Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez can be counted on always to stand on the side of radicals and dictatorships. After defending the Libyan regime, Chavez is now trying to save Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. The Venezuelan leadership is openly supporting the Syrian regime, accusing Western countries of using a "new imperialist format" to topple his friend, Assad. According to Chavez, it is the West that foments revolts in the Arab world to loot Arab resources. "The attack on Syria has begun, there have been some supposedly peaceful protests and some deaths (...) and they are accusing the president [Assad] of killing his people (…) And then the Yankees come in to bomb the people in order to save them. What cynicism on the empire's part," the Venezuelan President said.
Chavez depicted Assad as a "socialist Arab leader, a humanist and a brother," "with a great human sensibility," and who is "in no way an extremist." Chavez made also a comparison between what is happening in Syria and the situation in Libya: "It's the same format … They generate violent conflicts, bloodshed in a country, and subsequently they under take military intervention, in order to take possession of its natural resources and convert it into a colony."