On his return from the Extraordinary Americas Summit, which ended on January 14 in the Mexican city of Monterrey, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has asked for Cuba to be included in the inter-American system of nations.

“Why isn’t Cuba part of it? Who was consulted to exclude it? It is right that we should ask the countries of the region why Cuba isn’t there and not keep quiet when it is attacked in those forums,” affirmed the president, according to ANSA in Caracas.

Chávez alluded to the Cuban issue during his report to Parliament on his administration in 2003, transmitted yesterday on radio and television.

Responding to recent claims that Cuba and Venezuela are promoting political destabilization in the region, Hugo Chávez stated that he and Cuban President FC are destabilizers, but of hunger and death.

“Yes, we are destabilizers, Cuba and Venezuela, Fidel and Chávez. Fortunately we are not the only ones, each day the destabilizers of death are more,” he announced in his message to Congress, reported by the DPA agency.

The Venezuelan president added that the integration model between Venezuela and Cuba is being presented as an alternative to the neoliberal model promoted by the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

Chávez reiterated that the neoliberalism coming from the International Monetary Fund is the real political destabilizing force in the region, and added that his government is aligned with the struggles of the anti-globalization movement in search of “equity and justice.”

(Granma)  January, 16 2004