Lettera di Gheddafi a Hugo Chavez

A continuación se transcribe el documento, leído en cadena de radio y televisión por el Presidente de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez:

Hermano combativo:

Presidente de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez.

El pueblo libio y yo, personalmente rezamos por su salud y le pedimos a Dios que le conceda pronta recuperación para continuar la marcha en la conducción del pueblo venezolano y la conformación de la Unión de los Estados de América Latina y El Caribe, siguiendo los pasos del paradigmático Simón Bolívar.

Querido hermano, ustedes conocen la magnitud y los detalles de la conspiración urdida contra mi país. Tendente a someterlo, controlar sus riquezas, obstaculizar su desempeño internacional. Sabotear la construcción de un espacio sur sur que aglutina América Latina, El Caribe, África y Asia para lograr la estabilidad mundial.

Doblegar las posiciones revolucionarias del pueblo libio en apoyo a los pueblos especialmente los de América Latina y El Caribe, e impedir la celebración de la III Cumbre de los estados de América del Sur y África, en Trípoli (capital de Libia).

Su criterio ha sido diáfano y explícito en su valoración de la magnitud de esta conspiración.

Valoro altamente sus posiciones en respaldo al pueblo libio, así como la de los líderes y revolucionarios de América Latina y El Caribe, esperamos contar con la continuidad de ese apoyo que ha reforzado nuestras fortalezas.

Estimado hermano, seguimos con profunda preocupación el proceder de algunos estados integrantes del llamado grupo de enlace sobre Libia, ajeno al Consejo de Seguridad de la (ONU). En el sentido de haber reconocido el llamado Consejo Nacional de Transición, considerándolo como representante legítimo del pueblo libio, desconociendo así la irrefutable verdad de que los libios no han designado, ni autorizado o elegido a dicho Consejo.

Lo que esos Estados han hecho individualmente y el contenido de la declaración emitida por su IV Reunión, celebrada el 15 de junio de 2011 en Estambul, constituye un comportamiento extremadamente peligroso para la soberanía de Libia, su integridad territorial y su unidad nacional.

Ustedes están conscientes de que esas conductas no ayudarán en absoluto. Los ingentes esfuerzos que se han hecho para arribar a una solución pacífica política del caso libio, en primer lugar la iniciativa africana. Por ello ciframos muchas esperanzas de contar con su oposición a tales conductas que constituyen un antecedente peligroso en las relaciones internacionales.

Sírvase usted combativo hermano de aceptar el testimonio de mis más alta consideración y respeto.

Muammar Al Gaddafi.

Reuters

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday read excerpts of a letter sent to him by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi expressing gratitude for strong support during the NATO-backed rebellion against his government.

"You know the magnitude of the conspiracy against my country," Chavez read from the letter. "Your criteria has been clear and explicit, we hope to continue with the strength of that support."

Chavez only read parts of the message, which was handed to his foreign minister in Caracas by Libyan Finance Minister Abdulhafid Zlitni. It was not immediately clear why such a high-level official had delivered the letter.

"Long live Muammar Gaddafi," Chavez said in a televised address before lashing out at Western powers for recognizing the rebel National Transition Council.

"NATO is an embarrassment," he said, sporting a newly close-shaved haircut to lessen the impact of hair loss from chemotherapy treatments for cancer.

"We do not recognise the pantomime of transition that violates and destroys the basis of international law."

Holding firm despite growing international isolation and crippling financial sanctions, Gaddafi has sought to play on potential divisions by calling on tribes and soldiers in rebel-controlled areas to rise up and free their cities.

The Venezuelan leader warmly received Gaddafi two years ago on a rare trip to the Americas, giving the Libyan a jewel-encrusted replica sword. Gaddafi gave him a large tent in return.

Miami's Nuevo Herald newspaper ran a story on Monday saying Zlitni had come to Caracas to ask for Chavez's help in getting around sanctions blocking Libya's oil sales. The story cited unnamed Western intelligence sources.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said a delegation and letter sent by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi arrived in Caracas last night.

