MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez proclaims “Socialism is not dead”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez proclaimed to activists at the World Social Forum Sunday in Brazil, that “socialism is not dead” and announced an “agrarian revolution” in his country with the seizure of 20 million hectares (49.3 million acres).

Mr. Chavez visited Lagoa dos Juncos, a ranch belonging to the MST Brazilian Landless Movement in Tapes, some 110 miles from Porto Alegre where the World Social Forum is being held. Lagoa dos Juncos is a farm which is considered a model cooperative by the MST.

"For those who say that socialism is dead, here we have people proving that it did not die with the USSR" President Chavez told some 300 activists, most of them transported by bus from Porto Alegre and forced to walk three miles cross country for security reasons. "A failed model of state run economy which had slowly poisoned died, and there was no way to rectify it in time" added Mr. Chavez indirect reference to the former Soviet Union and east block. Describing himself as another "peasant" Mr. Chavez went on to condemn capitalism and denied that it could solve the world's problems.

"Convince yourselves: those who still doubt that there is no solution to poverty or misery, capitalism is the only main cause, it is at the root of the great problems of inequality in the world, of exploitation and misery".

President Chavez delivered his address to an audience made up of MST leaders and activists, as well as representatives of peasant organizations from across the region. On the stage he was accompanied by Brazilian Agriculture Workers leader Joao Pedro Stedile and the rightist governor of Rio Grande do Sul state Germano Rigotto.

The Venezuelan president said the World Social Forum was "the most important political event held in the world each year" and anticipated his country was "ready" to host the gathering in 2006, when it will be split up into parallel events on three to four continents.

The V World Social Forum or the annual "summit" of the antiglobalization movement, opened last Wednesday and closed Sunday with some 120,000 activists from more than 100 countries converging to Porto Alegre.