Hugo Chavez is to be a guest of London’s mayor Ken Livingstone.
A Venezuelan writer living in Britain has this to say in the London Times:
His cheerleaders claim that Señor Chávez is a “social democrat”, while conveniently brushing aside that he supports and aligns himself with some of the world’s worst dictators and human rights abusers. This “democrat” is hell-bent on inducing war in a country that hasn’t seen armed conflicts in more than a century. This “democrat” uses the State as an apparatus of persecution against his political opponents. This “ democrat” does not allow free and transparent elections. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International report that the rights of Venezuelans are under chronic and systematic abuse.
As a man who was re-elected mayor of London on the Labour ticket (first time round, he was an independent), Ken Livingstone is, by definition, a prominent member of Tony Blair’s party.
Any comments, Prime Minister?