Chavez urges $1bn poverty fund

from Al Jazeera

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has called on European and Latin American nations to set up a $1bn fund to help provide food and medicine for the poor.

Chavez said on Thursday that he was willing to commit $365m of the country's oil income to the fund, as global food and energy prices continue to rise.

"[The fund] will allow us to produce, buy and distribute food and medicines to the homes of the poorest families," he said at a news conference in Caracas.

Explosive summit

Chavez made the announcement ahead of his expected appearance at a summit of European and Latin American leaders in Peru that begins on Friday, where he says he will present his aid plan.

But the summit promises to be explosive for other reasons after Chavez on Thursday angrily denounced as "ridiculous" claims that Venezuela and Ecuador had aided the Colombia Farc rebel group.

The global police agency Interpol said in a report on Thursday that documents on laptop computers alleging those links and found following a Colombian attack on a Farc rebel base in Ecuador in March, were not tampered with.

Chavez said his country was revising its diplomatic, economic and political relations with Colombia following the report's release.
Existing fund

Leaders from four Latin American countries have already set up a $100m food security fund for staples such as rice, beans and corn in a bid to offset rising food prices that have sparked global protests.

The presidents of Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela as well as Cuba's vice-president also promised joint agricultural programmes.

Rising food prices have led to violent, often deadly protests in more than 30 countries, including Haiti, Egypt and Bangladesh.