Posted on 05/18/2002 7:12:08 AM PDT by Dallas
MADRID, May 18 (Reuters) - Outspoken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday slammed a summit of European Union and Latin American nations in Madrid, saying world leaders were not doing enough to help the poor.
On his first trip outside Venezuela since a coup shook him from power for 47 hours last month, self-proclaimed "revolutionary" Chavez -- a close friend of Cuban President Fidel Castro -- stuck firmly to his left-leaning ideals.
The former paratrooper spoke out against the high level of foreign debt being paid by many of the small countries in Latin America to foreign banks, and reminded journalists that "it was from Europe that the chains of slavery arrived".
"There are countries in Latin America which spend almost all their budget to pay the eternal debt. Some call it the external debt, but I call it eternal because you pay and pay and it never goes away," Chavez told a packed news conference.
Asked if the two-day summit in Madrid -- which grouped almost 50 heads of state from both sides of the Atlantic -- had made any headway given the brief stay of many European leaders, Chavez was critical.
"There has been no time for debate here," he said. "I think we are moving too slowly and we are headed in the wrong direction. We have to rethink these summits."
AZNAR REBUKE
The summit host, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, made a subtle dig at Chavez when asked for his reaction.
"It's always possible to progress more at summits....and it's also possible to be present at summits when they are held," said Aznar, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.
"I would have liked to have seen my friend Hugo Chavez in the summit of Andean nations, but we were not that fortunate," he said, referring to a meeting between EU and Andean leaders held while the Venezuelan leader was giving his news conference.
Aznar defended the Madrid summit, saying it had produced substantial results.
The Venezuelan leader, who won fame in a failed 1992 coup against painful International Monetary Fund-backed reforms in his oil-rich nation, said an international pledge at the Millennium Summit in 2000 to halve world poverty appeared to have been forgotten.
"I don't think there is any political will in the world at the moment to do that," the Venezuelan leader said. "We are in a labyrinth with no escape".
He added that the European Union and Latin America had made little progress towards a "strategic alliance" since the first meeting of regional leaders in Rio de Janeiro in 1999.
"What have we done in the last three years? We have not taken may steps forward," he added. "I do not see any trace of grand policy at these summits."
No stranger to controversy, Chavez's three-year-old "democratic revolution" has divided his South American nation along class lines, with many among the poor majority keeping faith with his pledge to increase social justice despite bitter opposition from economic elites.
Well it looks like Chavez held a summit meeting with Gore, Bill, Hillary, Dasshole and the National Demo-rat Communist committee. Next they'll be asking us for reparations.
So it must be going in the right direction.
So he gets elected stealing from the producers and pandering to the parasites.
He's a Democrat!
We will forgive all the debt and never give them a damn penny again.
After all, the only problems that they have is banks exploiting them, I am sure they will be better off without any new infusions of capital.
The above was of course sarcastic but I see that Global Socialism is alive and well. What a putrid philosophy.
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