A victory for the empire

The president declined to talk about negotiations with the FARC until he had met Lula, who has offered Brazil's territory to hold talks.

He rather referred to Venezuela’s entrance into Mercosur, accusing the United States of trying to impede it.

Michael Astor | The Associated Press

MANAUS, Brazil – The Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on Thursday accused the United States of standing in the way of closer ties between Latin American nations.

Chávez, a staunch critic of Washington, said that if Venezuela is denied entry to South America's Mercosur trade bloc that it would be "a victory for the empire," in allusion to the United States.

Chávez arrived in this Amazon city of 1 million people for a meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, where the two were to discuss issues from joint energy projects to peace negotiations in Colombia.

The two leaders are opponents of U.S. -backed efforts for a Free Trade Area of the Americas that would stretch from Canada to Chile. But Venezuela's bid to join Mercosur is encountering resistance from lawmakers in Brazil who must ratify the expansion.

Meanwhile, Silva may offer Brazilian territory as neutral ground to help Chávez mediate a prisoner exchange between the Colombian government and that country's 1leftist rebels, a spokesman for Silva said. But Chávez declined to talk about those negotiations until after he had met with Silva.

Chávez is attempting to negotiate an exchange of imprisoned Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrillas for rebel-held hostages, including three U.S. defense contractors and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen.

Politics. Chávez, in Brazil, says United States opposes Latin American integration.

Upon arriving at the Hotel Tropical, Chávez played down problems with Venezuela's complying with Mercosur's tariff norms that has kept the customs union from ratifying the country's full membership.

So far, Argentina and Uruguay have ratified Venezuela's entry in the group while Brazil and Paraguay have not.

Chávez said Venezuela wanted to share its immense reserves of crude oil and natural gas with Brazil and other countries in the region because " the world was entering an energy crisis" and that Brazil only had enough natural gas reserves to last 10 more years.

Silva and Chávez were to discuss a proposed natural gas pipeline spanning South America. and the Bank of the South, a development bank Chávez envisions as a home-grown alternative to U.S.-based lenders such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

President Rafael Correa planned to join the talks Thursday evening. |||