Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez defended his Brazilian counterpart Sunday amid a corruption scandal that has rocked Brazil's ruling party, saying that Brazil's elites are trying to sabotage President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Silva has not been directly linked to the corruption allegations, but his popularity has fallen as a result.
"They are attacking him mercilessly to try to put him in a corner and also to try to toss to the ground the process of integration in Latin America," Chavez said on his weekly TV and radio show, "Hello President." Chavez blamed Brazilian "elites" for what he said was an attempt "to overthrow Lula" and return to more conservative policies. "In Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Bolivia we have elites who don't want the situation of each country to change," Chavez said.
The Venezuelan leader, a close friend and ally to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, says he is leading his oil-producing country toward socialism. Chavez said Silva "wants Brazil to help Venezuela expand its shipyards "so that we can together build... all the (oil) tankers we need." During a South American summit last week, Venezuela and Brazil also agreed to build a new US$2.5 billion (euro2.1 billion) oil refinery in northeastern Brazil that would partly be used to process Venezuelan crude. The refinery's output is planned at 250,000 barrels a day.
In another nod to Brazil, Chavez said it's important that more Venezuelans study Portuguese. "Knowing English is important, but for us Venezuelans I think it would also be important to know Portuguese," he said. "For that reason we need to look into the possibility of having it taught in schools."
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