- Title: VENEZUELA: MARADONA "IN LOVE" WITH CHAVEZ AFTER MEETING.
- Date: 31st March 2005
- Summary: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (MARCH 31, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF ARGENTINE SOCCER ICON DIEGO MARADONA HUGGING VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ 2. MEDIA 3. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARADONA SAYING: "I like women, but I've fallen in love with Chavez. I met Fidel Castro, I met Gaddafi, and now I met a giant like Chavez." 4. MEDIA 5. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARADONA SAYING: "We spoke about a lot of things and I will support Chavez unconditionally in any project." 6. MEDIA 7. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARADONA SAYING: "I am leaving as if I won a game in the World Cup, maybe more, maybe more because I met a whole man, someone who has enormous convictions." 8. MARADONA WALKING 9. VARIOUS OF MARADONA SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 15th April 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
- Country: Venezuela
- Reuters ID: LVADZPN2ZUCJJAFN1NN572BRKUM3
- Story Text: Maradona "in love" with Venezuela's Chavez.
Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona said on
Thursday he was "in love" with Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, whom he admires for his left-wing political
policies.
"I like women, but I've fallen in love with Chavez,"
Argentina's former World Cup winning captain told reporters
after having lunch with the Venezuelan leader at the
presidential palace. The two embraced afterward.
The 44-year-old soccer celebrity, considered one of the
greatest players of all time, is also an ardent admirer of
Fidel Castro, the Communist President of Cuba where
Maradona has lived since 2000 while fighting cocaine
addiction.
Severely overweight, he recently had a stomach stapling
operation in Colombia to lose weight and is in Venezuela,
the world's No. 5 oil exporter, to kick off a South
American under-17 soccer championship starting Friday.
Maradona, who like Chavez is a fierce critic of the
U.S. government, praised the populist Venezuelan president
as "a giant" because of the way he was spending oil revenue
on health and education programs to help the country's
poor.
Opponents accuse Chavez, who was first elected in 1998,
of squandering Venezuela's oil wealth and dragging the
country toward Cuba-style communism.
Maradona said he would be willing to participate along
with Cuban sports instructors in government programs to
teach soccer to the poor in Venezuela's slums and
countryside.
Maradona, who helped Argentina win the World Cup in
1986 and stopped playing professionally in 1997, was a
surprise guest at a summit on Tuesday in Venezuela of the
presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Spain, hosted by
Chavez.
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