Via Breitbart/AP:

Europeans and Americans browsed rows of booths lauding President Hugo Chavez’s socialist revolution while Venezuela welcomed tens of thousands of activists to a massive event Tuesday protesting globalization and the war in Iraq.

Activists gathering for the six-day World Social Forum in Caracas include anti-war protests, Indian leaders, campaigners against free trade and environmentalists. But all appear united by one thing: their strong opposition to President Bush.

The forum was set to begin Tuesday afternoon with an “anti-imperialist,” anti-war march through Caracas. Organizers said more than 60,000 people had signed up to attend the forum and tens of thousands more were expected, about half of them from outside Venezuela…

…Street vendors sold T-shirts, keychains and watches bearing images of Chavez, Cuban President Fidel Castro and revolutionary hero Che Guevara.

“It’s nice to see the energy that’s going here,” said Catharine Quinn, a health activist from Chicago, who picked up a Che watch and a small Chavez flashlight.

She said the U.S. could use the free health care now available in Venezuela with the help of Cuban doctors.

Groups from Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil also were coming to the forum in caravans of buses and cars. Some 2,000 events will be held this week in Caracas, including seminars, speeches and concerts.

Well-known speakers included Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, Argentine Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel and American anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004 and who set up a protest camp near Bush’s ranch in Texas last year.

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