U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D, New Jersey) is tired of the government’s obsession with Hugo Chavez, and says that we need to get our minds off Hugo and back on programs in Latin America:

“We need to worry less about what Chavez does and more about what we do,” said the Hispanic senator to a group of journalists, reflecting on a tour of Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay and it’s triple border with Brazil and Argentina.

“We give Chavez too much importance,” he reiterated, upon being askeg about the president George W. Bush’s comments a few hours earlier which pressured Congress to approve a free trade agreement with Colombia to counter the influence of Chavez in the region, according to AFP.

Menendez says that best way to neutralize Chavez’s influence and “marginalize” him is to build better relationships with the rest of Latin America, and satisfy “mutual interests”. The Senator charges that the fact that George W. Bush has virtually ignored the region is the reason why Chavez has been able to exert so much influence in Latin America: “Others have tried to fill that void and not necessarily with good intentions.”

Via / El Universal (Venezuela)