George Bush left sulphur in his wake, Chavez recalls

Six years after he drew jeers and cheers for calling then-US president George W Bush the devil, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has offered an explanation: that the podium in the United Nations General Assembly really did smell like sulphur.

As he opened a jar of crude oil used as a prop during a televised meeting on Tuesday night, the firebrand socialist president, who is running for re-election, mentioned its sulphurous stench, prompting chuckles and side glances among the government officials gathered for the event.

They were recalling Mr Chavez’s 2006 UN speech, in which he made headlines around the world for calling Mr Bush “the devil himself,” and saying the podium still smelled of sulphur after Mr Bush had stood there the day before.

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“You think I planned to say that? No, no, no. It happened in the moment,” Mr Chavez said at the meeting. “I got there and I smelled sulphur,” he said, pausing for a laugh.

“I don’t know why, but I smelled sulphur.”

Ahead of the 7 October presidential election, Mr Chavez’s campaign speeches remain filled with criticism of the US empire.

Most polls put him ahead of Henrique Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor who hails Brazil’s “modern left” model as his inspiration and who is running an energetic campaign, especially in remote and pro-Chavez areas.

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