Venezuela's Chavez cancels trip

www.news.com.au February 20, 2003

VENEZUELA President Hugo Chavez has cancelled a trip to the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Kuala Lumpur, his country's foreign minister said. Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton, who is leading the Venezuelan delegation to Kuala Lumpur, said Chavez cancelled the trip because of a heavy workload.

Chavez had planned to be in Kuala Lumpur on February 24-25 for the summit of 114 countries, which banded together in 1955 to steer a middle course between the West and the Soviet bloc.

The leftist former army paratrooper is struggling to consolidate control over Venezuela after a two-month opposition strike aimed at ousting him. The strike nearly paralysed oil production in the world's fifth-largest exporter, devastated Venezuela's economy and deepened polarisation over Chavez's rule.

"Because of the present circumstances and so many domestic commitments, he thought it would be best to stay home," Chaderton said.

The Non-Aligned bloc of mostly African, Asian and Latin American nations has sought since the Cold War to reinvent itself to confront challenges of globalisation and US military and economic might. The group is expected to denounce any US-led attack on Iraq.

Chavez is a frequent critic of globalisation and US economic dominance.

In 2000, Chavez irritated the United States by becoming the first head of state to visit Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The Venezuelan leader offered Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein his support for ending UN sanctions against Iraq.

Chaderton said Venezuela had not decided what position to take on the Iraqi crisis at the summit. But he said the stand-off "should be resolved diplomatically and peacefully."