30183: Chamberlain -- Chavez (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 12 (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
shadowed his political foil President Bush on a tour of Western Hemisphere
nations, stopping Monday in Haiti after passing through Jamaica to promote
aid packages and discuss development projects.
   Chavez, who left Nicaragua earlier as crowds greeted Bush in Guatemala,
was met by Haitian President Rene Preval and several thousand cheering
supporters outside the Port-au-Prince airport.
   Many waved Venezuelan flags, while some chanted "Down with Bush, long
live Chavez!"
   Chavez came to discuss a $20 million fund announced last week by
Venezuela's state-run development bank to provide humanitarian aid to Haiti
and develop joint cooperation projects with the hemisphere's poorest
nation.
   During a stop at the Venezuelan Embassy in the Haitian capital, he said
his welcome to Haiti provoked "indescribable feelings."
   "We should begin preparing for ourselves ... to strengthen the unity"
between the two countries, he said to Preval. "This is a heroic people, the
Haitian people. So heroic but so downtrodden."
   The leftist firebrand stopped earlier Monday for a seven-hour visit in
Jamaica -- a country that has taken advantage of Venezuela's Petrocaribe
initiative to purchase oil under preferential terms.
   Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Chavez signed a deal under
which the South American country will supply Jamaica with liquefied natural
gas starting in 2009, said Philip Paulwell, the energy minister for
Jamaica.
   Haiti similarly benefits from Petrocaribe. The program, widely seen as
an effort by Chavez to make inroads in a region where the United States is
a major trading partner, allows deferred payment and long-term financing
for fuel shipments.
   Preval, a Chavez ally, relies heavily on U.S. aid. The United States,
Haiti's largest donor, last year pledged a $492 million aid package aimed
at helping the country recover from a devastating 2004 revolt that ousted
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.