Bogota, September 6, 2007 (LPAC)--Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez responded with utmost seriousness when asked by Executive Intelligence Review reporter Pedro Rubio to comment on actions needed to face the "ongoing collapse of the international financial system, as indicated by the collapse of the mortgage bubble in the U.S.," during Chavez's joint press conference with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at the conclusion of an August 31 visit to Bogota.

After a bit of a protest as the press conference was being cut short, both Presidents told Rubio to go ahead and ask his question. Rubio cited efforts to create the Bank of the South as part of a new, infrastructure-oriented economic architecture, and then raised three questions: did the Venezuelan President agree with U.S. statesman Lyndon LaRouche's proposal for restructuring the international financial system; was he prepared to finance a railroad through the Darien Gap on a Panama, Bogota, Caracas route; and, what did he think about the Democratic Party rank and file's demand that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney be impeached?

Chavez said he would not answer the question about Cheney's impeachment in such a venue, but took up the question of the economic crisis at some length--without ever mentioning LaRouche by name.

"The question raises issues which require more detailed analysis, but we are aware of the world economic situation and we believe that it could get more complicated," Chavez said. "The whole crisis to which you referred ... is already affecting other areas of the economy," in areas such as energy and food. He noted that the increase in the price of food is going to cause more problems in the world. The New World Order, which had been proclaimed after the fall of the Soviet Union, turned out to be a "World Disorder," and a new, different order is needed, Chavez said.

The world crisis makes our efforts to build the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), and such projects as the Great Gas Pipeline of the South and the Bank of the South more urgent, Chavez stated. As for a train through the Darien Gap, Chavez thought it was too early to say if Venezuela would finance it, but Venezuela stands ready to cooperate. He reported that the two Presidents had agreed in their discussions earlier that day to begin to study developing railroads. Venezuela is already working on a big railroad project. Imagine, he said, "what a great railroad from the plains of Venezuela which cross all of Colombia and unite the Atlantic with the Pacific, would mean."