MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez preaches socialism in Uruguay

Latin America should become ever more socialist and more “radical” to move ahead, develop and so meet the challenges facing its peoples, said Thursday Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez during a visit to a small village in Uruguay.

"We should not be afraid of the word radical, which means to return to the roots, and that is what we have to do in the region" insisted Chavez during a visit to Bolivar, sixty miles from Montevideo which is hosting Mercosur presidential summit.

"Furthermore, the Indians who lived in our countries were socialists, and we need socialism to move ahead together in the region" insisted the Venezuelan leader.

"There is nothing less foreign in this land (Latin America) than socialism, which is in the grass roots, in the water and even in the air".

The Venezuelan president said the U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) "is dead".

"It died at the recent Summit (of the Americas) in Mar del Plata and several presidents, among them those from Mercosur, with my humble help, worked towards that end", continued President Chavez.

"Venezuela looks south" and tomorrow Friday "we'll reach the place we have been longing for, for the last seven years" said Chavez referring to the Mercosur full member incorporation process.

Mercosur presidents are expected to give the green light for Venezuela's entry at Friday's summit.

Chavez who visited Bolivar next to Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez was greeted by residents on horseback, mothers and school children that had never seen such a display of government officials and vehicles in the dirt streets of their village.

The Venezuelan president inaugurated a small bridge, visited a school named for Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Venezuela and Colombia, and announced the launching of the "Bolivar Project" with Venezuelan financing.