Chávez Proposes International of Left Parties

Prensa Latina (26 August 2007) reports:

Parties and movements of the Left of Latin America and the Caribbean were invited today by the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, to have a meeting in 2008 to create an international organization.

Speaking before thousands of applicants for membership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Chávez specified that he recently talked about this possibility with the Presidents of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and of Bolivia, Evo Morales, and other leaders.

Chávez said that 2008 "could be a very good year for convoking a meeting of parties of the Left in Latin America and organizing a kind of International there, an organization of parties and movements of the Left of Latin America and the Caribbean."

If such an International actually comes about under Chávez's leadership, and if the new International can forge a cooperative relation with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization¹ and populist mass Islamist parties and movements in West Asia and North Africa, it will be a great leap forward.

1  See M K Bhadrakumar, "The New 'NATO of the East' Takes Shape: The SCO and China, Russia and US Maneuvers," Japan Focus, 25 August 2007 and "Shanghai Cooperation Organization Primed and Ready to Fire: Toward a Regional and Global Realignment?" Japan Focus, 10 August 2007.