Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua Options

[heritage]

"WE MUST HAVE OUR OIL.

WE MUST HAVE THEIR OIL.

FOR OUR SUV'S."

Some people are willing to steal and kill for their gasoline now that the prices are rising. It seems Bush's policies have reduced the morals of this country...

Experts Say Rising Gas Prices Spur Thefts

Updated 11:23 AM ET August 23, 2005
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...823_266&src=abc

Industry experts say gasoline theft cost retailers $237 million last year and this year may be much worse because of the higher prices. With gasoline prices soaring, industry experts predict the number of drive-offs and violence will increase.

But gas station owners are wrestling with a dilemma. How do they make sure people don't steal gas without hurting profits from other parts of their business?

Many stations have gone to a pay-first policy, but they say that cuts down browsing and buying in gas station stores, which is a big chunk of their income.

A spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores says "As the price of gas climbs, people's values decline."

The death of an Alabama service station owner illustrates the point that a gasoline industry group makes over and over to its members: Losing money during a drive-off isn't worth losing your life.

Husain "Tony" Caddi, 54, died Friday after being run over by a driver who police believe wasn't going to pay for $52 worth of fuel. Police are searching for the driver of the gold or tan Jeep-style SUV.

"It's a very difficult situation, and you're never sure how people are going to react," said Sam Turner, president of Calfee Co. of Dalton, Ga., which operates 114 Favorite Markets convenience stores in the South.

"It's something on everybody's mind right now because it's a commodity that virtually everybody uses. You're talking about a heck of an impact to their billfold."

The Petroleum & Convenience Marketers of Alabama tells gas retailers to never take action themselves during robberies and drive-offs, said Arleen Alexander, the group's executive director.

"But I can understand why someone would want to fight for their property," Alexander said. "Fifty-two dollars doesn't sound like that much, but with the little they're making these days that's a lot."

On average, one in every 1,100 fill-ups was a gas theft last year, the National Association of Convenience Stores said. With about a penny per gallon as profit, a retailer would have to sell an extra 3,000 gallons to offset each $30 stolen, said Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the group. Caddi would have had to pump an extra 5,200 gallons to make up for the $52 drive-off.

Gasoline theft cost retailers nationwide $237 million in 2004 more than twice the $112 million loss in 2003, according to NACS. Gas prices have jumped this summer by as much as 18 cents to an average of $2.55 a gallon nationally.

"As the price of gas climbs, people's values decline," Lenard said.

Lenard and Turner said safety and theft concerns have pushed most gas stations in the region to shift to a prepay policy, but even that is not a perfect solution. A prepay policy cuts down on browsing and buying in gas station stores a big chunk of owners' profits.

"We're in uncharted territory. We're seeing more people going to prepay than ever before," Lenard said. "I think we'll look back on 2005 and say, 'Remember when we used to be trusted to pay for our gas?'"

[Snuffysmith]

Venezuela Slams Robertson Over Remarks :

Venezuela's vice president has accused religious broadcaster Pat Robertson of making "terrorist statements"
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9930.htm

http://snipurl.com/h650


Venezuela Oil Shipments to China Up Markedly, State Oil Firm Says:

Venezuelan oil shipments to China increased fivefold this year, surpassing 68,000 barrels a day on average, the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. said Tuesday.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB1WGH9QCE.html

http://snipurl.com/h652

[Snuffysmith]

Christian Minister In Televised Call For Murder Of Venezuela's President

Rev, Robertson, host of Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club and founder of the Christian Coalition of America, called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Click here to view Quick Time video
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9918.htm

http://snipurl.com/h641

[heritage]

Venezuela response to Robertson

http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/for...ST&f=16&t=36086

[jeffmoskin]

"We're in uncharted territory. We're seeing more people going to prepay than ever before," Lenard said. "I think we'll look back on 2005 and say, 'Remember when we used to be trusted to pay for our gas?'"

I just returned from UK where petrol costs $6.25 a gallon. At their stations, you "PUMP, PAY, AND GO"

In that order.

Brits must be more civilized than we are.

[mommadona]

Venezuela's Chavez Squeezes Oil Companies With Taxes, Raids
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=nifea&&sid=a3z63_HrIvtc#
Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- On July 14 in the western city of Maracaibo, Venezuelan government tax auditors and a prosecutor went to the offices of Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company.

They seized boxes of records to build a case that San Ramon, California-based Chevron and 21 other energy companies owe Venezuela $3 billion in back taxes. The raid is part of President Hugo Chavez's push to squeeze more money out of foreign companies that want to pump oil from the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter.

