Venezuela's Chavez Slams Pan-American Trade Pact

Sat May 24, 2003 09:02 PM ET By Eduardo Orozco

CUSCO, Peru (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Latin America will sign its own death warrant if it joins a planned pan-American free trade deal that is not designed to help the poor, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday.

"Venezuela is on the side of the people and we propose a new integration system that is definitely not the FTAA which, as it has been put forward, is a perverse mechanism that would be a death order for the future of the region," Chavez told Reuters in an interview.

The United States is a strong advocate of the Free Trade of the Americas (FTAA) pact, which is due to be finalized by 2005 and would facilitate commerce from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.

Chavez, who faces ongoing violence at home over his controversial rule and has a tense relationship with Washington, was in the Andean city of Cusco for a summit of the 19-member Rio Group of Latin American nations.

Leaders discussed how to curb social unrest, recharge economies and make Latin America a key trader in a globalized world. Many -- like Chile, which is waiting for Washington to sign a bilateral trade deal -- seek to boost trade with the United States, through bilateral deals or the FTAA.

Critics of the free trade deal say, however, that it will chiefly benefit North America's bigger, industrialized economies and will not help millions of poor Latin Americans.

Chavez proposed instead a social and political pact called the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, named after Simon Bolivar, the 19th century general who struggled in vain to politically unite South America.

"We don't even need anything like Mercosur (a trade bloc grouping Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay), because we can't put the economy first in terms of integration. Political unity needs to come first," he said.

Chavez's opponents, who have organized months of violent protests, accuse him of authoritarian, communist-style rule in the world's No. 5 oil exporting nation. One person was killed and 22 hurt on Saturday when shooting erupted at an anti-Chavez rally in Caracas.

The Venezuelan leader declined to comment on the violence, which came a day after government and opposition negotiators agreed to a pact that could lead to a referendum on his rule.

"I don't know if there will be a recall referendum. It's a possibility if the opposition meets all the constitutional requirements," said Chavez, who has declared his willingness to submit to a referendum. "If there is, I will defeat (the opposition) again. The people will defeat them again."

"The Rio Group countries...are sure that (the agreement) will strengthen the democratic process in our brother nation," the leaders at the summit said in a declaration.