[NYTr] Chavez: "Latin America Is Waking Up, and No One Can Stop It"

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Venezuelanalysis - Nov 9, 2007
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2816


Chavez: “Latin America Is Waking Up, and No One Can Stop It”

by Kiraz Janicke
Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, November 9, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com) - "Latin America is
waking up and no one can stop it" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,
said in a brief statement to the media as he arrived in Chile for the
17th Latin American Summit, Friday. Chavez, who was received by Chilean
President Michelle Bachelet and other Latin American leaders in Club
Hipico, Santiago, added, that he was "very happy to be in the land of
Allende."

The principal theme of the summit, which concludes on Saturday, is
‘Social Cohesion' and the search for a more inclusive society in Latin
America.

Chavez said he supported the deliberations of the summit, which will
approve two documents; the Declaration of Santiago and a Plan of
Action, which will propose joint initiatives to deal with labour,
health, education, taxes and corruption issues in Latin American states.

Although, he argued, "I don't much like the word ‘cohesion.' It is
better to speak of social transformation; it is a more dynamic term in
comparison with the word cohesion, which denotes statism."

Latin America is waking up, he declared, and nothing nor anyone can
stop it. "There is an awakening of millions of people, indigenous,
women, campesinos, and this is the most important thing because
individually we do not make history, rather it is the people that make
history."

However, he warned, "The Latin American rightwing is lining up to
attack the Bolivarian revolution." They aim to undermine, "the series
of changes that we are carrying out...a process of changes that has
resonance in the region," he said, "using the power of the mass media
to externally sell a surreal image of what is happening in Venezuela."

"They are preoccupied with what is happening in Venezuela," the
Venezuelan president continued, "because what is happening is a
revolution; a moral, political, democratic and peaceful revolution." 

The oligarchy and rightwing elites of the continent, Chavez said, "Fear
the Bolivarian revolution, this is why the attack us so much and
satanize us."

These same elites that attack the Bolivarian revolution, Chavez
explained, "are those that failed when they had the destiny of
Venezuela and the region in their hands.

"The neoliberal rightwing failed in the 1990s to reduce poverty and
misery," and now "the cause of this failure is being defeated by the
revolution," he explained.

Chavez also criticised "the obscene blockade of Cuba" by the United
States, and demanded that they comply with international law and hand
over terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, wanted for the
Cuban airline bombing in 1976, that killed 73 people

Venezuela, with the support of Cuba, has solicited the extradition of
Posada Carilles, a Venezuelan national, from the United States in order
to charge him over the Cuban airline bombing. However, so far the US
has refused to hand him over.

"I hope for the fall of North American imperialism, because this
imperialism obeys no one. It only obeys its own obscene interests. This
century, maybe in the first few years of this 21st century, North
American imperialism, which has done so much damage to the Latin
American people, will fall."

Chavez also plans to attend the parallel Summit of the Peoples at the
University of Science and Art (USA) in Santiago, which opened this
morning with a series of debates on social, environmental, economic and
cultural themes, with an emphasis on the inequalities that afflict the
continent. 

Rector of the USA, Carlos Margotta, who inaugurated the summit, said it
"aims to consolidate a platform of popular demands and strategic
objectives for all the peoples and their organizations throughout the
continent."

Forums throughout the summit will address the social problems
experienced by millions of Latin Americans, and ways to end political
exclusion and discrimination in the region. It will also deliver a
document elaborated over three days of debate to the government leaders
at the Latin American Summit. The Summit of the Peoples will close on
Saturday with a massive event in the Velodrome National Stadium, at
which Chavez is expected to speak, along with Bolivian President Evo
Morales and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, as well as Carlos Lage,
the vice- President of Cuba.