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Chavez to visit Britain but get no government welcome
By Ana Maria Echeverria
AFP
LONDON
Petroleumworld.com 05 14 06
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrives in Britain on Sunday, straight from a summit with European leaders and an anti-globalisation gathering targeting western multinationals over alleged abuses in Latin America.
During the two-day private visit, Chavez will meet left-wing members of parliament (MPs), trade unionists and the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. But he will have no official contacts with the government of Tony Blair, a major ally of Chavez's main political foe, US President George W. Bush.
Livingstone, like Chavez an outspoken left-winger, said on Saturday the Venezuelan leader was "the best news out of Latin America in many years".
That view is unlikely to be shared by Blair, whom Chavez recently called "the main ally of Hitler" for backing Bush in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Both Blair's office in Downing Street and the Venezuelan embassy in London
confirmed there would be no meeting between the two leaders.
Sections of the British press are speculating that Chavez's visit will be a distinct annoyance for Blair.
Chavez openly supports Bolivia's decision to nationalise its gas and oil wealth, an announcement that has provoked concern among western investors such as British Gas and British Petroleum.
On Friday Blair issued a warning shot to Chavez, and his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales at the EU-Latin America summit in Vienna, urging both to use their energy resources "responsibly" and work with foreign investors.
That followed a brief war of words between Blair and Chavez in February, when the British prime minister urged him to respect the rules of the international community; Chavez countered, calling him immoral.
But Livingstone, a frequently "off-message" member of Blair's ruling Labour Party, told BBC radio on Saturday he was delighted to be meeting Chavez, for whom he is hosting a lunch on Monday.
"He's won 10 elections for his party in the last decade and he's pushed through a whole programme of social reform," said Livingstone, who earned the nickname "Red Ken" in the 1980s for his firebrand socialist views.
"Venezuela was like a lot of those old Latin American countries -- a small elite of super-rich families who basically stole the national resources.
"He's now driven a new economic order through -- you've got for the first time healthcare for poor people, illiteracy has been eradicated.
"And of course the rich old families and the American oil companies are squawking because they are getting less of the pie and more people get more."
Livingstone said London could benefit from closer ties with Venezuela.
"The reason he wants to come to London is because clearly, as the Latin American economies really begin to emerge from the American shadow and grow, they don't want all their eggs in the Washington basket," he said.
"They're looking for allies in Europe and Asia and it's very much in London's interests that as Venezuela's companies go, they should see London as a natural home every bit as much as Madrid."
On Monday Chavez will attend a reception organised in his honour by the "Friends of Venezuela" group of MPs and give a speech at Canning House, an organisation that seeks to boost ties between Britain, the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America.
He is scheduled to leave Britain for Libya on Tuesday but that visit has still to be officially confirmed.
AFP 14 0112 GMT 05 06
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