Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led a rally against imperialism at the World Social Forum on Friday, telling thousands of activists they must unite their distinct causes to defeat the US "empire."
Chavez urged activists to "take up the work of a great international anti-imperialist front to do battle in the whole world."
"We have to bring together all our causes. Unity, unity, unity! We can only do it united," Chavez said to rousing applause in a Caracas coliseum.
The crowd went wild as Chavez stepped on stage, and they kept cheering when he hugged US peace activist Cindy Sheehan before launching into a fierce attack on US President George W. Bush's government.
"A kiss for you, brave woman," Chavez said as he introduced Sheehan, who is the mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq and who gained international attention when she set up a protest camp near Bush's ranch in Texas last year.
One of Bush's most outspoken critics, the Venezuelan president called the US government "the most perverse, murderous, genocidal, immoral empire that this planet has known in 100 centuries."
He ticked off the names of revolutionary icons from Venezuela's 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar to Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and urged activists to follow their example by resisting US imperialism.
"Bush, Fascist! You are the terrorist!" the crowd chanted.
Chavez said that before he came to power in 1999, the US essentially controlled his country's vast oil reserves, adding that "Venezuela will never again be a colony of the United States."
Washington has raised concern about the health of democracy under Chavez and has accused him of destabilizing the region. Chavez has shrugged off the claims, saying his government is democratic.
"He's amazing," said 22-year-old Italian activist Paulo Depino, who scrambled over rows of seats trying to get a closer view of Chavez. "He's a true revolutionary leading a historic process to transform this society."
The Venezuelan leader, who says he is leading a socialist revolution, has poured millions of dollars in booming oil profits into social programs for the poor. Opponents fear he is steering the world's fifth-largest oil exporter toward Cuba-style communism.
Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, told the crowd, "in a few hours I should be in Havana" to meet Castro and discuss joint projects toward regional integration.
Chavez also praised newly elected Bolivian President Evo Morales as a "brother," reiterating that Venezuela would join with Cuba to help fight illiteracy in Bolivia, and paid tribute to the late Salvadoran leftist leader Shafik Handal, who died on Tuesday of a heart attack.
Activists held up banners bearing the image of Guevara that read: "No to imperialism!" while hundreds of others waved Cuban flags. One of Guevara's daughters, Aleida, and Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon attended the rally.
Some 70,000 people were registered in the forum, including participants, speakers and volunteers from Venezuela and abroad, organizer Moises Lares said.
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