Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led a rally against imperialism at the World Social Forum on Friday, telling thousands of activists they must unite their distinct causes to defeat the US "empire."
Chavez urged activists to "take up the work of a great international anti-imperialist front to do battle in the whole world."
"We have to bring together all our causes. Unity, unity, unity! We can only do it united," Chavez said to rousing applause in a Caracas coliseum.
The crowd went wild as Chavez stepped on stage, and they kept cheering when he hugged US peace activist Cindy Sheehan before launching into a fierce attack on US President George W. Bush's government.
"A kiss for you, brave woman," Chavez said as he introduced Sheehan, who is the mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq and who gained international attention when she set up a protest camp near Bush's ranch in Texas last year.
One of Bush's most outspoken critics, the Venezuelan president called the US government "the most perverse, murderous, genocidal, immoral empire that this planet has known in 100 centuries."
He ticked off the names of revolutionary icons from Venezuela's 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar to Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and urged activists to follow their example by resisting US imperialism.
"Bush, Fascist! You are the terrorist!" the crowd chanted.
Chavez said that before he came to power in 1999, the US essentially controlled his country's vast oil reserves, adding that "Venezuela will never again be a colony of the United States."
Washington has raised concern about the health of democracy under Chavez and has accused him of destabilizing the region. Chavez has shrugged off the claims, saying his government is democratic.
"He's amazing," said 22-year-old Italian activist Paulo Depino, who scrambled over rows of seats trying to get a closer view of Chavez. "He's a true revolutionary leading a historic process to transform this society."
The Venezuelan leader, who says he is leading a socialist revolution, has poured millions of dollars in booming oil profits into social programs for the poor. Opponents fear he is steering the world's fifth-largest oil exporter toward Cuba-style communism.
Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, told the crowd, "in a few hours I should be in Havana" to meet Castro and discuss joint projects toward regional integration.
Chavez also praised newly elected Bolivian President Evo Morales as a "brother," reiterating that Venezuela would join with Cuba to help fight illiteracy in Bolivia, and paid tribute to the late Salvadoran leftist leader Shafik Handal, who died on Tuesday of a heart attack.
Activists held up banners bearing the image of Guevara that read: "No to imperialism!" while hundreds of others waved Cuban flags. One of Guevara's daughters, Aleida, and Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon attended the rally.
Some 70,000 people were registered in the forum, including participants, speakers and volunteers from Venezuela and abroad, organizer Moises Lares said.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
HOPEFUL FOR PEACE: Zelenskiy said that the war would ‘end sooner’ with Trump and that Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the fighting ends next year Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom early yesterday suspended gas deliveries via Ukraine, Vienna-based utility OMV said, in a development that signals a fast-approaching end of Moscow’s last gas flows to Europe. Russia’s oldest gas-export route to Europe, a pipeline dating back to Soviet days via Ukraine, is set to shut at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it would not extend the transit agreement with Russian state-owned Gazprom to deprive Russia of profits that Kyiv says help to finance the war against it. Moscow’s suspension of gas for Austria, the main receiver of gas via Ukraine, means Russia now only
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
RSS