Chavez hijacks Bush's South American tour with attack on 'wolf in sheep's clothing'

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Chavez hijacks Bush's South American tour with attack on 'wolf in sheep's clothing'

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington and Daniel Howden
Published: 10 March 2007

The Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, has dismissed President George Bush's anti-poverty proposals as the US leader's visit to Latin America was met with furious demonstrations across the region yesterday.

As the two leaders embarked on separate visits, Mr Chavez - who has made poverty reduction a central plank of his own domestic agenda - said the proposals of his ideological rival were nothing more than a "wolf in sheep's clothing". He also mocked a $75m (£39m)initiative to help teach Latin American children to speak English. "He's a symbol of domination and we are a cry of rebellion against the domination ... he's trying to trick our people to divide us," said Mr Chavez, before heading for a meeting with Argentina's president, Néstor Kirchner. "We don't need tips from the empire."

Such comments were poised to continue last night as Mr Chavez was scheduled to lead thousands of supporters at a rally in a football stadium in Buenos Aires, at around the same time as Mr Bush was due to arrive in neighbouring Uruguay.

For his part yesterday, Mr Bush, meeting in Brazil with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, finalised a new agreement to enable the trading of ethanol. "It makes sense for us to collaborate for the sake of mankind," Mr Bush said. "We see the bright and real potential for our citizens being able to use alternative sources of energy that will promote the common good."

But the deal has done nothing to remove the main block on international trade in ethanol, which is the 54 cents a gallon tariff the US imposes on all imports in order to protect its farmers. Brazilian analysts have been frustrated at Washington's posturing on bio-fuels while shutting cheap ethanol out of its market.

"This is not about combating climate change, it's about protecting the corn belt," said Dr Plinio Nastari, one of Brazil's leading economists and an expert in biofuels, before the deal.

Brazil leads the world in the production of cheap ethanol distilled from sugar cane - a product that can be manufactured with only minimal use of fossil fuels. The US, however, has shut its markets to imported bio-fuels and funnelled billions of dollars of subsidies to its own agri-business giants to produce grain-based ethanol. Environmentalists and economists agree that corn-based ethanol, with its heavy reliance on fossil fuels during production, delivers practically no net benefit on carbon emissions.

President Bush, who will push free-trade agreements that favour the US during the rest of his Latin American tour, said that US tariffs and subsidies were not even open for discussion. Instead, the White House offered a deal that would allow technology sharing and seek to impose industry-wide standards to stimulate trade between Latin American markets.

Some protesters, carrying stalks of sugar cane, protested about the new ethanol agreement, saying that increased production could lead to social unrest because the process is controlled by the wealthy.

President Lula sought to highlight research into bio-diesel, saying that by 2010, 5 per cent of Brazilian biodiesel will come from abundant plants, such as African palm, cottonseed, sunflower and castor beans, grown by smaller farmers. "It will help create jobs and income in the poorest regions of our country, especially in the north-eastern semi-arid region, where many of these crops are actually native."

Some demonstrations were flying a large white balloon with blue letters that said "Bush Out" in both English and Portuguese. The letter "s" in Bush had been replaced by a swastika.

Suzanne Pereira dos Santos, of Brazil's Landless Workers Movement, told The Associated Press: "Bush and his pals are trying to control the production of ethanol in Brazil, and that has to be stopped." Mr Chavez, who is the fourth largest supplier of oil to the US, also dismissed Mr Bush's so-called ethanol diplomacy, saying that it was both "irrational and unethical".

Indeed, in Brazil and elsewhere in the region, Mr Bush's visit sparked sizeable demonstrations. In the financial district of Sao Paulo, police fired tear gas and beat some protesters with batons on Thursday after what was an overwhelmingly peaceful march. Reports said that at least 18 people were hurt.

In Bogota, Colombia, which Mr Bush will visit tomorrow, about 200 masked students clashed with riot police. Meanwhile in Guatemala, where Mr Bush will also make a brief stop, Mayan priests have said they will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after the US President's visit.

Chief among the aims of Mr Bush on this visit to Latin America is to restore US influence in the region and wrest away some of the momentum of Mr Chavez, who has used some of his country's oil wealth to provide loans to several countries and develop an alternative to the "Washington consensus".

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