Venezuelan leader cheered by crowds in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Mar 13 (Reuters) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was cheered by crowds of slum-dwellers in Haiti after he arrived on a short visit to highlight Venezuelan aid for the impoverished country.

Chavez, who has been visiting a string of Latin American nations in an apparent parallel tour to a five-nation trip in the region by his ideological foe, US President George W.

Bush, waved to the cheering fans as he was greeted by President Rene Preval at the airport in Port-au-Prince.

Many in the crowd were supporters of ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and ran alongside Chavez slow-moving motorcade through the crammed streets of the capital. Some reached out and touched the populist Venezuelan leader, breaking through a police escort to make contact, as he saluted onlookers.

''Long live Chavez, down with Bush!'' the crowd chanted yesterday.

''When Chavez says he wants to help Haiti, he really means it and he proves it,'' said Magalie Demosthenes, waving a Venezuelan flag. ''He does not do like some rich countries which have to humiliate you before giving you anything.'' Bush is unpopular among Haiti's poor, many of whom believe the United States helped oust Aristide despite US denials of claims by the populist former priest that he had been kidnapped.

Aristide fled Haiti in February 2004 in the face of an armed revolt and under US and French pressure to quit. He is now living in exile in South Africa.

''President Chavez cares for the poor masses and he denounced the kidnapping of President Aristide,'' said Mesadieu Denis, a 30 year-old pro-Aristide demonstrator.

Haiti has joined a Venezuelan program to provide preferential financing terms for oil, called Petrocaribe.

Preval said the Petrocaribe deal would help Haiti save 150 million dollar a year, money that could be spent on desperately needed social programs in the poorest country in the Americas.

Venezuela also has agreed to give Haiti about 120 million dollar in grants for construction projects and social programs.

Venezuela, along with Cuba, also will donate five electricity-generating plants to Haiti, which is starved of energy, officials said.

Chavez visited Nicaragua and Jamaica earlier on Monday before heading for Haiti. While he was doing that, Bush was in Guatemala on the second-to-last stop of his regional tour.

Concerned about Chavez's growing influence, Bush has used his tour to try to improve ties with leaders of the right and moderate left in Latin America, where the Iraq war and US trade and immigration policies have made him deeply unpopular.

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