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Latin america leaders blame american free markets { July 22 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ats-ap_business19jul22,1,1751280.story?coll=sns-business-headlineshttp://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ats-ap_business19jul22,1,1751280.story?coll=sns-business-headlines
Castro, Chavez Malign U.S. Trade Policies
By BILL CORMIER
Associated Press Writer
Published July 22, 2006, 6:35 AM CDT
CORDOBA, Argentina -- Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rallied thousands of leftist sympathizers after a South American trade summit in Argentina, railing against U.S.-backed free market policies they blame for many of Latin America's woes.
Addressing 15,000 people, Castro praised Venezuela's entry into Mercosur, a move that gave the South American trade bloc a hard push to the left.
"Ole! Ole! Fidel!" the crowd chanted Friday night, as some waved red flags emblazoned with the image of Argentine-born Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who spent several boyhood years in Cordoba before joining Cuba's revolution.
"Mercosur once was just four countries. Now it is improved and is expanding," Castro declared on a stage beneath a banner reading "integration is our flag." Flags of Cuba, Venezuela and Argentina flapped nearby.
Leftist labor, student and jobless protest groups took part in the rally, a rare chance for Argentines to see the 79-year-old Cuban leader, who last visited in May 2003 for the inauguration of moderate leftist President Nestor Kirchner.
Also present were leaders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the famously kerchiefed human rights activists whose sons and daughters disappeared during Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship.
Castro vowed his communist nation would continue to survive a more than four-decade-old U.S. trade embargo.
He added that "in the neoliberal world everyone is talking about globalization, about the globalization of goods and services. But nobody is talking about the globalization of solidarity" among nations.
He lauded Chavez for emulating Cuba's programs to send doctors to Latin America's poor with free medical care and train teachers to boost literacy in a struggling region.
Earlier Friday, Kirchner welcomed the addition of oil-rich Venezuela, the continent's No. 3 economy after Brazil and Argentina, into the once-sleepy customs union.
Chavez, who openly admires Castro as his leftist ally and political mentor, urged Mercosur to put aside internal squabbles and stand against the U.S.-backed free-market policies he says have enslaved the region.
He said a Free Trade Area of the Americas, A U.S.-backed proposal blocked by Venezuela and the Mercosur nations last year, was "dead."
Chavez said Mercosur would be the engine for Latin American growth, adding he hoped Bolivia, whose leftist President Evo Morales took office in January, and Cuba might one day become full members of the trade bloc.
The addition of Venezuela gives Mercosur a combined market of 250 million people and a combined output of $1 trillion in goods and services annually, said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during Friday's summit. The other members are Paraguay and Uruguay.
NAFTA, combining the markets of the United States, Canada and Mexico, has 450 million consumers and a combined gross product of about $14 trillion.
Michael Shifter, an analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, said Venezuela's entry should be a "wake-up call" for U.S. officials distracted by conflict in the Middle East.
"Mercosur seems to have less and less to do with free trade and more to do with politics," he said.
Copyright © 2006, The Associated Press
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