US: America's leading televangelist appeared to take Christian fundamentalism into uncharted territory yesterday when he called for the assassination of Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez.
Speaking on his own channel, the Christian Broadcasting Network, Pat Robertson said Mr Chavez should be targeted because he was a "terrific danger" and his country was "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Islamic extremism all over the country".
Furthermore, killing the Venezuelan leader would be "a whole lot cheaper than starting a war . . . We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability."
The Venezuelan government expressed outrage yesterday and said it was examining its legal options. Vice-president Jose Vicente Rangel said: "It's huge hypocrisy to maintain this discourse against terrorism and at the same time, in the heart of that country, there are entirely terrorist statements like those."
State department spokesman Sean McCormack described Mr Robertson's declaration as "inappropriate", adding: "Allegations that the US would take hostile action against the Venezuelan government are completely baseless."
Mr Robertson is also on record as saying that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians". - (Guardian service)