While Chavez did not disclose the contents of the letter, the members of the delegation or its mission, El Nuevo Herald reported that a group led by Libyan Finance Minister Abd-al- Hafid Mahmud Al-Zulaytini is in the Venezuelan capital seeking the president's help in circumventing international sanctions against oil sales.

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said he would meet the delegation today in place of Chavez, who said his ongoing treatment for cancer may make it impossible to meet with the envoys.

Chavez, who has criticized Western intervention in the Libyan conflict and compared Qaddafi to South American liberator Simon Bolivar, in March proposed an international peace commission to negotiate an end to violence in Libya. His offer was rejected by the Libyan rebels.

"Qaddafi has sent some emissaries and a letter," Chavez said during a telephone interview broadcast on state television today. "There's Qaddafi, resisting the aggressions of NATO -- they bombed a media outlet -- and the world remains quiet with its arms crossed."

The delegation will seek to persuade Chavez to take charge of a dozen oil tankers and sell more than 1.5 million barrels of crude oil on the North African country's behalf, said El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish language sister newspaper of the Miami Herald, citing Western intelligence officials it did not identify.

Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister Temir Porras said the reports about the Libyan delegation are lies and accused El Nuevo Herald of being agents of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

"We're driving them crazy!," Porras wrote on his Twitter account.

Chavez yesterday condemned the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's bombing of Libya's state-run television channel Al-Jamahiriya, saying it was a "barbarous act" that demonstrated the "hypocrisy of imperialist powers."

Fonte El universal - Caracas

"Long live Libya. Long live Muammar Al Gaddafi!"exclaimed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in reiterating his support for his Libyan counterpart

EXECUTIVE OFFICE 
President Hugo Chávez reiterated his support for President of Libya Muammar Qaddafi, by saying "Long live Libya. Long live Muammar Al Gaddafi."

He rejected "boldly" the United States and European attempts at turning opposition groups in Libya into a new government.

"NATO is a shame, as well as the Yankee government! Shame on some European governments that until recently came to Tripoli to beg Gaddafi to deposit his reserves of USD 200 billion dollars (in their banks). They froze his reserves," said president Chávez. The Venezuelan president read a letter sent by his Libyan counterpart through an emissary, where Gadhafi wished Chávez a speedy recovery "to continue the march in the leadership of the Venezuelan people."

da Al Jazeera

da twitter

41 min 17 sec ago - Libya

Hugo Chavez has now read excerpts from the letter Gaddafi sent him through his finance minister.

"You know the magnitude of the conspiracy against my country," Chavez read from the letter. "Your criteria has been clear and explicit, we hope to continue with the strength of that support."

Chavez did not read the entire letter, and soon launched into an attack on the international intervention in Libya.

"Long live Muammar Gaddafi," Chavez said in a televised address. "NATO is an embarrassment [...] We do not recognise the pantomime of transition that violates and destroys the basis of international law."

Tags Hugo Chavez, Muammar Gaddafi, Venezuela

1 hour 17 min ago - Libya

The United States has welcomed a Libyan rebel investigation into the circumstances around the assassination of Abdel Fattah Younes, the commander of their armed forces. 

"We do welcome the Transitional National Council's move to set up an impartial committee that'll investigate the incident. And we look forward to hearing the results," State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told reporters during a briefing.

"It's important that, given the fluidness of the situation on the ground, that the Transitional National Council work to ensure that it takes the right kinds of actions, such as an investigation into the death, that sends a clear  and transparent message that they speak on behalf of the Libyan opposition and the Libyan people and that they're diligently carrying out their mandate," he said.

Tags Abdel Fattah Younes, investigation, murder, United States, US

2 hours 58 min ago - Libya

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has confirmed that Muammar Gaddafi has sent him a letter through an envoy, though he has not spoken about the contents of the missive.

Chavez was not able to meet with the envoy due to medical reasons.

On Saturday, Chavez  condemned NATO's "illegal bombing" of Libyan state television in Tripoli, describing it as a "barbaric act" against journalism and the news media.