Since October 2004, he has raised heavy-oil royalty fees to as high as 30 percent from 1 percent, begun paying for some services in nonconvertible bolivares instead of U.S. dollars, and ordered oil well contracts converted into government-controlled joint ventures.

Chavez, 51, wants to use the revenue to pay for homes, clinics and schools for the 58 percent of Venezuelan families who live on less than $200 a month.

Since taking office in February 1999, Chavez has embarked on a socialist revolution: seizing ranches to hand over to the poor and starting a TV news network with promotional ads featuring a swastika painted on a U.S. flag.

Chavez says he's using oil money to bankroll a quest to become Latin America's leader against U.S.-style capitalism, and in a May 4 speech, he said ``Being rich is bad'' and ``Jesus Christ was a socialist.''

Friend of Castro

Chavez, a close friend of Fidel Castro, sends crude to Cuba in exchange for doctors to staff 3,000 neighborhood clinics. In June, he pledged subsidized oil for poor Caribbean nations such as Grenada.

Chevron and its competitors haven't been scared off by the new rules or Chavez's fiery rhetoric because the country has the largest reserves in the Western Hemisphere.

The oil companies want to invest $30 billion in Venezuela, which is the fourth-largest supplier of crude to the U.S., according to the Venezuelan Hydrocarbons Association.

Venezuela is also attractive because Chavez is more open to foreign investment than other countries with untapped oil supplies such as Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

In an interview, Chavez said all companies are welcome in his country. ``Foreign companies have been here for the last century exploiting oil and gas, and they'll have all the space they've been able to have so far,'' he says. ``It's just that they will have to pay the royalties, they will have to pay the income tax. If they don't, we will go after them.''

The Prize

True to Chavez's word, Venezuela's tax agency stated on Aug. 11 that it's seeking to attach more than 280 billion bolivares ($131 million) in assets from The Hague-based Royal Dutch Shell Plc in a dispute over what the country says is unpaid back taxes. Shell Spokeswoman Bettina Steinhold declined to comment.

The prize in Venezuela is the tropical flatlands north of the Orinoco River, beneath which, according to Chavez, lie 230 billion barrels of heavy crude, one of the largest oil deposits in the world.

Chevron and Repsol YPF SA, Spain's biggest oil company, plan to seek approval for a $6 billion expansion in the Orinoco Belt, as the area is known. Shell, Europe's second-biggest oil company, proposes a $5 billion expansion there.

``The oil industry is a long-term industry, and you can't have an attitude of `in and out,''' says Ali Moshiri, 52, Chevron's Latin America exploration and development chief. ``We have to go where the oil is.''

Boosting Production

Chavez, who has used his clout as leader of the third- largest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to curb Venezuela's output by 20 percent since taking office, now says he wants to boost production.

Most of the decline came from the state-owned producer, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, where Chavez fired half the workforce to break a 2002-2003 strike aimed at his ouster. Daily output at PDVSA has tumbled to about 2 million barrels from 2.92 million barrels in 1998.

Chevron's oil production is part of a joint venture with PDVSA.

Foreign oil companies took up the slack, doubling their production to about 1.12 million barrels a day as of last year. Now, Chavez says he wants to attract $10 billion more from foreign oil companies to help boost Venezuela's total oil production to 5 million barrels a day by 2009.

``This government is your ally,'' Chavez told foreign oil executives in March. ``We are not chasing anyone away from Venezuela.''

`Mr. Danger'

At the same time, Chavez claimed that the Bush administration was trying to force him to commit suicide and threatened to cut off exports to the U.S. if he were to meet an untimely death.

Chavez, who refers to President George W. Bush as ``Mr. Danger,'' said in a June 5 speech that the U.S. is trying to install a global dictatorship. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in January, described Chavez as a ``negative force'' in the region.

Yesterday, television evangelist Pat Robertson told viewers of ``The 700 Club'' program that the U.S. should assassinate Chavez to stop him from becoming a ``launching pad for communists.''

Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel responded by saying Robertson's remarks were ``criminal.'' U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a press briefing that Robertson's views ``do not represent the policy of the United States.''

`Unilateral Changes'

Chavez, a former army lieutenant colonel who was jailed for trying to overthrow the government in 1992, risks pushing too hard on the foreign oil companies, says Jason Todd, a Chicago- based analyst at credit ratings company Fitch Ratings.

``We have seen a lot of unilateral changes made by the government, and those things raise concerns,'' Todd says of Chavez's oil policy. ``That can lead to lack of investment.''

