(CNN) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has urged Latin Americans not to celebrate Columbus Day, saying the explorer's expedition to the Americas in 1492 triggered a 150-year "genocide" of native Indians by foreign conquerors who behaved "worse than Hitler. (...) Christopher Columbus was the spearhead of the biggest invasion and genocide ever seen in the history of humanity," the populist president said at a meeting of representatives of Indian peoples from across the continent Saturday. Columbus Day, October 12, is celebrated as a holiday in the United States and several Latin American nations, but Chavez said it should be remembered as the "Day of Indian Resistance." "We Venezuelans, we Latin Americans, have no reason to honor Columbus," he said. (...) The Venezuelan leader hailed as heroes Indian chiefs who had fought the Europeans, such as Guaicaipuro, who resisted the Spanish founders of Caracas, and Sioux chief Sitting Bull, who defeated U.S. Gen. George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. "Long live Sitting Bull!" Chavez declared, drawing applause from his audience, many of whom wore traditional native clothes and headdresses.