Members of the Central of Workers of Argentina, C-T-A, gathered around the monument of South American Liberator Simon Bolivar at the Rivadavia Park in Buenos Aires. They paid tribute to the man they described as a “cultural, political, intellectual and revolutionary” symbol, who they said erupted to challenge the “true regional enemy”: Imperialism.
Statements by Venezuelan interim President Nicolas Maduro -who on national television targeted Chavez´s “imperialist enemies” and accused them of leading an assassination plot to infect him with cancer-, were also echoed in Argentina. “They are capable of anything”, CTA leaders told Press TV.
Founder of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of our America (ALBA) -a left-wing organization that first emerged in 2004 to battle the US-fostered Free Trade of the Americas (ALCA)-, Hugo Chavez strengthened South America´s integration. And he did it, CTA´s International Relations Secretary Adolfo Aguirre affirmed, “in solitude”, at times when Latin America still remained as Washington’s backyard.
Together with Nestor Kirchner -former president and late husband of current leader of Argentina Cristina Fernandez-, Chavez declared what he called the “burial” of the ALCA at the IV Summit of the Americas held in the Argentine city of Mar del Plata in 2005. Since then, Buenos Aires and Caracas have developed strong bilateral ties reaching strategic energy agreements and Venezuela’s official admission to the South American trade block Mercosur last year.
Meanwhile, the president of Argentina Cristina Fernandez took a flight to Caracas earlier this week to attend Hugo Chavez’s funeral. “Commander Chavez, the colleague and friend, has decisively entered History. Men like Chavez don’t die, they are sowed”, Fernandez told international media in Venezuela.
