Chavez of two minds on 'enigma' Obama

Hugo Chavez said he was divided in his feelings towards Barack Obama, whom he labeled a grand enigma with two very different faces.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday said he was divided in his feelings towards US President Barack Obama, whom he labeled a "grand enigma" with two very different faces.

"That one is a grand enigma: Obama, smiling, who speaks about women's rights... about social security, who says he wants a world without atomic bombs," Chavez mused on his "Hello Mr President" radio and television broadcast.

On the other hand, the Venezuelan leader said "Obama is the president of the imperialist country," which he linked to "the coup in Honduras and the seven bases in Colombia."

The Colombia reference was to a Pentagon deal opposed by several Latin American countries to allow the United States use of Colombian bases for anti-narcotics operations.

Last April, at a Summit of the Americas meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, Chavez met Obama for the first time and gave him a pointed gift of the book "The Open Veins of Latin America" on the region's colonial past and exploitation by the world's big powers, including the United States.

Chavez, a longtime US critic, made his remarks Sunday as he mulled on the airwaves whether or not to attend the upcoming General Assembly meeting at the United Nations, where three years ago he grabbed headlines by labeling then-US president George W. Bush "the devil."

"It's been a few years since I've been to the United Nations," Chavez said on his show.

"I still don't know if I'll be going to the United Nations this year, we're weighing it," he said.

Chavez's scathing comments three years ago came as he addressed the General Assembly one day after Bush had stood at the same lectern.

"Yesterday, the devil came here and this place still smells of sulfur," Chavez said at the 2006 assembly.