Latin America rising against savage capitalism: Maduro

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - People across the region rise against "savage capitalism," especially the neoliberal model pushed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Venezuelan president said.

Although neoliberalism seems to have taken the reins in Latin America, it is exciting to observe the Chilean people rising against a constitution that follows the steps of Pinochet’s dictatorship, Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday in his closing statement at the 3rd Anti-Imperialist Congress held in Cuba, according to the local TV channel TeleSur.

Mid-October, protesters jumped over turnstiles without paying for tickets at metro stations in Chile's capital Santiago in protest against a 4% transport fare hike.

Since then, at least 23 people have been killed in ongoing anti-government protests.

President Sebastian Pinera also announced concessions, including rolling back the fare rise -- a rise in the minimum wage -- and putting a hike in electricity prices on hold until next year in a bid to contain the strife.

"There is a general insurgency of the people against the model of exclusion, privatization, impoverishment, the individualism of the savage neoliberal capitalism of the IMF," Maduro said.

He added that it was Cuba that summoned the world to "debate, study and unmask the policies of financial domination of the IMF".

"In Venezuela, an alternative project to neoliberalism will never be reversed."

"The Bolivarian Revolution emerged as an early response to demonstrate that a society can be built that guarantees social rights to its people," the president said.

More than 1,000 delegates from 95 countries attended the event to discuss topics including the world before free trade and transnational corporations, decolonization, cultural warfare, strategic communication, social struggles and strategies for the continuity of struggles, democracy, sovereignty and anti-imperialism.