BELARUS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visits Belarus

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a self-described revolutionary who seeks to counter Washington's influence in Latin America, arrived in Minsk, the capital of Belarus on Sunday (July 23) on an official visit. Chavez praised ex-Soviet Belarus, accused in the West of crushing fundamental rights, as a model state and called for joint efforts to counter "demonic" capitalism. The Venezuelan leader, a leftist revolutionary who commands vast oil revenues, is on a world tour, partly to win support for a bid to win a place on the U.N. Security Council. He sees the seat as a way to resist what he terms a decadent U.S. empire. Chavez and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko seemed likely to find common language at talks on Monday (July 23). Chavez is hugely popular among Venezuela's poor, as is Lukashenko among Belarusians outside the capital who say he has spared them poverty and upheaval by eschewing the radical market reforms that have shaken other ex-Soviet states. Chavez will also visit a military academy and an outdoor military museum. Officials have offered him a chance to use a rocket launcher and other equipment if he wishes. He will stop in Russia to buy 24 Sukhoi SU-30 combat planes. Also on his itinerary are Qatar, Iran, Vietnam and Mali. Both Washington and the EU have barred entry to Lukashenko, accused by the United States and European Union of rigging his own re-election in March and of regularly hounding opponents and closing down independent media. Lukashenko regularly accuses the West of trying to destabilise his administration and makes only infrequent visits outside Russia, his main ally, and other ex-Soviet states.

ITN Source | July 24, 2006

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