Caracas Daily Journal: President Hugo Chavez said his meeting with Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina was aimed at reaching accords on guaranteeing "food supply sovereignty" in their countries. Speaking to reporters on his arrival in Argentina shortly after noon on Monday, Chávez said the trilateral meeting had an "open agenda" including food supply and trade between the three countries.
The meeting, he continued, would also be important in forging the so-called Axis of the South between Caracas, Brasilia and Buenos Aires. It would also help consolidate the bilateral alliance between Venezuela and Argentina, he added.
Chavez took the opportunity to reiterate his oft-stated view that the "globalized world imposed by the empire" -- his shorthand for the free market economics supposedly developed at the behest of the United States -- had failed. As a consequence of this, he added, the rest of the planet was confronted with crises in food supply, finance, energy and even morality, he claimed.
The axis formed by Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina, and South American integration was looking for ways to confront this dilemma, he continued. "How? Developing our agro-alimentary potential, energy industry, finance, because South America has everything to be a world power," he said.
Chavez noted that Venezuela and Argentina had worked together on policies intended to increase food production, including the supply of Argentine bulls to service Venezuelan cattle. Argentina was also assisting Venezuela in the production of soya and corn. "We're developing our potential to confront the crisis and we are helping, humbly, in the energy sphere," he added.
Lula had arrived on Sunday with a team of 264 Brazilian entrepreneurs for bilateral talks. He and Fernandez de Kirchner also discussed the outcome of the Doha Round of multilateral economic discussions in Geneva.
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