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http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/3/12/213135.shtml?s=os
Chavez Shadows Bush in Whirlwind Tour
NewsMax.com Wires Tuesday, March 13, 2007
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shadowed his
political foil President Bush on a tour of Western Hemisphere nations,
stopping Monday in Haiti after passing through Jamaica to promote aid
packages and discuss development projects.
Chavez, who left Nicaragua earlier as crowds greeted Bush in Guatemala, was
met by Haitian President Rene Preval and several thousand cheering
supporters outside the Port-au-Prince airport.
Many waved Venezuelan flags, while some chanted "Down with Bush, long live
Chavez!"
Chavez came to discuss a $20 million fund announced last week by Venezuela's
state-run development bank to provide humanitarian aid to Haiti and develop
joint cooperation projects with the hemisphere's poorest nation.
During a stop at the Venezuelan Embassy in the Haitian capital, he said his
welcome to Haiti provoked "indescribable feelings."
"We should begin preparing for ourselves ... to strengthen the unity"
between the two countries, he said to Preval. "This is a heroic people, the
Haitian people. So heroic but so downtrodden."
The leftist firebrand stopped earlier Monday for a seven-hour visit in
Jamaica -- a country that has taken advantage of Venezuela's Petrocaribe
initiative to purchase oil under preferential terms.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Chavez signed a deal under which
the South American country will supply Jamaica with liquefied natural gas
starting in 2009, said Philip Paulwell, the energy minister for Jamaica.
Haiti similarly benefits from Petrocaribe. The program, widely seen as an
effort by Chavez to make inroads in a region where the United States is a
major trading partner, allows deferred payment and long-term financing for
fuel shipments.
Preval, a Chavez ally, relies heavily on U.S. aid. The United States,
Haiti's largest donor, last year pledged a $492 million aid package aimed at
helping the country recover from a devastating 2004 revolt that ousted
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Chavez appears intent on spoiling Bush's tour of Latin America. In Nicaragua
on Sunday, Chavez chanted his anti-Bush mantra of "gringo go home" at a
rally with President Daniel Ortega.
As Bush traveled to Guatemala on Sunday evening, Chavez and Ortega went to
the city of Leon, where they left flowers at the tomb of poet Ruben Dario
and announced that Venezuela would build an oil refinery nearby. Cheered by
thousands, Chavez said Bush's tour was a failure.
"Latin Americans are telling you: 'Gringo, go home!"' he said.
On Friday, he held a stadium rally in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires
and then headed to Bolivia's flood-ravaged lowlands on Saturday to tout his
pledge of $15 million in disaster aid -- 10 times that sent by the United
States.
While Bush has declined to even mention the Venezuelan leader's name in
public, Chavez has peppered his speeches with gibes at his rival. Sunday's
appearance in El Alto, Bolivia -- 13,100 feet above sea level -- was no
different.
Bush's plane "doesn't dare" fly over the Andean city, Chavez said, "because
here we are so high up he might think that we were going to reach up and
grab him."
Chavez Shadows Bush in Whirlwind Tour
NewsMax.com Wires Tuesday, March 13, 2007
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shadowed his
political foil President Bush on a tour of Western Hemisphere nations,
stopping Monday in Haiti after passing through Jamaica to promote aid
packages and discuss development projects.
Chavez, who left Nicaragua earlier as crowds greeted Bush in Guatemala, was
met by Haitian President Rene Preval and several thousand cheering
supporters outside the Port-au-Prince airport.
Many waved Venezuelan flags, while some chanted "Down with Bush, long live
Chavez!"
Chavez came to discuss a $20 million fund announced last week by Venezuela's
state-run development bank to provide humanitarian aid to Haiti and develop
joint cooperation projects with the hemisphere's poorest nation.
During a stop at the Venezuelan Embassy in the Haitian capital, he said his
welcome to Haiti provoked "indescribable feelings."
"We should begin preparing for ourselves ... to strengthen the unity"
between the two countries, he said to Preval. "This is a heroic people, the
Haitian people. So heroic but so downtrodden."
The leftist firebrand stopped earlier Monday for a seven-hour visit in
Jamaica -- a country that has taken advantage of Venezuela's Petrocaribe
initiative to purchase oil under preferential terms.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Chavez signed a deal under which
the South American country will supply Jamaica with liquefied natural gas
starting in 2009, said Philip Paulwell, the energy minister for Jamaica.
Haiti similarly benefits from Petrocaribe. The program, widely seen as an
effort by Chavez to make inroads in a region where the United States is a
major trading partner, allows deferred payment and long-term financing for
fuel shipments.
Preval, a Chavez ally, relies heavily on U.S. aid. The United States,
Haiti's largest donor, last year pledged a $492 million aid package aimed at
helping the country recover from a devastating 2004 revolt that ousted
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Chavez appears intent on spoiling Bush's tour of Latin America. In Nicaragua
on Sunday, Chavez chanted his anti-Bush mantra of "gringo go home" at a
rally with President Daniel Ortega.
As Bush traveled to Guatemala on Sunday evening, Chavez and Ortega went to
the city of Leon, where they left flowers at the tomb of poet Ruben Dario
and announced that Venezuela would build an oil refinery nearby. Cheered by
thousands, Chavez said Bush's tour was a failure.
"Latin Americans are telling you: 'Gringo, go home!"' he said.
On Friday, he held a stadium rally in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires
and then headed to Bolivia's flood-ravaged lowlands on Saturday to tout his
pledge of $15 million in disaster aid -- 10 times that sent by the United
States.
While Bush has declined to even mention the Venezuelan leader's name in
public, Chavez has peppered his speeches with gibes at his rival. Sunday's
appearance in El Alto, Bolivia -- 13,100 feet above sea level -- was no
different.
Bush's plane "doesn't dare" fly over the Andean city, Chavez said, "because
here we are so high up he might think that we were going to reach up and
grab him."
