The presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia, Latin America’s most outspoken leaders, yesterday rebuffed demands by the European Union and other leaders at a summit in Vienna to temper their policies on foreign investment and energy, declaring that a new political era had arrived.

Tony Blair, who attended the summit of European Union, Latin American and Caribbean countries, called for a “responsible approach” to the debate.

“Neo-liberalism has begun its decline and has come to an end,” the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, said at the gathering of nearly 60 heads of state, according to Reuters. “Now a new era has begun in Latin America. Some call it populism, trying to disfigure our beauty. But it is the … voice of the people that is being heard.”
guardian.co.uk

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