True solidarity - Venezuelan Fraternity In Action
Two recent announcements in Latin America have highlighted the gulf between the proponents of ‘free-market’ capitalism and of socialism and internationalism.
On March 12 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was in Port au Prince, Haiti, where he announced an historic aid package worth tens of millions of euros to that country. His visit to Haiti was part of a counter-tour of the Americas in opposition to US President George Bush’s tour of the same region. While there, Chavez held talks with Haitian President Rene Preval with Cuba’s Fidel Castro joining in the discussions by telephone.
Chavez, who has been decisively elected for the last three terms as Venezuelan President, as well as surviving a 2002 US-backed coup, was greeted with cheers by crowds of Haitian supporters.
In addition to the aid package to Haiti, Venezuela’s socialist leader, within the space of 10 days, announced an indefinite supply of discounted oil to Nicaragua, finalised a gas co-operation pact with Jamaica. and a $15 million aid to flood stricken Bolivian farmers. The significance of this last figure is reflected in the fact that the world’s wealthiest nation, the USA, contributed a mere 10% of this figure to Bolivia. The contrast between socialist Venezuela and the capitalist US approach to international relations could not be greater.
The difference between the warmth shown towards Chavez and the mass protests surrounding the simultaneous Bush visit to Latin America, must surely be a source of chagrin for the reactionary US Administration.
In spite of the Bush regime’s attempts to paint itself as a ‘saviour’, the peoples of Latin America are all too familiar with the reality of US ‘intervention’ in the region. From the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba to the installation of the Pinochet regime in Chile and US support for the Contra Rebels in Nicaragua, the true nature of US foreign policy is more than apparent to the people of Latin and South America. Over the course of the last decade ever greater numbers of people across Latin and South America have turned away from the imperialism and the sham ‘democracy’ espoused by the US and are instead embracing the politics of progressives such as Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Fidel Castro of Cuba
Speaking on the generosity of aid package to Haiti, Bolivia, Jamaica and Nicaragua, Éirígí spokesperson Daithí Mac An Mháistír commented “This aid, which includes projects in the key areas of health, education, electricity, fuel, food and water supply re-iterates the progressive nature of the Chavez administration and shows the country to be a beacon of hope in the struggle of ordinary people for social and economic democracy. In a world where the concept of democracy has been largely reduced to a periodic exercise in selecting which elite governs, Venezuela and other Latin American countries are currently demonstrating what can be achieved when there is a real political will to fight poverty and injustice”.