Did he really just say that?

Hugo Chavez lost his 2-year battle with cancer on March 5. Not long after, Venezuela’s oil minister, Rafael Ramirez, told the BBC that Chavez’s death was caused by Israel and the United States.

I wonder if Ramirez also believes that Tupac is still alive and only faked his death so he could escape the evils of American imperialism and is living a quiet life in Venezuela.

Instead of laughing at Ramirez’s absurd accusation and firing him for being stupid, officials in Caracas are launching an inquiry to investigate the allegation.

What this inquiry will entail, I have no idea. Even if it was possible to inject someone with cancer and have it take hold, there would be no way to prove it. There aren’t cancer cells that say “Made in the USA.”
Ramirez wasn’t the first person to make the claim that the Unites States has harnessed cancer.

In 2011, Chavez himself suggested that his cancer may have been caused by imperialist forces. He also speculated that a disproportionate number of South American leaders had been diagnosed with cancer and wondered publicly if the United States hadn’t had a hand in all of those cases.

Didn’t it occur to Chavez or Ramirez that if the United States government could cause cancer, it would have used that ability to take out Osama Bin Laden? President Obama could have armed Seal Team Six with syringes instead of automatic weapons.

I suppose the United States could have sent Chavez a giant gift basket full of processed food that required the use of a microwave, along with unfiltered cigarettes and “sunscreen” without the UV protection.

The United States also could have conspired with other countries to repeatedly send Chavez through the x-ray scanners at international airports. But really, who would believe that?
The United States has its own version of this kind of absurdity, like Pat Robertson implying that Hurricane Katrina was a punishment from God because of legalized abortion. If it sounds too crazy to be true, it probably is.