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Venezuela, Iran to create joint investment fund

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad greet at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on Saturday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Mery Mogollon and Chris Kraul Los Angeles Times
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad greet at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on Saturday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

CARACAS, Venezuela – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez agreed here Saturday to create a $2-billion social investment fund, the latest sign of the deepening ties between the two oil-rich, anti-American countries.

The fund, which will finance projects in their respective countries, as well as in Africa and the rest of Latin America, is a continuation of cooperative efforts that so far have included the construction of joint venture cement, tractor and automobile factories in Venezuela.

“We must be comrades in the construction of both our countries,” Ahmadinejad said at a ceremony at the Miraflores presidential palace here. “We have the potential of being among the most advanced countries in the world.”

All the problems of the world, he said, are the result of “powerful countries that only seek economic benefits and do not value human rights because all they are concerned with is lining the pockets of their multinational companies.”

Ahmadinejad is on a tour of several Latin American countries, including Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador, where a string of leftist presidents have been or will be sworn in this month. He will attend Ecuadorean President-elect Rafael Correa’s inauguration Monday.

U.S. government officials have expressed concern over closer ties between the two countries, referring to what it has described as Iran’s sponsorship of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group believed to have been involved in the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1994 that left 85 people dead.

Ahmadinejad and Chavez signed 10 other agreements in energy, administration and other areas. In his remarks, Chavez said both countries were undergoing the “same revolution” and would work together to maintain oil prices at current levels.

“Imperialism won’t rest in its effort to weaken us and one of the strategies is to weaken the price of oil and dominate our reserves,” he said. “Our answer will be to defend prices and cut production.”