Chavez launches biting US attack (Chavez is now in Bolivia)

Last Updated: Sunday, 11 March 2007, 04:56 GMT

The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, on a tour of Latin America, has launched a stinging attack on the US.

Visiting Bolivia, the firebrand leftist leader Mr Chavez said that capitalism was "the road to hell".

He underlined the billions of dollars of aid that Venezuela is ploughing into Bolivia's economy at a time when the US is reducing its contributions.

US President George W Bush has avoided discussing his rival's regional trip during his own visit to Latin America.

Heaven and earth

"Those who want to go directly to hell, they can follow capitalism," Mr Chavez said in the town of Trinidad in Bolivia.

"And those of us who want to build heaven here on earth, we will follow socialism," he added.

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Bush looking to rally support for Colombian leader

March 11, 2007, 12:38AM
By PATTY REINERT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY — After a relaxing day of boating and barbecue in the Uruguayan countryside, President Bush flies to Colombia today for a much more difficult chore: shoring up U.S. support for President Alvaro Uribe, a longtime ally whose government has been tainted by ties to paramilitary death squads.

Clear evidence of their ties to Colombian politicians began emerging late last year when 31,000 fighters disarmed under a government-sponsored peace plan. Eight members of Colombia's Congress, all belonging to Uribe's governing coalition, have been jailed. More than 60 former and current legislators, governors, mayors and town council members are under investigation.

And Uribe's foreign minister resigned last month after several members of her family were implicated in the scandal.

Many politicians swept up in the investigation are accused of accepting campaign donations from the gunmen, who sometimes bullied voters at gunpoint into supporting these candidates. Some are thought to have helped paramilitaries plan massacres and assassinations.

Others allegedly funneled government funds to the paramilitaries or supported initiatives in Congress benefiting their militias — such as a law mandating short prison terms for demobilized warlords.

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