EU: The left-wing presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia confronted European and Latin-American leaders with their brand of socialism yesterday, claiming a new era had dawned on their continent.
Hugo Chavez, who once led a failed coup attempt before winning power via the ballot box, condemned the pro-market policies which many Latin-American states had adopted in the last 20 years but which are increasingly out of favour with voters.
"Neoliberalism has begun its decline and has come to an end," Mr Chavez told reporters after posing for a photograph with nearly 60 other heads of state from the European Union, Latin-America and the Caribbean at a summit in Vienna yesterday.
"Now a new era has begun in Latin-America. Some call it populism, trying to disfigure our beauty. But it is the . . . voice of the people that is being heard."
Mexican president Vicente Fox earlier said the region had failed to overcome its historic problems, including "populism" and inconsistency of policies.
Bolivia and Venezuela have increasingly angered governments on both sides of the Atlantic. Bolivia's new president, Evo Morales, an ally of Mr Chavez, nationalised its oil and gas sector on May 1st and has promised further tough action with foreign investors.
And Venezuela has upset plans for EU-Andean trade talks by saying it will quit the South American group in protest at trade deals by neighbouring countries with the United States, whose influence Mr Chavez is trying to challenge.
Britain's Tony Blair urged the two countries not to act irresponsibly. "What countries do in their energy policy when they are energy producers like Bolivia and Venezuela matters enormously to all of us," he said.
EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso declined to comment on specific nations, but told reporters populism was a threat. "We are a Europe against populist tendencies," he said.
UN secretary general Kofi Annan said investors needed guarantees of long-term stability. "Without that assurance you may be disrupting all economic activities."
The summit was planned as a chance to take ties between the EU and several regions of Latin-America to a new level. But with several Latin-American governments embroiled in disputes, only a deal for the launch of trade, investment and aid talks between the EU and Central American countries is expected.
Mr Morales, a former coca farmer making his first presidential trip to Europe, has relished the chance to challenge former colonial powers and Bolivia's present heavyweight neighbour Brazil for "pillaging" his country.
Brazil reacted angrily to comments by Mr Morales that state-controlled oil company Petrobras had acted illegally in Bolivia.
"We are perplexed by what [ he said]. If you want to interpret 'profoundly perplexed' with a term like 'indignation,' that would not be far from the truth," Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim said in Vienna on Thursday.
- (Reuters)