AP Features, March 17th, 2007
ABC News' Barbara Walters said Friday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is an intelligent and passionate man _ to say nothing of heavily caffeinated.
Walters interviewed Chavez this week in Caracas, discussing topics ranging from his family life to his disdain for President Bush in clips aired Friday on "Good Morning America."
At one point, she urged Chavez to drink his coffee, saying "I understand you drink too much coffee?"
"Yes, but you didn't drink yours," Chavez replied through an interpreter.
"You want mine?" Walters asked.
"Give it to me, I will drink it," Chavez said. "I drink a lot of coffee _ beyond any advisable or any medical recommendation. But if I had to quit it, I would. As well as I have quit so many intimate things. I left my home, I left my kids. I see them every now and then. I left what is most dearest to me. I had to abandon them."
Chavez added that he has no regrets because he has dedicated his life to helping the poor. U.S. officials and Venezuelan opposition leaders accuse him of steering the country toward authoritarianism.
Walters noted that Chavez is divorced, and asked whether he wants to remarry.
"It is very hard to be married," Chavez said. "I have been married twice. But it is very hard."
Walters also asked Chavez about calling Bush the devil, a donkey and a murderer.
"Yes, I called him a devil in the United Nations. That's true. In another occasion, another time I said that he was a donkey because I think he is very ignorant about things that are actually happening in Latin America, and the world. If that is in excess on my part, I accept. And I might apologize. But who is causing more harm? Do I cause any harm by calling him a devil? He burns people, villages, and he invades nations."
Asked if he would invite Bush to Venezuela under any circumstances, Chavez said no. "Never. I said in Buenos Aires that he was a political corpse. Fortunately, he will not remain in office for long."
After part of the interview was shown, Walters offered her impressions about the Venezuelan leader.
"He's passionate about his dislike for George Bush. He does like this country, he's passionate about his feelings about America. He feels that with a new president, that we can be friends. He cares very much about poverty, he's a socialist," Walters said.
"But he's not the crazy man we've heard," she added. "This is a very intelligent man."
Walters said she sees similarities in the "larger than life" personalities of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Chavez. "He sang to me" during the interview, she added.
