Chávez gives condolences, says good riddance

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP):

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday offered condolences after the death of former president Carlos Andrés Pérez, but also said he hopes his longtime adversary's style of governing never again returns to the South America country.

The 88-year-old Pérez died in Miami on Saturday. Chavez, who led a failed coup attempt against him in 1992, said Pérez's family has a right to bring his body to Venezuela for burial if they wish - though the family said his funeral will be in Miami.

"May he rest in peace. But with him ... may the form of politics that he personified rest in peace and leave here forever," Chavez said in a televised speech in western Venezuela, accompanied by Bolivian President Evo Morales.

Chavez said Pérez - who governed Venezuela from 1974-79 and again from 1989-93 - led governments that violated citizens' rights and were subservient to United States interests.

"We send his relatives our regrets, and our wish that that old, egotistical ... way of doing politics never again returns to Venezuela," Chavez said.

He said a relative of Pérez had asked someone close to the government for permission to fly the body to Venezuela for burial, and Chavez said "they have every right".

But relatives in Miami said they have no intention of returning his remains to Venezuela until Chavez is no longer in office. They said Pérez died of respiratory failure and would be buried in Miami on Wednesday, following a wake on Tuesday.

Anti-democratic government

One of Pérez's daughters, Maria Francia Pérez, said neither she nor her sister had contacted the Venezuelan government, and that her father "was never in agreement with returning with anti-democratic governments like the current one" in power. Pérez also had other children from a previous marriage.

Other Latin American leaders, meanwhile, offered praise for Pérez.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in a statement that he had a great personal relationship with Pérez, expressing condolences to his family and describing Pérez as a "statesman".

Peruvian President Alan Garcia told reporters in Lima that "like any politician, he was a man often argued about," but that "he was very democratic".

Pérez lived out his final years in Miami while Chavez's government demanded he be turned over to stand trial for his role in quelling bloody 1989 riots in Caracas.

Pérez, who largely dropped out of the public eye after a 2003 stroke, denied wrongdoing. In a statement issued by his office earlier this year, he accusing the Supreme Court of doing Chavez's bidding after it approved plans to request his extradition.

Venezuela's main opposition coalition said in statement that Pérez was for years "one of the principal promoters of democracy in Latin America".

Say he hopes Pérez' kind of politics leaves Venezuela forever.