Ex-soccer star Maradona tells Chavez he hates U.S. [I hate it with all my strength," he added....]

Reuters ^

[Sub-Driver]

Ex-soccer star Maradona tells Chavez he hates U.S. Sun Aug 19, 2007 4:21PM EDT

CARACAS (Reuters) - Former Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona on Sunday said he hates the United States "with all my strength" during an appearance on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's weekly television show.

The leftist soccer legend, like the fiercely anti-U.S. Chavez, is a close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro.

"I believe in Chavez, I am Chavista ... . Everything Fidel does, everything Chavez does for me is the best (that can be done)," Maradona said, sitting with Chavez on the set of the president's Sunday talk show.

"I hate everything that comes from the United States. I hate it with all my strength," he added to thunderous applause and cheering from the hundreds of Chavez supporters gathered in an auditorium for the show.

Chavez, a self-described socialist revolutionary, is an unrelenting critic of Washington and frequently describes the United States as a decadent empire.

U.S. State Department officials call Chavez a threat to regional democracy and accuse him of using the OPEC nation's oil wealth to meddle in the affairs of neighboring nations.

Maradona, 46, received drug rehabilitation treatment in Cuba following a hospital stay in 2000 linked to cocaine use. In 2005 he launched a television talk show that lasted one season.

[dighton]

For those of you who don't know - diego maradona is one of the most infamous cheats in all of sporting history.

See Martin Amis’s take, beneath the first three asterisks, on cheats and Argentina.

(And thanks to RepublitarianRoger for first linking it).

[doorgunner69]

Tell me again why this third world sport keeps getting shoved down our throats. Who give a crap about soccer..............

[Calvin Locke]

I always thought Argentines' considered themselves to be closer to Europe than South America. But the quote

...foul means are incomparably more satisfying than fair. "It's the same in government and business. They don't just tolerate corruption. They worship corruption."

sounds like it could be the Clinton-renewed Dem party.

I don't care for soccer, so Maradona means nothing to me.

He appears to be a bitter had-been. Typical left-wing gratitude.

Famous people feel that they must perpetually be on the crest of the wave, not realising that it is against all the rules of life. You can't be on top all the time; it isn't natural. - O. de Havilland

[Godwin1]

And we should care what this has-been,drug addled, semi-literate Third Worlder says about ANYTHING?

[Billthedrill]

Many thanks for that. Amis can really write. As for Dieguito...what a waste.

[Hoodat]

Maradona, 46, received drug rehabilitation treatment in Cuba following a hospital stay in 2000 linked to cocaine use.

There's a reason they call it 'dope'.

[VOA]

“Ex-soccer star Maradona tells Chavez he hates U.S.
[I hate it with all my strength,” he added....]”

Probably because he never got a USA payoff like soccer-star Beckham (sp?).

[aculeus]

Sadly this Chavez clown will do a lot of harm before he's through.

Suggested reading: The Return of The Idiot

[livius]

Fat little has-been druggie. Who cares what he thinks - about anything.