ELVIA GOMEZ
EL UNIVERSAL

President Hugo Chávez Sunday claimed he is waging a presidential electoral campaign but making his job by granting loans for farmers and peasants, houses, opening hospitals, launching tourism centers and even planning a motion picture on his briefly removal from power in 2002.

Chávez remarks came during his weekly radio and TV show ¡"Aló, Presidente! (Hello, President!), which took five hours and 40 minutes.

He warned he is ready to face the "most brutal imperialism" in order to take his country to the United Nations Security Council.

"We are not withdrawing, we rather die fighting," Chávez instructed Venezuelan Foreign Affairs minister Alí Rodríguez Araque.

"Venezuela is going to pull out all the stops. It is David against Goliath. We do not care. Let the empire show its claws. We trust in the courage and dignity of the governments worldwide. I denounce that the United States government has started waging a world campaign against Venezuela, in an attempt at preventing Venezuela from being elected democratically as a member of the (UN) Security Council by countries around the world."

He claimed his government is the target of a "psychological war featuring pressures and blackmail." He added that the United States has "an anti-Chávez war laboratory at the Pentagon. They are checking up on me 24 hours a day."

He thanked Brazil, Dominican Republic and Syria support to Venezuela's aspiration. In this regard, Syrian Foreign Affairs minister appeared in Chávez show on Sunday.

Also regarding other foreign affairs issues, Chávez warned that relations with Peru "are in the coldest refrigerator as possible. And we are not getting them out of there unless the Peruvian Government apologizes to the Venezuelan people." Chávez said he was upset because Peruvian President-elect Alan García, among other things, offended his "dignity of man" by "accusing me of beating women."

Further, he ratified his support to García' opponent Ollanta Humala and stressed that 1.2 million ballots were nullified, but foreign electoral observers found nothing wrong with that.

Once again, Chávez threatened to call a referendum on his ad-infinitum re-election, in the event that no opposition candidate takes part in December 3rd presidential election.

He warned his followers that what is at stake in the upcoming presidential polls is not Chávez' stay in power, but the continuance of the revolution and its economic benefits.

Translated by Maryflor Suárez R.