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Barron Not Afraid to Bring Hugo Through City Hall
By
Billy Parker
Published Sep 21, 2008
Modified Sep 21, 2008
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By
Billy Parker
Published Sep 21, 2008
Modified Sep 21, 2008
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City Councilman Charles Barron has extended an invitation to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop by City Hall while he's in town for this week's UN summit. Barron has a history of wooing controversial world leaders, having brought Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe by the city's chambers in 2002. Barron's latest invitation has raised the ire of other local politicians like Peter Vallone Jr., who told the Daily News, "If he wants to invite despotic dictators, he should invite them to his own house. They don't belong at the home of democracy in New York City." Barron clearly doesn't see Chavez in the same light calling him "a shining example of a humanitarian." The controversy even got the fiery of late former mayor Ed Koch into the discussion, saying, "Barron has a right to invite anybody he wants, and everybody else has a right to moon him."
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ed koch
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