CARACAS -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez says Latin America is fortunate that many nations balked at the U.S. proposal for a Free Trade Area of the Americas.

He says the free trade zone would have been ''the greatest disaster'' and says banks that are now failing in the United States would have ''swallowed up'' banks in Latin America.

Chávez has blamed the financial crisis on President Bush and called for putting Bush on trial.

Chávez also blamed what he called an ''unsustainable'' capitalist system during a forum Wednesday on responses to the financial crisis.

He said the International Monetary Fund also shares blame and should ''commit suicide'' and be dissolved.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@