VENEZUELAN:Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez was cheered by crowds of slum-dwellers in Haiti on Monday after he arrived on a short visit to highlight Venezuelan aid for the impoverished country.
Mr Chávez, who has been visiting a string of Latin American nations in an apparent parallel tour to a five-nation trip in the region by his ideological foe, US president George Bush, waved to the cheering fans as he was greeted by President René Préval at the airport in Port-au-Prince.
"The Haitian people are a heroic people; so heroic but so downtrodden," said Mr Chávez, speaking through an interpreter soon after his arrival. "I came here to confirm our affection and our commitment to Haiti.
"The fact that we could walk and run with these people is a great feeling," he added, referring to the warm welcome he received in the poorest nation in the western hemisphere.
Many in the welcoming crowd were supporters of ousted former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and ran alongside Mr Chávez's slow-moving motorcade through the crammed streets of the capital. "Long live Chávez, down with Bush!" the crowd chanted.
"When Chávez says he wants to help Haiti, he really means it and he proves it," said Magalie Demosthenes, waving a Venezuelan flag. "He does not do like some rich countries which have to humiliate you before giving you anything."
Mr Bush is unpopular among Haiti's poor, many of whom believe the US helped oust Mr Aristide despite US denials of claims by the populist former priest that he had been kidnapped. Mr Aristide fled Haiti in February 2004 in the face of an armed revolt and under US and French pressure to quit. He is living in exile in South Africa.
"President Chávez cares for the poor masses and he denounced the kidnapping of president Aristide," said Mesadieu Denis (30), a pro-Aristide demonstrator.
Haiti has joined a Venezuelan programme to provide preferential financing terms for oil, called Petrocaribe. Mr Préval said the Petrocaribe deal would help Haiti save $150 million (€114 million) a year, money that could be spent on social programmes in the poorest country in the Americas. Venezuela has also agreed to give Haiti about $120 million in grants for construction projects.
Concerned about Mr Chávez's growing influence, Mr Bush has used his own tour to try to improve ties with Latin America, where the Iraq war and US trade and immigration policies have made him unpopular. - ( Reuters )