G20 Summit 'entrusts beef to vultures'

Bolivian President Evo Morales denounced the decision of the April 2 G20 summit to inject more than US$1 trillion into the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a means of combating the economic crisis, comparing it to leaving a wolf to care for a flock of sheep, according to an April 3 AFP report.

"It's like giving money to the wolves, or entrusting it with the care of the flock: the wolf is not going to keep the sheep, it will devour them. It is not possible that the countries of capitalism, which have caused the financial crisis, are now the same from where comes the solution."

Morales criticised the IMF for making loans to impoverished countries conditional on "the
privatisation of our natural resources, our basic services[and implementation of] business models that are part of the capitalist system".

According to an April 3 Press TV report, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the summit failed to address the root cause of the economic crisis — capitalism. He criticised the extra funds to the IMF, "one of the great guilty ones".

Describing the IMF and World Bank as "tools of imperialism", Chavez said the extra money was like "entrusting beef to vultures". He said: "It's impossible that capitalism can regulate the monster that is the
world financial system... Capitalism needs to go down. It has to end."

From GLW issue 790