Chavez, who was winding up a visit with Castro in Cuba, brushed off the controversy. He told reporters at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport that he had never heard of Robertson and did not know or care what the televangelist had said.
Still, Robertson's remarks caught -- and exaggerated -- the tensions that have existed between the Chavez and Bush administrations.
Chavez, who according to polls has the approval of 70% of his nation even as poverty increases, uses his open hostility toward the United States to maintain his political foundation, and the U.S. government, wary of Chavez, nevertheless looks to Venezuela as a reliable supplier of oil.
The scope of Robertson's influence drew considerable debate Tuesday.
His syndicated television program, for which he claims an audience of at least 1 million, has drawn an average of 863,000 viewers a day during the 2004-2005 television season, Nielsen Media Research said.
His electoral reach was at its peak in the 1988 presidential campaign. He won primary elections in Hawaii, Alaska, Nevada and Washington, but captured only 15% of his native state, Virginia, and was out of the race after the Super Tuesday contests.
Some in the evangelical movement have said Robertson's influence among evangelicals in the United States had weakened.
"He's an old man and there's a group of old women and old men who watch him," said one leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he said he respected Robertson's past ministry and did not want to alienate Robertson's followers. "The spokespeople for evangelicalism are significantly distanced from him politically and spiritually. The Moral Majority days are long gone. It's a different world."
Yet, Robertson maintains a degree of influence with the religious conservative movement through his Christian Broadcasting Network and, in particular, as a leader in the push to confirm conservative judges. He has had differences with the White House and is not considered a member of President Bush's inner circle.
Some of his most vocal critics insisted in telephone interviews Tuesday that he remained influential.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson said any effort to portray Robertson as lacking an audience was "just not accurate," and the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said Robertson had "tremendous authority in the minds and hearts of about 20% of the American electorate."