All Chavez has to do is look to Russia, the world's second- largest oil exporter, to see the risks of demanding too much from foreign investors, Todd says.

Production in Russia in 2005 is expected to rise at the slowest pace in six years, after President Vladimir Putin raised taxes on oil sales as high as 90 percent.

Though Chavez says he wants more foreign oil money, his policies have harmed some of the companies that could supply it. In October 2004, the government raised royalties on four heavy- oil production projects along the Orinoco Belt to 16.67 percent from 1 percent and slapped a 30 percent royalty on excess output.

`Sanctity of Contracts'

Six months later, the government raised taxes on companies that run 32 oil fields for PDVSA to 50 percent from 34 percent. Minister of Energy and Oil Rafael Ramirez, 42, gave those 22 companies until year-end to convert the oilfield contracts into joint ventures that are 51 percent owned by PDVSA.

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, faces higher royalties on its Cerro Negro heavy-oil field in the Orinoco Belt, which produces 120,000 barrels of crude per day.

Henry Hubble, vice president of investor relations at Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil, said on a July 28 investor conference call that the company is negotiating with Venezuelan officials to keep the royalty terms of its written agreements. ``We insist on the sanctity of contracts,'' he says.

Chavez's government hasn't approved any major expansion by foreign oil companies: Some 80 percent of the $26 billion of private oil investment in Venezuela was made before Chavez took office.

Dwindling Reserves

Houston-based ConocoPhillips, the largest U.S. oil refiner, needs to replace dwindling reserves, lock in future profit and assure supplies.

Unless new reserves are tapped in countries like Venezuela in the next 15 years, global oil output won't keep pace with demand, according to a report by New York-based securities firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

The report forecasts that demand for oil will grow 1.8 percent a year through 2020 to 102.7 million barrels a day. Global oil production capacity will be 102.1 million barrels a day, the July 15 report says.

Concern about future supply has helped push crude oil prices up more than fivefold to a record $67.10 a barrel on Aug. 12 from $12.28 on Feb. 2, 1999, when Chavez was sworn in as president.

Chavez's Venezuela is one of the few major oil producers that allow foreign investment; Saudi Arabia allows only its state oil company to pump crude.

Murky Waters

And Venezuela has been more open than other countries in Latin America such as Mexico, which bars foreign companies from exploiting the second-biggest oil reserves in Latin America.

Chavez says he wants to expand even further by converting 32 agreements to run wells into ventures, which would be 49 percent owned by private oil companies. ``That's the uniqueness of Venezuela,'' Chevron's Moshiri says. ``It opened up, and we hope it will continue to do that.''

Oil companies such as Shell have acquiesced to Chavez's demands. In December, Shell started renegotiating its oilfield agreement near the murky waters of Lake Maracaibo, where 10,000 wells tap into 40 percent of Venezuela's proven crude oil reserves.

On July 14, the government ordered Shell, whose 90 years of working in Venezuela includes having its wells nationalized in 1975, to pay $131 million of back taxes. Shell says it has paid all of its taxes.

`I Can't Imagine'

Sean Rooney, Shell's president in Venezuela, says the country is still a good place for the company. ``I can't imagine a scenario where we would ever leave, where it would ever be so discouraging,'' says Rooney, 45.

``The resource is too significant, and the potential is too great,'' he says.

Norway's state-run Statoil ASA, Paris-based Total SA and Chevron have been the hardest hit by Chavez's new rules because they manage wells for PDVSA and are shareholders in the four heavy-crude production ventures in the Orinoco belt.

Statoil, Total and ConocoPhillips may have to pay $320 million of back taxes for their heavy-oil ventures in the Orinoco belt, according to Oil Minister Ramirez.

Chavez is also considering a reduction in Venezuela's dependence on oil sales to the U.S., which accounts for about 60 percent of the nation's crude exports. Chavez signed agreements to boost oil sales to Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Ease U.S. Sales

He also proposed building a pipeline to Pacific Ocean ports in Colombia to ship more crude to China. The U.S. imports 15 percent of its crude oil from Venezuela, which is just a four- to five-day tanker trip from Texas refineries.

Chavez has also said he'd like to ease sales to the U.S. market by selling some assets of Citgo Petroleum Corp., the Houston-based refinery and gas station chain that PDVSA owns. Citgo has four oil refineries, two asphalt plants and 13,500 gas stations in the U.S.

Chavez's tough stance is part of Venezuela's tradition of trying to ensure it receives a fair price for crude. When U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower created import quotas for crude oil in 1959, then Oil Minister Perez Alfonso flew to Washington to lobby against the quotas.

