Bank of the South, championed by Venezuela, begins to take form

Seven South American countries are expected to inaugurate the new bank at a ceremony on Nov. 3 in Caracas, Venezuela's capital, where it will be based. At a meeting here last week the countries - Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela - agreed to create an institution with up to $7 billion in initial capital, paving the way for the bank to begin operating as early as 2008.

An eighth country, Colombia, said last week that it wanted to be included as well. Its president, Álvaro Uribe, said that his country would join as long as the new bank was an "expression of solidarity and brotherhood," and not a rejection of the international lending institutions.

The Bank of the South will be designed to promote investment in infrastructure and could help stimulate greater regional trade and integration. Chávez sees it as an alternative financing institution to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund, all of which have significant Washington involvement.

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Bolivia's Morales suggests U.N. move HQ from U.S.

Morales, who has championed indigenous rights and has close ties to leaders like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro of Cuba, said many in his delegation had trouble getting visas to attend the U.N. General Assembly this week.

"I don't know how all of you managed to come here to the United States," he told the General Assembly. "At least my delegation had a great deal of visa problems."

"My ministers here are subjected to hours and hours of controls at the airport," he said. He also criticized U.S. President George W. Bush for referring to Castro as a cruel dictator in a speech on Tuesday.

"Some of us are practically threatened by the rulers of the country, by President Bush," Morales said. "Perhaps if that's the case, we should change the site of the United Nations. Perhaps we should do research on that."

Evo Morales Speaks the Truth

The transnational corporations always provoke conflicts to accumulate capital, and the accumulation of capital in a few hands is no solution for humanity," Morales said at forum in Cochabamba. "And so I have arrived at the conclusion that capitalism is the worst enemy of humanity."