Chavez: Neoliberalism 'the road to hell'

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chavez: Neoliberalism 'the road to hell'


AFP. 18 May 2002.  Chavez attacks slow progress of EU-Latin American
dialogue.

MADRID -- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Saturday criticised
laborious progress in free trade talks between Latin America and the
European Union, denouncing what he called a dead-end labyrinth.

"We heads of state go from summit to summit while our people descend
from one abyss to another," he told journalists after talks here between
the 15-nation EU, Latin America and the Caribbean.

"We're moving slowly and badly," he said: "We're in a dead-end
labyrinth."

In a three-hour speech at Madrid's diplomatic academy Thursday, Chavez
described neoliberalism as "the road to hell."

Leaders met for their first summit in three years Friday, reaffirming
their commitment to liberalise trade and fight drug trafficking.

The 48-nation summit, hosted by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar,
was called in a bid to develop a strategic partnership between the two
continents following on from the 1999 summit in Rio de Janeiro.

On Friday several thousand anti-globalisation demonstrators took to the
streets of Madrid as the summit drew to a close.

Notably absent from the Madrid summit was Cuba's President Fidel Castro,
kept at home by a groundbreaking visit by former US president Jimmy
Carter.





PHOTO ATTACHMENTS. Chavez kisses a girl outside a hotel in Madrid
Saturday 18 May 2002. Banner reads 'USA, Axis of Wars and Coup d'Etat's,
Enough'; Heavy police turnout for a demonstration for peace and against
globalization by some 2,000 people in Madrid.