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Chavez Urges Africa To Unite Against US

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 2 July 2006
4 comments

Governments South/Latin America Africa

http://today.reuters.com/misc/Print...

Chavez Urges Africa To Unite Against US
By Daniel Flynn
Sat Jul 1, 2006 3:40 PM ET

BANJUL (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on Africa on Saturday to forge closer ties with Latin America to combat what he called a threat of U.S. hegemony.

Chavez, whose repeated criticism of America has raised hackles in Washington, called on an African Union summit to cooperate with Latin America in everything from oil production to university education to counter "colonial" meddling in developing nations.

Citing the example of Venezuela and Bolivia, he urged Africa to seize greater control of its energy resources. He described the low royalty payments made by some foreign oil companies as "robbery".

"We should march together, Africa and Latin America, brother continents with the same roots ... Only together can we change the direction of the world," he told the opening day of the AU summit, to applause.

"The world is threatened by the hegemony of the North American empire," said the former paratrooper, following speeches from African leaders which had criticized colonialism.

Africa’s abundant natural resources — ranging from precious metals to iron ore and oil — should make it a wealthy continent if it were freed from outside exploitation, Chavez said.

"Africa has everything to become a pole of world power in the 21st century. Latin America and the Caribbean are equipped to become another pole," he said.

In a nod to another outspoken opponent of U.S. foreign policy, Chavez hailed Iran’s right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also attending the summit in the Gambian capital Banjul.

The Venezuelan leader called for a commission to evaluate joint energy projects between Africa and Latin America, as well as a media venture dubbed Telesur (TeleSouth) and a joint bank Banco del Sur (Bank of the South).

"In Venezuela, we were tired of all our oil going to Count Dracula," said Chavez, referring his government’s decision to raise taxes on U.S. oil companies. "Now Venezuela is free and we have recovered control over our oil."

Venezuela is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter.

Forum posts

  • Chavez is right! Break the neck of the Jewish infiltrated U.S., before they start more wars. U.S. and Israel should be isolated, so they can stick together - like criminals in a prison. No American and no Israelian citizen should be allowed to travel into the civilized world.

    • Bush was raised in Presbyterian and Episcopalian Churches. At age 35, after his daughters were born, he became a Methodist. His wife was already a Methodist. (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week421/news.html)

      Cheney apparently is Methodist but his local membership appears unknown. Rumsfeld appears to be unchurched. Someone else may prove me wrong about Rumsfeld. Both Cheney and Bush have been invited to repent for their war making or leave the United Methodist Churh. (http://www.petitiononline.com/tmrloc03/petition.html United Methodists Calling for Accountable Leadership)

      People are people regardless of their labels with varying degrees of good and bad in all groups. Unless more of us start seeing our common humanity we are all on the path to destruction.

      Besides the many Americans who recognize the current war path is wrong, there are also Israeli citizens and soldiers refusing to take part in hurting the Palestinians. Some Isrealis even help rebuild bulldozed Palestinian homes.(http://www.icahd.org/eng/) Some Americans have helped; most notably Rachel Corrie who gave her life trying to stop a bull dozer from demolishing a Palesinian home.

      Also, some Americans, most notably Harry Belafonte, support Hugo Chavez in his efforts to help the poor instead of benefitting some of the US oil companies.

    • I recently had a conversation with a Methodist Minister, he told me that Bush pretends to be a member, but they do not consider him one.

      Also, in Washington state, the Methodists are giving sanctuary to U.S. troops who refuse to go to Iraq.

  • Praises to Hugo Chavez for using his country’s resources to benefit his people and others instead of allowing some greedy corporations to line their pockets. I hope he is also considering environmentally friendly alternative fuels some of which could be made from agricultural waste.