MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez calls for completion of founding fathers' liberation drive

Visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in Buenos Aires Tuesday that his country was not out to “export” its revolutionary model, but that the “time has come” to complete the liberation efforts begun by Latin America's founding fathers.

In a speech to the Argentine Senate, the fiery left-leaning populist said that "Venezuela is going through a revolutionary process" which it is not out "to sell, make a gift of or impose" on others nations, as this would be "pretentious and deeply disrespectful."

Throughout his speech, he repeatedly referred to South American liberators Simon Bolivar, Jose de San Martin and former Argentine President Juan Peron, among others, insisting that Latin American integration could only prosper by "looking back to the past." "San Martin and Bolivar decided to break the chains of 300 years of Spanish and European domination and extermination, the greatest in the history of the nations. Both wrote about patriotic deeds, but then the fire went out and the greatest of dreams was not to be," Chavez said.

He added that "independence from Spain did not bring about the independence of the American peoples, who only switched masters. A chain was broken to be replaced by other chains and now, in the 21st Century, as Peron predicted, we are not united, but dominated." "Therefore, I believe the time has come to resume and bring back to life the dream of the Americas," said the Venezuelan leader, whose mention of "other chains" was a clear allusion to what he contends is a U.S. push to dominate the hemisphere. Chavez's nearly hour-long speech won applause from senators from across the political spectrum.

Many Argentines blame their country's economic woes - which include a poverty rate topping 50 percent - on the "neoliberal" economic model promoted by the United States and Washington-based international financial institutions, and they are receptive to Chavez's populist message.

On Tuesday morning, Chavez was received by Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and the two leaders signed a series of trade, scientific and technical cooperation agreements. Later in the day, he was scheduled to speak in front of the University of Buenos Aires law school, as did Cuban President Fidel Castro in May.