Venezuela's Chavez completes Central America tour

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, right, and Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman speak Tuesday at the presidential palace in Managua, Nicaragua

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ended a four-day tour of Central America on Tuesday with a visit to Nicaragua where he signed bilateral accords on tourism, drug trafficking and energy.

Chavez and Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman signed the accords ahead of visiting the site of a Venezuelan road project here. Chavez was set to return to Venezuela later on Tuesday.

In visits to Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua since Saturday, Chavez has railed against "neoliberalism" and preached his gospel of Latin American unity based on opposition to economic globalization.

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"We must truly unite, beyond the papers we've signed and the declarations we have made over many years. If not, within 100 years it's possible we will have been erased from the map," Chavez said on Tuesday in a speech before Nicaragua's National Assembly.

On Central American streets, he demonstrated his populist touch, stopping to talk about oil prices with bystanders and at one point kissing a poor Indian girl and promising her aid.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez greets Salvadoran soldiers in San Salvador, El Salvador Monday

In El Salvador on Monday Chavez and Salvadoran President Francisco Flores pledged to improve trade relations and programs for mutual aid.

Earlier on Monday Chavez and Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo also pledged to strengthen ties.

Chavez's Central America visit began in Guatemala over the weekend after he attended the 10th Ibero-American summit in Panama on Friday and Saturday.

Chavez, a populist leader and an ally of Cuba's communist leader Fidel Castro, drew cheers from former guerrillas in El Salvador and Guatemala.

"Onward with the democratic revolution you are pushing," read a sign carried by a Salvadoran ex-guerrilla on Monday.

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