PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA

Having just assumed the Chairmanship of the "Group of 77" developing nations and China, the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, at a Headquarters press conference this morning said that he was beginning the new year with a great deal of faith, strength and optimism.  He was pleased to have received the great responsibility of the chairmanship from Iran at the ceremony this morning.

[The Chairmanship of the Group of 77, which rotates annually among the three regional groups represented in the Group -- Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia -- was transferred from Iran to Venezuela this morning at a Headquarters ceremony.]

Responding to a question about his relationship with the press, President Chavez said that never before had Venezuela enjoyed freedom of the press as it did today, including freedom of opinion, expression and thought.  In the past, newspapers had often been shut down and journalists persecuted, imprisoned and blackmailed.  Today there was open, ethical debate, in which everyone could say what they believed.  Some journalists were, however, actually businessmen looking for money.  It was sad when a means of communication, through the interests of its owner, was used to spread lies and slander in a premeditated way. 

Referring to a recent case with a newspaper in Venezuela, President Chavez said that incident had originated with a public demonstration of support for the Government in a community close to Caracas, a poor neighbourhood similar to Harlem.  In that neighbourhood, the Government had established many community projects, including a housing plan and a community cultural center.  The newspaper in question had, in fact, printed a falsehood, saying that the population of that community had rejected the presence of the President.  For the first time in Venezuela's history, a President had visited that neighbourhood other than during election time.  The newspaper had published an article saying that the neighbourhood had protested the presence of the President.  A group of neighbourhood leaders had asked the newspaper for a right of reply, but had not been received because the owner of that newspaper did not wish to publish the opinions of the people.

Asked to respond to the situation in Haiti, President Chavez said the problem of Haiti was the problem of all the peoples of the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh worlds.  Venezuela was a member of the Committee of Friends of Haiti at the United Nations and was willing to continue to help Haiti.  Venezuela, with its own problems, had until now done whatever it could in relation to Haiti.  He recalled that at the Summit of the Americas, the President of Haiti had said that Haiti's goal for 2005 was to go from "destitution" to "poverty".  The situation in Haiti was quite dramatic and Venezuela had undertaken several initiatives to assist Haiti, including an energy agreement.  Venezuela was ready to look for other ways to cooperate with Haiti in providing food and had organized a brigade of humanitarian support.  Venezuela was ready to cooperate with any plan that the Organization of American

States or the United Nations could develop for Haiti.  He was critical, however,

of the free trade proposal, because if it failed to consider the situation of Haiti it would not contribute to integration but lead to greater disintegration for the poorest people of the continent. 

Would Venezuela continue to pay off its external debt?  Was the President worried that the contagion surrounding the Argentine situation could spread to Venezuela? a correspondent asked.

Fortunately, Venezuela was one of the most solid economies in Latin America and the Caribbean, President Chavez said.  Regarding external debt, Venezuela was the only country of Latin America that could pay almost all of its external debt with the international reserves it had accumulated.  The relationship between foreign debt and international reserves was roughly one to one.  Venezuela had managed its debt and would continue to do so. 

As for the countries in Latin America that had been plagued with the issue of external debt, the problem must be looked at collectively, he added. Venezuela was deeply hurt by the situation in Argentina, where an “overdose of savage neoliberalism, privatization and dollarization" of the economy had been applied.  It was necessary to help Argentina and not allow it to become totally bankrupt.  According to neoliberalism, everything –- even the air -- had to become privatized, because neoliberalism said that the hand of the market was more powerful than the hand of God.  That was a lie.  Venezuela's growth in the last year was among the highest in the South America.  Venezuela had a macroeconomic stabilization fund and had saved oil earnings.  The country had an increasingly stable and solid economy, based not only on oil but other resources.

Asked to elaborate on the "failure of liberalism", President Chavez said that while he did not have an immediate prescription, he had an attempt at a prescription -- Venezuela's Constitution.  The people of Venezuela, in discussions that had lasted a year, had adopted its Constitution by referendum.  The Constitution was a proposal for a new democratic system.  Representative democracy was a trap into which people could fall.  A model of participatory democracy had been injected in the Constitution, which was just beginning to take shape.  What was a democracy without people?  It did not represent anyone, but represented political parties, small enterprises and big corporations.  Another component of the formula was a change in the economic model, a humanistic and productive model.  A social State -- not a liberal State -- was just beginning to take shape.  Norms were not enough, and the law could sometimes be unjust. 

Asked to respond to the tense situation in Colombia, President Chavez said he was extremely concerned by it and had been conducting assessments, making contacts and looking for the reasons behind the situation.  He was concerned by the de facto breakdown in the dialogue and the issue of a deadline.  For years he had been saying that the way for Colombia was not weapons but political expression.  Extreme efforts must be made to seek peace.  Secretary-General Kofi Annan had just informed him that one of his envoys was in the guerilla area of Colombia.  He would be informed of developments, the Secretary-General had told him.  He loved Colombia.  It was the Bolivarian dream of integration in South America.

Introducing the President at the outset of the press conference, the Interim Head of the Department of Public Information, Shashi Tharoor said that President Chavez had been elected in December 1998 for a six-year period starting in 1999.  He was the founder of the Bolivarian Movement and the leader of the Patriotic Movement of 4 February 1992.  More recently, in September 2000, President Chavez had participated in the United Nations Millennium Summit, chairing one of four round tables during the Summit. 

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