Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced this Sunday that he will reactivate the peace proposal for Libya at the urging of his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Venezuelan leader called upon the nations of the world to form a larger commission to try to “stop this madness” of imperialist “aggressions” against the Libyan people.

“Ahmadinejad asked me to resume the proposal that I made nearly two months ago to seek a peaceful solution in Libya. . . . We have to try to stop this madness of aggressions and form a larger commission than that of the African Union if possible,” Chávez declared during a mass on Palm Sunday.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is “now asking for more airplanes to kill more innocent people. That’s not the way things are solved in the world. For that, there are politics and diplomacy,” he said, “even though the presidents of the United States and the European countries think that they are the masters of the world, with the right to drop bombs and kill innocent people,” Chávez said.

“I’m going to keep fighting and calling for peace more firmly than ever before. . . . I call upon the pacifist governments of this world that are the majority and the peoples of the world: let us make good use of this Holy Week to pray, reflect, and demand peace in the world,” he underscored.

The Venezuelan head of state reiterated that “what imperialism and the countries of Europe want is to take over Libyan oil. They have no desire to defend the Libyan people. That’s a lie. . . . What they want is to take over this country and its great oil reserves, just as they tried to do here [in Venezuela] in 2002.”

President Chávez had made a proposal last March to create a peace commission to solve the crisis in Libya, the nation that has been attacked by the NATO and its allies since the 19th of the same month.

The government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said that, since the invasion, hundreds of civilians have lost their lives and hundreds more have been wounded, though the Security Council of the United Nations stipulated that the objective to be attained through the entry of foreign forces into Libya was to “protect” the population.

Despite the NATO’s assurance that its military operations are to “protect” the Libyan people, there have been attacks in civilian areas in recent days.

The original article “Presidente de Venezuela reactivará propuesta de paz para Libia” was published by TeleSur on 17 April 2011. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). See, also, “Ahmadinejad, Chavez Condemn Military Actions of Bullying Powers” (Fars News Agency, 18 April 2011).

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