In Buenos Aires, Chavez slams Bush

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In <st1:place
w:st="on">Buenos Aires, Chavez slams Bush

Agencies

Posted online: Sunday, March 11, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST

BUENOS AIRES, march 10

Gringo, go home! thundered
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday as he denounced President Bush’s
swing through Latin America as an “imperial”
excursion, mocking the president and cementing the impression of the White
House trip as a battle between the two hemispheric rivals.

“Bush today is a political cadaver. He exhales the smell of
the political dead, and he will soon be cosmic dust that will disappear from
the stage,” Chavez told a rally of at least 30,000 at the soccer stadium in <st1:City
w:st="on">Buenos Aires’ Caballito
neighbourhood.

The leader’s two-hour speech came shortly after Air Force
One touched down in neighbouring Uruguay,
65 km across the muddy Rio de la Plata <span
class=GramE>river. “The little imperial gentleman from the north must be
across the river by now. Let’s send him a big shout: Gringo go
home.”

“If you truly want social justice in the world, order the
immediate withdrawal of the troops from <st1:place
w:st="on">Iraq,” Chavez scolded Bush. “Use
that gigantic (military) budget for investments in food and health.”

Chavez seized upon the presence of Bush, who is widely
unpopular in South America, as an opportunity
not to be missed. “The visit of Bush forms part of a new advance of
imperialism,” said Chavez. “The Bush plan is ridiculous. He thinks he is <st1:City
w:st="on">Columbus, discovering
poverty after seven years in power.”

Chavez’s close ally, <st1:place
w:st="on">Argentina President Nestor
Kirchner, apparently encouraged him to stage his rally here. <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Argentina,
rebounding from a 2001-02 economic meltdown, has been
one of Chavez’s major aid beneficiaries.

“In Argentina’s
most difficult moments, the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela
was present,” Kirchner told reporters, using <st1:place
w:st="on">Venezuela’s formal name.

Chavez labelled Bush “the president with the lowest
intellectual level in the history of the <st1:place
w:st="on">United States” and said “He doesn’t
even smell of sulphur anymore. He no longer has that virtue.”

The rally was organized by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo,
a group of women who became famous by protesting in the city’s central plaza
after the disappearances of their sons and daughters during the military
dictatorship of 1976-83.

In an interview on a popular morning television programme in
Argentina on Saturday Chavez
dismissed the ethanol pact that the US

signed with Brazil
on Friday as “a crazy thing, off the wall.” He accused the <st1:country-region
w:st="on">United States
of trying “to substitute the production of foodstuffs for animals and human
beings with the production of foodstuffs for vehicles, to sustain the American
way of life.”

Despite the agreement, some strains were visible between
President da Silva and Bush. Da Silva is hopeful that the <st1:country-region
w:st="on">United States
will reduce its tariff of 54 cents a gallon on Brazilian ethanol. But when da
Silva was asked about the possibility of eliminating the tariff, Bush jumped
in: “It’s not going to happen.”

© 2007: Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai)
Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world.

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