ASG's counter-hegemony unit

Hizbullah’s media office issued a statement on Hugo Chavez’s death which I have translated below:

It is with great sadness that we received news of the passing of the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez. Along with the free world and the oppressed of the world, we lost a dear friend …who spent his entire life standing beside the downtrodden and oppressed, and who boldly defended the Third World’s rights to progress and prosperity.    

Neither Hizbullah nor Lebanon as a whole can forget his genuine support for Lebanon in the face of Zionist aggression, which was most clearly demonstrated during the July war in 2006. Just as the Arab and Islamic people cannot forget his courageous stand in support of the Palestinian people’s right to liberate themselves from the yoke of occupation, and the right of the Islamic Republic [of Iran] to the peaceful use of nuclear technology.

President Chavez represented a bulwark against America’s imperialist policies and refused to make any concessions to successive US administrations, nor to submit to US pressures or incentives, proving that countries can take an independent and progressive path without relying on US custodianship.

We in Hizbullah offer our most sincere condolences to the family and comrades of the great and late [leader] and to the brave Venezuelan people as a whole, and we declare [our intent] to stand by their side during this great misfortune. We hope that the late leader’s comrades will complete his mission to protect the Venezuelan people’s freedom, independence and prosperity as well as his support for the oppressed and downtrodden in the world, and to retain the approach he adopted throughout his life in confronting American and Zionist conspiracies.

Hizbullah