Kurt Nicklas
2008-09-29 01:06:35 UTC
Chavez says crisis-hit U.S. needs new constitution
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080927/tbs-portugal-venezuela-usa-7318940.html
Reuters - Sunday, September 28
LISBON, Sept 27 - Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez said on
Saturday it was the capitalist system that had caused the financial
crisis in the United States and the country should come up with a new
constitution.
Speaking to reporters in Lisbon on the last leg of a tour that
included visits to China and Russia, he said: "I think the United
States should start a constituent process to create a constituent
assembly, a new truly democratic model."
A constituent assembly is a body elected to draft and sometimes adopt
a new constitution.
"It was capitalism that caused the ruin" in the United States, said
Chavez, who is one of Washington's fiercest critics, calling the
financial crunch "the worst financial crisis in history".
"Let the U.S. empire end and let a great nation and great republic
rise from the ruin ... It's time to shout 'Liberty!' again in the
United States," Chavez said, calling for a new government to be free
of the "dictatorship of the elite" such as big banks and corporations.
Critics accuse Chavez of running an authoritarian, Cuban-style regime
in oil-rich Venezuela.
Chavez, who has signed various deals from weapons to energy this week
in China and Russia also signed an agreement with Portugal's Socialist
government on Saturday to buy 1 million ultra-cheap laptops for
schools and 50,000 pre-fabricated houses in deals worth $3 billion.
They also signed a draft deal between Energias do Portugal <EDP.LS>
and Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA for the development of a
liquefied natural gas project from the Blanquilla Este reserve in
northern Venezuela.
The computers, which the government started distributing in Portuguese
primary schools this week at a subsidised price of 50 euros , will be
delivered to Venezuela from December. They cost 285 euros in stores in
Portugal.
The laptop is based on Intel Corp's <INTC.O> Classmate PC, a cheap
computer that has been adopted in various formats in countries such as
Brazil and Indonesia.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080927/tbs-portugal-venezuela-usa-7318940.html
Reuters - Sunday, September 28
LISBON, Sept 27 - Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez said on
Saturday it was the capitalist system that had caused the financial
crisis in the United States and the country should come up with a new
constitution.
Speaking to reporters in Lisbon on the last leg of a tour that
included visits to China and Russia, he said: "I think the United
States should start a constituent process to create a constituent
assembly, a new truly democratic model."
A constituent assembly is a body elected to draft and sometimes adopt
a new constitution.
"It was capitalism that caused the ruin" in the United States, said
Chavez, who is one of Washington's fiercest critics, calling the
financial crunch "the worst financial crisis in history".
"Let the U.S. empire end and let a great nation and great republic
rise from the ruin ... It's time to shout 'Liberty!' again in the
United States," Chavez said, calling for a new government to be free
of the "dictatorship of the elite" such as big banks and corporations.
Critics accuse Chavez of running an authoritarian, Cuban-style regime
in oil-rich Venezuela.
Chavez, who has signed various deals from weapons to energy this week
in China and Russia also signed an agreement with Portugal's Socialist
government on Saturday to buy 1 million ultra-cheap laptops for
schools and 50,000 pre-fabricated houses in deals worth $3 billion.
They also signed a draft deal between Energias do Portugal <EDP.LS>
and Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA for the development of a
liquefied natural gas project from the Blanquilla Este reserve in
northern Venezuela.
The computers, which the government started distributing in Portuguese
primary schools this week at a subsidised price of 50 euros , will be
delivered to Venezuela from December. They cost 285 euros in stores in
Portugal.
The laptop is based on Intel Corp's <INTC.O> Classmate PC, a cheap
computer that has been adopted in various formats in countries such as
Brazil and Indonesia.