Eisenhower and other administration officials refused to see him. Alfonso then flew to Cairo for the Arab Oil Congress, where he met with officials from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Those talks led to the founding of OPEC in 1960.

State Oil Monopoly

In 1975, Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez nationalized the oil industry, paying companies such as Shell for oil wells, refineries, terminals and gas stations. PDVSA, formed as the state oil monopoly after nationalization, began welcoming back private oil companies in 1992.

Now, PDVSA pays private companies that run 32 of its oil fields a fee for each barrel they pump above the levels of production from when the agreements began.

Chavez targeted PDVSA soon after taking office, accusing the company of recklessly boosting production so much it depressed oil prices. Chavez persuaded OPEC to adjust production to keep crude prices within a range of $22 to $28 a barrel at the time.

In January 1998, Venezuela was pumping about 3.4 million barrels a day, or 800,000 barrels more than its OPEC quota. By October 2000, seven months after OPEC adopted the price range, Venezuela was producing within its quota.

18 Cents a Gallon

In July, Venezuela pumped about 2.7 million barrels of crude a day, 523,000 barrels fewer than its OPEC quota, according to a Bloomberg survey of producers, oil companies and analysts.

Oil is a pervasive part of life in Venezuela, where gas stations don't even post the price because it is fixed at 18 cents per gallon. Revenue from crude exports funds half the government's budget, and oil prices have driven Venezuela's economy since the 1920s.

In the 1970s, as prices soared during the Arab oil embargo, the government overhauled Caracas with new elevated highways and public housing blocks. State airline Viasa chartered 747 jetliners to carry luggage back as Venezuelans increased their shopping trips to Miami.

Last year, as crude prices soared again, Venezuela's economy grew a record 17 percent, increasing consumer spending so that there were three-month waiting lists for new cars.

Chavez, born to schoolteacher parents in rural Berinas state, found his political calling after going to the country's Military Academy when he was 17 and seeking a career in baseball. Chavez rose through the ranks and in 1992 helped lead 15,000 soldiers in an attempted coup.

Two Years in Jail

Chavez was jailed for two years, and won a national following among Venezuelans fed up with government corruption with a televised speech justifying the coup attempt.

In 1998, Chavez won a landslide election victory by pledging a revolution that would use oil revenue to spread equality. Since taking office, Chavez has taken advantage of surging oil prices by boosting spending on programs for the poor to a projected $13 billion this year -- or almost half the national budget.

The programs have helped him survive an attempted coup and recall referendum.

PDVSA dispenses $4 billion a year for everything from cooperatives that make the red T-shirts Chavez supporters wear to monthly stipends for 700,000 people enrolled in adult education courses.

On some days, PDVSA's 13-floor concrete headquarters in Caracas draws scores of people seeking funds for social programs, known as missions.

Shoemaking Cooperative

``For a long time, our oil went to the rich, but as you can see, here that's changed,'' says Wuikelman Angel, 35, who manages workshops, a youth center and a clinic that PDVSA built last year on a 3-hectare (7.4-acre) shuttered gasoline depot in Caracas's Catia slum.

The $7 million complex, flanked by a verdant hill covered with tin-roofed shacks and piles of garbage, is a showcase for Chavez's socialist revolution, Angel says. On one morning in late June, about 50 people wait for free treatment at a two-story clinic with a new X-ray machine and a pediatric ward.

In a warehouse across a rosebush-lined square, a dozen people are making final adjustments to machinery at a shoemaking cooperative, one of thousands of government-financed companies that are part of Chavez's plan to give jobs to the poor.

Profit is set to be divided equally among workers, and the members elect their supervisors, mimicking a model tried by the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua in the 1980s.

`President for Life'

It's all financed by PDVSA, starting with the cooperative's first order for 250 pairs of black leather shoes, which were donated to victims of a mudslide. Across the road is a government supermarket that sells food at a 33 percent discount.

It's one of 12,000 built with PDVSA funds since Chavez took power.

Ana Quintero, one of 150 members of the shoemaking cooperative, starts to cry when she says Chavez has her vote. ``All of this -- the clinic, market and this business -- is because of President Chavez,'' says Quintero, 50, a single mother of two children, wiping the tears from her dark eyes.

She says she used to sell soft drinks on the streets of Catia until joining the cooperative and says none of it would have happened without Chavez. ``I would vote for him to be president for life.''