Tags Caracas, diplomacy, Hugo Chavez, Muammar Gaddafi, Venezuela

3 hours 40 min ago - Libya

At this kitchen in Benghazi, thousands of meals are prepared for Libyan rebel fighters every day [Reuters]

Tags Benghazi, food, rebels

5 hours 49 min ago - Libya

Norway has withdrawn its final four F-16 fighter jets from the NATO campaign over Libya, the military has announced.

The aircraft carried out 583 missions, out of a total of 6,493 flown by NATO warplanes since March 31, said Petter Lindqvist, a military spokesman. The planes dropped a total of 569 bombs.

They are now back at their bases in Bodoe in the north of the country and Oerland in the central west.

On June 10, the centre-left Norwegian government announced that it would gradually withdraw the six F-16s it had taking part in the bombing campaign.

Tags F-16, NATO, Norway

6 hours 1 min ago - Libya

Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid has just been reporting live from just outside the western town of Zlitan, where rebel forces are advancing.

I can confirm that the opposition's fighters are on the outskirts of Zlitan ... from the vantage point where we were earlier, we could see the town of Zlitan a few kilometres away. So they really are on the outskirts of the town. It's still a very fluid situation, Gaddafi forces are putting up a battle. Opposition fighters have told us that yesterday actually several tanks of Gaddafi forces have tried to pierce through their defensive lines. So still we can't say that that area is under control, but they have reached it.

They need to enter the town of Zlitan, they say that is the biggest urban area before Tripoli, that's about 150km west of Zlitan. But it is a risky business. For one, they will admit to you that there are residents inside Zlitan who openly say that they support Colonel Gaddafi. There are other residents who say that they do not want to see the rebels, because they actually don't back either side. So that's one big challenge for them. 

The second big challenge is that so far, as they were pushing, most of the battles were in open fields, in open areas. Now that they are at the outskirts of Zlitan, they're actually in an area where there are some residential homes. As far as we could tell, most of the people who are living there fled that area, but they know that there are civilians inside Zlitan and if they go inside Zlitan it could turn into street-fighting, and that's where the NATO mandate comes into question, because NATO is supposed to protect civilians regardless [of] where the fire is coming from. So it is a big problem for them.

Tags conflict, violence, Zlitan

6 hours 43 min ago - Libya

Some updates from the AFP news agency on the fighting today:

An AFP correspondent in Tripoli has heard at least eight powerful explosions in the eastern suburbs of the Libyan capital. A plume of black smoke has been seen over the Tajura district.

Meanwhile, in eastern oil town of Brega, rebels say a "surprise" should be expected in the coming days.

 "We are in the suburbs of Brega and I can see its lights sparkling in the short distance. Expect a surprise," said a rebel, who was involved in exchanging fire with pro-Gaddafi troops in that city.

Tags Brega, Tripoli

6 hours 55 min ago - Libya

France has announced that it has released $259 million in frozen funds to Libya's rebels.

"These are funds that belong to the Libyan people" that will buy "food and medicine" the rebel National Transitional Council's new ambassador to Paris Mansur Seif al-Nasr said after meeting French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe.

The funds used to belong to Muammar Gaddafi's government.

Tags France, funds, rebels

8 hours 13 min ago - Libya

Abdulhadi Lahweej, a Libyan official, has urged Filipino workers to return to Libya, saying that the capital is peaceful and violence is currently confined to the rebel-held areas.

Lahweej met with Albert del Rosario, the Phillipines' foreign affairs secretary, on Monday and assured him of the safety of Filipinos in Libya.

Raul Hernandez, the spokesman of the foreign affairs ministry, said that the Phillipines was currently maintaining its policy of not deploying workers to Libya. 

Tags migrant labour, Phillipines

8 hours 35 min ago - Libya

Twenty migrants fleeing the violence in Libya are said to have died of asphyxiation due to motor fumes on board a boat full of migrants bound for the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The boat was carrying at least 271 people on its three-day voyage from Libya.

Prosecutors say they are investigating the case to see if any criminal liability can be placed under laws against aiding illegal immigration. They have said, however, that as the bodies were already decomposing when the boat arrived in port, it is likely that the deaths took place in international waters.