Caracas Chronicles

Well, that didn’t take long.

A mere hours after Barack Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden had been found and killed in a Pakistani mansion, chavista officials were barely hiding their regret over the fate of the man.

Hugo Chávez himself has not made any comments, but his No. 2, Vice-President Elías Jaua, questioned the “ethics” of the killing. He further regretted that “assassinations” are executed and even celebrated, but “diplomatic solutions” are not pursued.

Jaua did qualify his remarks by saying that he was not the spokesman for the government on foreign affairs. But he did say his opinion was consistent with his nature “as a revolutionary.” In other words, the rest of the revolutionaries better have the same “personal” opinion.

Chavista lawyer and big-time apologist Eva Golinger also had to chime in. She related Bin Laden’s death to the attempt on Gaddaffi’s life over the weekend, suggesting it was further proof that political assassinations are US state policy.

Neither Jaua nor Golinger, who is also an American citizen, appeared to have mentioned the victims of 9-11 or any of the other terrorist attacks Bin Laden was behind. Hugo Chávez has expressed his belief that the US government, and not Al Qaeda, was behind the 9-11 attacks.

Update I: Not to be outdone, chavista apologist Cindy Sheehan ups the ante and denies the whole thing even happened!

Update II: Chávez’s party is out condemning the assassination.

Update III: The Foreign Ministry is out with an official press release. While expressing “solidarity” with the victims of 9-11, it calls the murder an act of terror, says Bin Laden was the product of the US’s own policies, and calls him the “pretext” to the war in Afghanistan. It also qualifies this, by saying “assuming that the death is true…” Classic!