Chavez's shadow looms large over World Social Forum in Caracas

By Rebecca Frasquet
AFP
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 01 26 06

Venezuela's controversial President Hugo Chavez is omnipresent at the World Social Forum he is hosting in Caracas, where his likeness decorates banners, T-shirts and assorted souvenirs.

The firebrand former paratrooper is clearly the hero of the gathering that has brought together more than 60,000 anti-globalization activists for six days of discussions, many of them focused on various aspects of his leftist revolution.

Street vendors are out in force, offering Chavez T-shirts, red paratrooper berets and biographies of the populist president.

Many of the participants say they have a profound admiration for Chavez and his "Bolivarian revolution", named after 19th century South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.

Critics accuse Chavez of using the gathering to promote himself both at home and internationally.

"The forum is an event that the president organized to profile himself as a leader of Latin America, with public funds," said Alfredo Ramos, who leads the small Radical Cause opposition party.

The forum's organizers say the state has given about 70,000 dollars to the WSF so far, while the opposition claims the event will cost nine million dollars.

The government has provided public buildings and parks to host the gathering, and is offering free shuttles from the airport and from one venue to another.

Foreign journalists are taken on organized tours of slums around Caracas, to meet families that have benefitted from state social programs that form the cornerstone of the revolution.

Outside a youth camp in a Caracas park, a Chavez poster was plastered over an ambulance, and a video screen showed a pro-Chavez documentary.

The huge Bolivar avenue featured a "festival of revolutionary democracy" that showcased the health, education and other social programs that are largely financed with oil export revenues.

But organizers insist Chavez does not have control over the gathering, nor did the Brazilian government which in the past hosted the annual event.

"Governments that generously give us money do not control the forum," said Emilio Taddei, one of the organizers.

But he said that the aim of the WSF in Caracas, "is to contribute to the process of change launched by the revolution."

The annual WSF is designed as a counterpoint to the World Economic Forum of political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland. The African chapter of the social forum was held in Mali last week, and a similar gathering is planned in Pakistan.

The Caracas gathering brings together such diverse groups as anti-war activists, trade unions, indigenous associations, spiritual movements and gay rights advocates.

AFP 01/25/06

Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved

 

 

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