Venezuela's Chavez urges Mercosur to turn to the left

Venezuela (AFP)

Venezuela's leftist firebrand President Hugo Chavez pressed leaders of South America's Mercosur trade bloc Friday to reject neoliberalism and US imperialism as they work to overcome differences on forging a new, integrated economic front.

"In this new era, politics and ideology are taking over as priorities, not markets," Chavez told leaders of the South American bloc on the last day of a two-day summit.

"The neo-liberal era in Latin America is over. We will not allow it to return, much less dictatorships," Chavez, the closest political and economic ally of Cuba's communist regime, said Friday, a day after lawmakers at home voted to grant Chavez the power to rule by decree for 18 months.

"Imperialism is not some made-up fairytale. The United States has imposed it with blazing cannons and coups d'etat," said Chavez, who often accuses the United States of wanting to oust and kill him. "Every pro-development, progressive effort was overthrown."

He said Mercosur, which Caracas joined just last year, needed to strengthen trade, energy and financial cooperation. "Much of the trade is not ours, but rather multinationals', which are motivated by profit alone," Chavez argued. "Are those multinationals interested in our integration? No."

Presidents of Mercosur members Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela were on hand for the meeting. They were joined by associate Mercosur members Bolivia and Chile, and observers Colombia, Ecuador, Suriname and Guyana.

Bolivia since December has been knocking at Mercosur's door, and the trade bloc on Thursday created a working group to draft a detailed process of adhesion for the landlocked country within 180 days. The care given to the membership bid by Bolivia starkly contrasted with Venezuela's controversial access to Mercosur, during a special July 4 meeting of the trade bloc, which did not clearly define Caracas's adhesion.

The quick membership given Venezuela also left Mercosur open to criticism it was giving Chavez a major stage for his political views and often virulent anti-US rhetoric. Chile's socialist President Michelle Bachelet said that economic benefits of integration needed to be clear for Mercosur's combined population of nearly 300 million. She argued "progress on the political and economic front also needs to come hand-in-hand with social progress."

Mercosur host and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that finding a way for members large and small to benefit was critical to Mercosur's success. "Without integration, Latin America has no way forward," Lula said, adding: "If we do not understand the imbalances among us, we will walk away frustrated from every meeting."

The summit created a special 100-million-dollar fund to stimulate the economies of its two smaller members, Uruguay and Paraguay.