LatinNews Daily - 19 May 2011

Venezuela: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has expressed his desire to “patch things up" with the United States. Chávez vocalized his intentions to make peace and re-establish dialogue with the U.S. during a conversation held on Saturday 6 July with the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela Patrick Duddy. “We do not want war. These are weapons of peace," said Chávez referring to the Armed Forces parade that took place as part of the celebrations to commemorate the 197th anniversary of the country's independence. The Venezuelan president jokingly referred to the U.S. elections and stated that his vote would go towards Republican John McCain, before retracting and saying: “I'm joking, if I were American I would have to vote, but I wouldn't vote for any of those two candidates. Whoever wins, wins; but we must make sure that we can sit down together and talk. I used to with [Bill] Clinton, we used to sit down and talk." Alongside Chávez at the meeting was his Bolivian counterpart, Evo Morales, for whom the Venezuelan leader expressed his complete support to Duddy. “Let's support Bolivia. If Bolivia collapses it will be detrimental to all of Latin America," affirmed Chavez.