16 January 2006
Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have said that they were ready to spend billions of dollars financing projects in other countries to help thwart US domination. The two leaders met over the weekend in Venezuela's capital Caracas, the first stop on Ahmadinejad's tour of Latin American countries that will also see him visit newly elected leftist leaders in Nicaragua and Ecuador. Iran and Venezuela had previously announced plans for a joint US$ 2 billion fund to finance investments in Venezuela and Iran, but Chavez and Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that the money would also be used for projects in friendly third countries. "It will permit us to underpin investments ... above all in those countries whose governments are making efforts to liberate themselves from the imperialist yoke," Chavez said. "This fund, my brother," Chavez said, referring to Ahmadinejad, "will become a mechanism for liberation. Death to US imperialism!" Ahmadinejad called it a "very important" decision that would help promote "joint cooperation in third countries," especially in Latin American and African countries. It was not clear if the leaders were referring to investment in infrastructure, social and energy projects -- areas that the two countries have focused on until now -- or other types of financing.
Before his meeting with Ahmadinejad, Chavez said in his state of the nation address that he had personally expressed hope to Thomas Shannon, head of the US State Department's Western Hemisphere Affairs bureau, for better relations between their two countries. Chavez said he spoke with Shannon on the sidelines of Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega's inauguration last week, saying, "We shook hands and I told him: 'I hope that everything improves.'"
Read about the WJC's campaign to Stop the Iranian Threat