Chavez in action

inthenews:

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has announced that the central American country will withdraw from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Speaking at an event to mark workers' rights on May Day, the socialist president said that the "wheel has turned full circle".

"I want to formalise our exit from the World Bank and the IMF," Mr Chavez said in Caracas.

Mr Chavez has previously blamed the Washington-based organisations for contributing to poverty in central and South America.
Over the last eight years oil-rich Venezuela has paid off all its debts to the IMF and the World Bank, with the former closing its offices in the country in 2006. "We will no longer have to go to Washington, neither to the IMF nor the World Bank, not to anyone," Mr Chavez continued.

The Venezuelan president has also suggested the creation of South American equivalent of the World Bank, with Nicaragua, Argentina and Ecuador all taking steps to distance themselves from the international organisations.

*the image:

Chavez: "You are a devil, you smell like sulfur, you are a drunk, you are the demon, you are a dictator, you are an assassin Mr. Devil, you are..."

Bush: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, Whatever... just filler up MonkeyBoy!"