Bush still the devil, CIA trying to kill me: Chavez

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2007

NEW YORK (AFP) — Firebrand Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has defended his description of President George W. Bush as the devil, in an interview accusing the US intelligence services of plotting to kill him.

In his first comments to the US media since he called Bush a "devil" at the United Nations last September, Chavez said he stood by his speech but that personal remarks about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were only a joke.

"Yes, I call him a devil in the United Nations," Chavez said in the interview with ABC television, which was due to be broadcast later Thursday.

"That's true. Another time, I said that he was a donkey just because I think that he is very ignorant -- about the things that are actually happening in Latin America and the world," he...