Weekly Report - 2 March 2004

Anyone skimming through pro-Chávez online media last week would have found what appeared to be visual confirmation that the `Chávez -Lula-Kirchner axis' heralded as the new force of change by the Venezuelan president was alive and well. Photographs showed the three, all smiles, held together in a two-way hug by Chávez . For Lula, this photo-op engineering was the last straw: he spent the rest of his stay making it abundantly clear that he was taking distance from his Venezuelan peer.