“The world needs more dictators like Hugo Chavez,” Victorin Lurel, Minister of Overseas France, said on Saturday after attending the late Venezuelan leader’s funeral, reports FRANCE 24.
Lurel described Chavez as a cross between Charles de Gaulle and reforming left-winger Léon Blum, who served three times as French prime minister.
“De Gaulle because he profoundly changed his country’s institutions, and Blum because he fought relentlessly against injustice,” he told RTL radio.
“I’ll be criticised for saying this, but the world needs more dictators like Hugo Chavez, if it’s a dictator that he actually was. He showed a strong respect for human rights.”
Lurel described Chavez’s funeral service as “moving”, adding that “while not everyone can agree with all his policies and actions, the people here are very proud of what he accomplished in 14 years.”
Some 32 foreign leaders attended the funeral in Cararacas on Friday at the city’s military academy.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.