Alessandro Parma, Caracas
New Bolivian President Evo Morales and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have confirmed eight agreements to create greater cooperation between the two countries. Chavez said the two governments are united in a "battle against neoliberalism, against capitalism".
The areas that Venezuela and Bolivia have agreed to act on include health and education, as well as energy and agriculture. The agreements were finalised on January 23 in the government palace in La Paz, Bolivia.
The general framework for these agreements was first made when Morales went to Caracas last month after winning the Bolivian presidential election. In return, Chavez went to Bolivia on January 22 for Morales' confirmation as Bolivian president.
The most important of the deals is for an exchange of Bolivian foodstuffs for Venezuelan oil. Chavez has agreed to send as much as 200,000 barrels of diesel a month to Bolivia.
Venezuelan energy minister Rafael Ramirez said this oil can be paid for by agricultural products. On top of this, Venezuela said it will use hard cash to buy 200,000 tonnes of soy and 20,000 tonnes of chicken a year in addition to what it currently purchases.
Bolivia has also accepted Venezuelan assistance with energy development. Chavez said that PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company, will be available to advise Bolivia on energy policy.
Broadly anti-capitalist, Morales has said before that Bolivia "needs partners, not bosses". The Bolivian president is expected to follow Venezuela's lead by making the state the dominant actor in the Bolivian energy sector.
Morales said that his victory in Bolivia was also "a triumph for the Venezuelan people". Morales thanked Chavez for his help, saying, "with your political decision to support us, we will strengthen democracy and we are going to liberate the countries of the Americas".
Both presidents said that the need to promote Latin American integration was vital. Chavez said the agreements would begin "a new time of integration and relations between our peoples", and that the continent is ready to throw off a history of "poverty, domination, exploitation and colonialism".
An alliance was needed to maintain both nations' independence, "from any aggression", the presidents agreed. Chavez said that the US wanted to invade Venezuela for its oil and gas reserves. He warned that any such attack by the forces of "capitalism and its ideologues" would only mean doom for them. The Venezuelan president said that socialism is a better system and "imperialism will end up being a paper tiger, and we, tigers of steel".
[From <http://www.venezuelanalysis.com>.]
From Green Left Weekly, February 1, 2006.
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