Walesa critical of Chavez's leadership in Venezuela

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa has criticized Hugo Chavez's left-wing brand of leadership, saying the Venezuelan president should learn from Poland's experience how damaging communism can be.Ex-Polish leader Lech Walesa says bringing communism to Venezuela is "the biggest mistake of the region.""The ideas of the ruling team [in Venezuela] are very bad ideas," said Walesa, a former president of Poland."I am the best proof that communism fell because it was a bad system," said Walesa."And introducing it there [in Venezuela] is the biggest mistake of the region," he said in a television interview.Walesa, 65, dropped plans to attend a pro-democracy forum in Venezuela this week organized by anti-Chavez university students after the country's authorities said they could not guarantee his security.Walesa took it as a sign that he was not welcome.

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