Chavez blames Bush for Bolivian crisis

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez blamed free market policies promoted by the US for the crisis in Bolivia, and said Latin America would no longer accept such “poisonous” economic doctrines.

Chavez, an outspoken critic of Washington’s foreign policy, said yesterday that proposals by US President George Bush for a hemisphere-wide free trade agreement would only lead to more poverty – and protests – in the region.

Speaking before the Organisation of American States, Bush touted the proposal in Florida last week saying it would open the way to peace and prosperity in the Americas and reduce the attraction of “false ideologies.”

Chavez called Bush’s free-trade proposal “the medicine of death,” adding that US open market policies that have been applied in Latin America “have led to exclusion, misery ... and destabilisation.”

“Look at Bolivia; fortunately the Bolivians opened the door toward a peaceful path, but they were on the verge of a civil war,” said Chavez, speaking during his weekly radio and television program “Hello President.”

Nationwide protests led by highland Indians, labour activists, miners, leftist students and coca-leaf farmers over the last month in Bolivia brought down President Carlos Mesa, who was replaced Thursday by Eduardo Rodriguez.

Protesters were demanding the ruling elite grant more power to a poor majority and back away from free-market policies many blame for their troubles. Rodriguez met one of their key demands, to call early elections.

Chavez, a self-proclaimed “revolutionary,” said Latin American nations are moving toward socialist-orientated economic models rather than those based on “perverse” capitalism touted by the Bush administration.

“We say no Mr. Bush, no sir ... I’m sorry for you,” said Chavez, speaking briefly in English.

Meanwhile, Bolivia’s new interim president Eduardo Rodriguez travelled to the opposition stronghold of El Alto, appealing for calm as angry labour leaders promised more of the kind of protests that toppled his predecessor if he does not pledge to nationalise the country’s oil and gas industry and hold early elections.

Rodriguez spent nearly two hours yesterday with the coalition of Indian and labour activists whose nearly month-long blockade cut off the main food and petrol supply route from the slum city of El Alto to the capital, La Paz.

Opposition leaders have vowed to send another massive march into La Paz tomorrow in a show of strength as Congress begins a session to assess their demands.