Venenzuela, October 12: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has joined the fray over Nobel Laureate Barack Obama, saying the US president does not deserve the prize.
Chavez wrote in a Sunday newspaper column that he believes Obama has not made any notable accomplishments to merit winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Chavez’s view runs counter to that of his long-time friend and ally Fidel Castro, who described the Nobel peace committee’s decision as a “positive step.”
“But we would like to see, more than a prize for the US president, a criticism of the genocidal policies that have been followed by more than a few presidents of that country,” Castro had said earlier.
An outspoken critic of the United States, Chavez, said that rather than promoting peace, the US president has been continuing the warlike policies of his predecessor George W. Bush.
He went on to criticize the Norwegian Nobel committee, saying it “forgot about his [Obama’s] determination to continue battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Some believe that President Obama did not deserve such an important prize since he has only been in office for less than a year. Others believe that the prize is usually given to someone who has been active for a lifetime.
Republicans say that the prize was given to Obama for his well-known promises but not for how effective he has actually been. Some liberal Democrats even say that a wartime president does not deserve such a prestigious prize.
—–Agencies