Bullish Chavez assumes Andean bloc leadership

Venezuela’s leftist leader Hugo Chavez has assumed leadership of the Andean bloc president’s council, telling his peers that Latin America was still bound by a ”colonial system” and proposing they pool their energy resources to achieve economic independence.

Chavez, who took the reins of the Andean Presidential Council from Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo for the upcoming year, said yesterday that his proposed ”Petroandina” oil and natural gas company – run by Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia – would help rid the region of poverty.

The council, comprised of the leaders of the five-nation bloc, said it would consider the proposal in a final document, which was to be signed by the participants late yesterday.

“Ecuador produces oil and imports gasoline,” Chavez said, adding that his country, one of the world's leading oil exporters, imports 100% of petrochemical products, which he attributed to a still-existing ”colonial system”.

He made frequent references to economic dominance by “the north”, a thinly-veiled reference to the US.

Chavez also plugged the new Caracas-based satellite TV station Telesur.

The station started broadcasting in May with strong financial backing from the Venezuelan government, but has been criticised by his opponents at home for disseminating left-wing propaganda.

Chavez said expansion of the station’s news and cultural programing would give South America a voice independent of traditional media conglomerates like CNN.

“The face of our America will come out on a world level, because it will reach all the way up there, to Canada. We must answer them. If they send us Superman, we will send them … Tupac Amaru,” Chavez said, referring to the Inca leader, executed by the Spanish colonial viceroy in 1572.

Colombian Vice Foreign Minister Camilo Reyes interjected that Colombians were deeply offended by Telesur’s decision to show images of Manuel Marulanda, a Colombian guerrilla leader, during a test broadcast.

“The only thing I can say is that it pains us that out of 44 million decent Colombians, Telesur chose a guerrilla to put on the screen,” he said.

Chavez did not mention Washington directly during his occasionally rambling, 45-minute speech. But he left no doubt whom he meant when he arrived for the summit on Sunday night.

“The Andean Community has not advanced in the capitalist framework, but poverty and social exclusion have increased,” Chavez told reporters at Lima’s airport.

“It is not with the neoliberal framework that will integrate us, but instead taking advantage of our energy reserves,” he said. “Almost all of our countries have large reserves, starting with Venezuela.”

Chavez contended that because his country is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter, “George W. Bush wants to get his hands on my nation.”

“But he will not achieve that,” Chavez said, “and I want to put these oil riches at the disposition of South America and the Caribbean.”

Chavez said a unified policy “will guarantee all the energy we will require for social and economic development.”

Toledo, a political moderate and strong ally of Washington, said yesterday that trade and business links within the five-nation bloc had increased 59% between 2003 and 2004, and have grown by 24% in the first four months of 2005.

“Our growth in this external commerce has generated 700,000 jobs” in the region, said Toledo, who has presided over one of Latin America’s most impressive economic rebounds of recent years.

Ecuadorean President Alfredo Palacio and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe arrived with Chavez at the government palace yesterday morning for the summit. Bolivia’s interim president, Eduardo Rodriguez, did not attend, but the country was represented by Foreign Minister Armando Loayza at the annual meeting.