VENEZUELA: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived uninvited to the World Social Forum in Brazil where he stole the show by announcing plans to implement a tax on speculative finance, a key demand of forum participants.
Mr Chavez made the decision to apply a version of the Tobin Tax, (named after the US economist who proposed the measure) after $3 billion in capital flight left the country in the past two months, depleting currency reserves.
Revenues from the proposed 1 per cent levy on financial transactions, if implemented worldwide, could provide adequate sanitation for the world's poor.
One of the forum's founders, Mr Oded Grajew, said organisers were not embarrassed by Mr Chavez's decision to come, but warned the Venezuelan leader not to use the event for self-promotion.
Meanwhile, global pranksters Bakers without Frontiers left their mark when a woman skilfully deposited a pie in the face of Mr Jose Genoino, the president of Brazil's Workers' Party.
"That's for suggesting our movement can be represented by any government," shouted the woman, criticising President Lula's decision to attend the rival World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The sweet pie was a bitter reminder that sharp divisions exist between activists engaged with power structures and more militant individuals, who reject all contact with parliamentary politics.
The Zapatista movement in south-east Mexico declined to send an official delegation, concerned that the goals of the social summit were being compromised by partisan politics.
President Chavez outlined his blueprint for a fair global trade system, proposing a Latin American monetary fund and a regional oil cartel, to ensure that control over revenues and spending remained in the hands of national governments.
"You here at the forum and we in Venezuela are trying to come up with an alternative to the neo-liberalism that is destroying the world," said Mr Chavez.
"If we don't put an end to neo-liberalism, neo-liberalism will put an end to us."
The summit offered a welcome breather for the embattled Venezuelan leader, as a 57-day national strike at home has forced the oil-rich nation to import food and medicines.
Regional governments, particularly Colombia and Peru, opted for the Davos forum, hoping to impress international financiers with offers of corporate tax breaks and mechanisms to repay the external debt.