Venezuela will table a proposal at next week's Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad that would commit US$100 billion in a fund to help poor countries cope with the fallout of the world financial crisis.The United Nations would be responsible for managing the fund.Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made the announcement in China where he was on a visit as part of a tour that also took him to Iran and Japan. He is returning to the region Friday and will make a stop in Havana for talks with Cuban President Raul Castro.
During the Beijing visit China and Venezuela agreed to step up cooperation in energy, agriculture, and high technology and take joint actions in the face of the global financial crisis. The agreement was reached in a meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Chavez.
Chavez, some leftist Latin American leaders and Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad & Tobago have been lobbying for Cuba to be admitted to the summit. But the U.S., which is the heavyweight at the summit, has insisted that only democratically elected states are welcome, and that excludes Cuba.
Chavez's proposal is for 10 per cent of the US$1 trillion that G-20 leaders recently pledged in loans and guarantees to poorer nations through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other multilateral institutions to be placed in a fund that the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) would administer.
The ECOSOC assists the UN General Assembly in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development.
Chavez said the G-20 plan excludes poor countries "because those organizations are the main ones to blame for the current world crisis."
He believes the UN has the credibility and "human sensitivity to attend to the poorest countries who are suffering the impact of the crisis and no one is talking about them."
"I believe that the presence of all of us, in this new political map of Latin America, is a guarantee for the success of the Summit. Now it is not only Chavez. There is a voice that has extended, the voice of the peoples of Latin America."
Chavez has high expectations that the summit would lead to improved relationships between the U.S. and Caracas as well as other nations in Latin America.
"When the United States and its might stop pushing conspiracies in countries of the region and the empire removes its claws from our America...that way we can have relations based on equality and in a context of respect," he added.
Chavez believes each country attending the two-day event must ask one question: "Why Cuba is not in this summit if we all are brothers of Cuba?"
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