Vice-President José Vicente Rangel announced that the Venezuelan government is waiting for an answer from the US government on the "criminal" statements made Monday by Rev. Pat Robertson, urging to assassinate President Hugo Chávez.

"US authorities, who talk a lot against terrorism and have a dense wording concerning terrorism" should answer to this incident, VP Rangel told reporters.
 
"I think that any answer of the US government and institutions to such a message by a presumed religious speaker urging to assassinate a head of state, because it is cheaper than waging a war, test the US government anti-terrorist stance," he reasserted.

The senior officer recalled that a set of rules in the United States "condemns and punishes, through the federal administration, such remarks," including a law on TV broadcasting that "prohibit dissemination of such messages."

Robertson, founder of the US Christian Coalition and former presidential candidate, stressed Monday in his program "The 700 Club" that the United States should prevent Chávez from turning Venezuela into a "launch pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

"I do not know anything about that assassination doctrine, but if he (Chávez) thinks that we are plotting to kill him, I think that we should do it. It is cheaper than waging a war," Robertson added.