30182: (news) Chamberlain: Venezuelan leader cheered by crowds in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 12 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez was cheered by crowds of slum-dwellers in Haiti on Monday after he
arrived on a short visit to highlight Venezuelan aid for the impoverished
country.
     Chavez, who has been visiting a string of Latin American nations in an
apparent parallel tour to a five-nation trip in the region by his
ideological foe, U.S. President George W. Bush, waved to the cheering fans
as he was greeted by President Rene Preval at the airport in
Port-au-Prince.
     Many in the crowd were supporters of ousted former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide and ran alongside Chavez slow-moving motorcade
through the crammed streets of the capital. Some reached out and touched
the populist Venezuelan leader, breaking through a police escort to make
contact, as he saluted onlookers.
     "Long live Chavez, down with Bush!" the crowd chanted.
     "When Chavez says he wants to help Haiti, he really means it and he
proves it," said Magalie Demosthenes, waving a Venezuelan flag. "He does
not do like some rich countries which have to humiliate you before giving
you anything."
     Bush is unpopular among Haiti's poor, many of whom believe the United
States helped oust Aristide despite U.S. denials of claims by the populist
former priest that he had been kidnapped.
     Aristide fled Haiti in February 2004 in the face of an armed revolt
and under U.S. and French pressure to quit. He is now living in exile in
South Africa.
     "President Chavez cares for the poor masses and he denounced the
kidnapping of President Aristide," said Mesadieu Denis, a 30 year-old
pro-Aristide demonstrator.
     Haiti has joined a Venezuelan program to provide preferential
financing terms for oil, called Petrocaribe.
     Preval said the Petrocaribe deal would help Haiti save $150 million a
year, money that could be spent on desperately needed social programs in
the poorest country in the Americas.
     Venezuela also has agreed to give Haiti about $120 million in grants
for construction projects and social programs.
     Venezuela, along with Cuba, also will donate five
electricity-generating plants to Haiti, which is starved of energy,
officials said.
     Chavez visited Nicaragua and Jamaica earlier on Monday before heading
for Haiti. While he was doing that, Bush was in Guatemala on the
second-to-last stop of his regional tour.
     Concerned about Chavez's growing influence, Bush has used his tour to
try to improve ties with leaders of the right and moderate left in Latin
America, where the Iraq war and U.S. trade and immigration policies have
made him deeply unpopular.