chavez could not resist a pop at a growing group of opposition leaders planning to fight a February primary among their coalition to pick a unity candidate to run against him in next year's elections.

The socialist leader seeks to depict his would-be opponents as pro-U.S. representatives of Venezuela’s rich elite who are out of touch with the poor majority in the nation of 29 million people.

“They are all capitalists, defending the system that is sinking the world.”

Critics say Chavez’s anti-U.S. diatribes and constant comments about his health are conveniently obscuring a litany of problems in Venezuela ranging from housing shortages and power outages to runaway inflation and untamed crime.

“All this talk about cancer seems intended to attract votes, at least of the sympathy variety, and perhaps distract attention from serious problems in governance,” wrote U.S.-based political scientist Javier Corrales.