Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales (left) is welcomed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at Caracas' Airport yesterday. - REUTERS
CARACAS Venezuela, (Reuters):
VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT Hugo Chavez and Bolivian president-elect Evo Morales met yesterday to consolidate ties between socialist soulmates united in their opposition to Washington.
Chavez and Morales, a former coca leaf farmer, have antagonised the U.S. government with their alliances with Cuba and promotion of leftist integration as an alternative to U.S. free market policies in Latin America.
Morales, elected by more than 50 per cent in a December 18 vote, made his short stop in Venezuela as part of a world tour that includes Spain, France, Brazil, China and South Africa. He takes office on January 22.
JOINING THE FIGHT
The Bolivian leader has rejected charges from foes that he received financing from Chavez, who Washington accuses of destabilising the region by using Venezuela's huge oil wealth to spread his socialist revolution.
"We are joining this anti-neoliberal, anti-imperialist fight," Morales said as he met Chavez and his ministers at the airport. "We are in a new era, we are in a new millennium, a millennium for the people, not for the empire."
Chavez said they would discuss energy and social reforms planned by Morales, who joins the ranks of leftist leaders who have swept to power on the back of regional discontent with U.S.-backed economic policies.
"You know who is the axis of evil? Washington, they are the axis of evil, and their allies in the world who threaten, invade, who kill and assassinate, we are forming an axis of good," Chavez said.
The two leaders later visited the national pantheon in Caracas and laid a floral tribute at the tomb of Venezuelan Indian hero Guaicaipuro.
An Aymara, Morales is the first Indian president of South America's poorest country. But he faces a nation deeply divided between a poor Indian majority in the western Altiplano mountains and wealthy elites demanding more independence for rich eastern provinces.
Morales, who herded llamas as a boy in his poor mountain home, calls his socialist movement a 'nightmare' for Washington, criticises U.S. anti-drug policies and promises to nationalise Bolivia's huge gas resources.
In contrast, Chavez, a former soldier who was elected in 1998 six years after he led a coup attempt, has vowed to bring socialist revolution to the world's number five oil exporter. He has spent billions of dollars on social programs for the poor.
Chavez, who accuses U.S. officials of working to overthrow him, has become one of Washington's most vocal critics and has signed scores of energy and trade deals with South American partners to counter U.S. influence in the region.
U.S. officials dismiss his charges of assassination plots as rhetoric aimed at stirring nationalist sentiment among his poor supporters. But they accuse Chavez of eroding democracy at home and backing subversive groups overseas.
