Chavez Trumpets “Friendship” With Carlos the Jackal

Chavez’s mate, Carlos Ramírez Ilich, has been blamed for more than 80 deaths. He was declared guilty of murder by a French court and is serving a life sentence in Paris.

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez doesn’t hide his admiration for notorious pre-Al-Qaeda-terrorist Carlos Ramírez Ilich, better known as the Jackal. In a recent speech to Opec ministers in Caracas Chavez offered a public remembrance of his buddy:

“I remember that tour [a presidential visit to Opec countries]; a good Venezuelan friend who is in Europe called it hair-raising; I am referring to Carlos Ilich Ramírez, nicknamed The Jackal” …“During those days he wrote to me from his Paris jail saying that the tour was hair-rising. I will never forget those words by Carlos”, Chavez said.

Ironically, Carlos the Jackal gained world notoriety after kidnapping 70 hostages precisely during an Opec ministerial meeting in 1975.

In March 1999, a recently inaugurated president Chavez responded to a letter by Ramirez with a delirious, apologetic text. Some fragments of Chavez’s letter taken from a Harper Magazine translation follow:

“Citizen Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, Distinguished Compatriot,

Swimming in the depths of your letter of solidarity I could hear the pulse of our shared insight that everything has its due time.”

“Our liberator Simon Bolivar, whose theories and example are fundamental to our doctrine of revolution, whispered briefly this question before he passed away: “How will I find the way out of this labyrinth”?"

“With profound faith in our cause and our mission, now and forever!”

They say a man is known by the company he keeps.