March 29, 2005
Chávez to woo foreign allies at summit

(Financial Times) - "Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's president hosted a summit with the leaders of Brazil, Colombia and Spain - an occasion that allowed Caracas to court foreign allies and offset deteriorating relations with the US (...)

But the summit is more likely to show that Mr. Chávez's government is far from isolated internationally (...)

The meeting showed Mr. Zapatero's desire to rekindle Spain's relations with Latin America, neglected under José María Aznar, his pro-US predecessor.

'Each of them wants to show that they are leaders beyond the boundaries of their own countries and can play co-operative regional roles,' said Julia Sweig, Latin America expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank based in Washington.

Mr. Zapatero signed support for Mr. Chávez, but also made warm overtures to Mr. Uribe, who wants to build bridges with Europe (...)

Mr. Zapatero is likely to use the Franco-Spanish campaign against Eta, the Basque separatist group, as an example of the effectiveness of cross-border co-operation against terrorism (...)".