MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez blasts Britain's Blair for comments on Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez blasted Britain's Tony Blair on Wednesday for saying that Venezuela “should comply with the rules of the international community.”

"Don't be so shameless. You have no moral right to call for respecting the rules of the international community because you're one of those who has violated them and trampled on the people of Iraq and other parts of the world," Chavez told an audience in northwestern Venezuela.

Chavez said that this was the first time that a European leader had involved himself directly in Venezuelan affairs, adding that it represents the opening of a "new front" in Europe on the part of U.S. imperialism. Blair is "a subordinate peon to Washington's orders," the outspoken leftist president said.

The prime minister's comment on Venezuela came during question time in the British Parliament, when a backbencher from Blair's own Labor Party mentioned as a cause for satisfaction a recent leftward shift in Latin America.

"But you may concede that it would be terrible for all of us to let our politics with regard to those countries, particularly nations such as Venezuela, be defined by the Republican rightist agenda of the U.S. government," Colin Burgon asked the prime minister.

"To a certain extent," Blair responded with a chuckle, before going on to say that "it is most important for the Venezuelan government to understand that if it is to be respected by the global community, it should comply with the rules of the international community." The Venezuelan leader put Blair on notice that he would be closely monitoring the Briton's statements and actions from now on.

"You messed with me, and now you're going to have to put up with me, mister, because from now on I'm going to be paying attention to what you say or do," Chavez said. "We'll have to find a nickname for you, like Bush has the one 'Mr. Danger,' because he was the one who opened fire," the Venezuelan president said.

Chavez insisted that what he called the sudden British incursion in the conflict between Venezuela and the United States was not by chance, since Blair was "the No. 1 ally of the No. 1 murderer and perpetrator of genocide on the planet: Mr. Danger Hitler." The addition of Hitler to Chavez's derogatory nickname for President George W. Bush was apparently a response to last week's comments by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who sought to draw a parallel between Adolf Hitler and the Venezuelan leader.