In addition to the PDVSA money, Chavez is also using $6 billion of the country's $28.9 billion of central bank reserves for government spending. Chavez is stepping up social spending to build support for a re-election bid in December 2006.

Approval Rating Down

His approval rating was 61 percent in the second quarter -- that's down 8 percentage points from the start of the year, according to Caracas-based polling company Alfredo Keller y Asociados.

Chavez has relied on oil money to overcome political hurdles in the past. In the days before last year's referendum, which was called by the opposition, Chavez also won endorsements from U.S. oil companies.

On Aug. 6, Chevron's Moshiri appeared in a televised broadcast with Chavez to announce the $6 billion expansion in the Orinoco Belt. Then, three days before the vote, Exxon Mobil signed a preliminary agreement for a $3 billion plastics plant there.

Two months later, Chavez began to seek ways to get more revenue from oil companies, raising the royalties on the Orinoco heavy-oil projects.

The Chavez government also stepped up scrutiny of expansion plans. In January, Oil Minister Ramirez -- who's also chairman of PDVSA -- rejected a plan by ConocoPhillips to start production at its Corocoro oil field off the country's coast.

`Different Kind of Risk'

Ramirez said ConocoPhillips tried to defer almost half of $480 million of pledged investments in the project. A month later, ConocoPhillips CEO James Mulva flew to Caracas and met with Chavez.

He left the presidential palace promising to submit a new plan that would address the government's concerns. Mulva says the company plans to move ahead with its investments, but there are uncertainties ahead.

``It's a different kind of risk than we face in other parts of the world,'' Mulva said on a July 27 conference call with investors and analysts.

In March, Venezuela's internal revenue service began auditing 22 private oil companies in an investigation that led to the raid on Chevron's offices in Maracaibo.

Moshiri says the company is cooperating and has turned over everything the auditors requested. ``This is a normal process,'' he says. ``It's like a normal tax audit by the IRS.'' Moshiri says the government hasn't said whether it wants to charge Chevron any back taxes.

Expansion Planned

Chevron and Repsol still plan to expand in the Orinoco area, a project that would include drilling as many as 2,000 wells that use steam to force tarlike crude oil out of the ground.

The Orinoco Belt, with as many as 300 billion barrels of oil, may be a critical area for Chevron to add reserves, Moshiri says.

The companies plan to submit their proposal to the Oil Ministry in the first quarter of 2006 and start negotiations quickly. Within five years, the project could be producing 400,000 barrels a day, Moshiri says.

A focus of the talks would be complying with a hydrocarbon law passed in 2001 that requires PDVSA to have a controlling, 51 percent stake in the project.

It would be difficult for PDVSA to run a major new project after Chavez fired 18,000 experienced engineers and managers during the strike, says Roger Tissot, an analyst at Washington- based PFC Energy, which advises oil companies.

Tropical Heat

On the dark, brackish waters of Lake Maracaibo, a lake connected to the Caribbean by the Gulf of Venezuela, where derricks stretch to the horizon, PDVSA estimates it will take six years and billions of dollars to recoup production lost to broken- down wells and pipelines.

Three miles below the lake bottom are reserves that account for one-third of the crude oil Venezuela produces every day.

On one day in late June, dozens of wells were idle, rusting away and stuck in mid-operation on one part of the lake near the city of Maracaibo. Leaky pipelines produced oil slicks that threw off a kaleidoscope of colors in the 40-degree-Celsius (104-degree- Fahrenheit) tropical heat.

A 16-kilometer-long drift of lime-green duckweed algae encircles some wells, thriving in the polluted waters. Former PDVSA board member Jose Toro Hardy, who's now an independent oil analyst, says the delays in recovering production are indicative of disorder in the state company since the strike.

`Silver Bullet'

``The delays make it very difficult for them to increase output,'' Hardy says.

Moshiri says he's confident Chevron and Repsol can negotiate an agreement that will allow them to use their expertise to run the wells, pipelines and refineries planned for the Orinoco. ``Our objective is in line with what their objective is,'' Moshiri says.

``If Venezuela is looking for large increases in production, the silver bullet is the Orinoco,'' he says.

Luis Vierma, PDVSA's vice president for exploration and production, says Venezuela won't lose the opportunity to expand now. ``Our doors are open, and we have to go down this road together,'' he says.

Peter Hill, 57, president of Houston-based oil company Harvest Natural Resources Inc., would like to believe that, even after the disappointments his company faced this year. He's asked for an audience at the presidential palace in Caracas to take his case directly to Chavez.

``It is a matter of good faith,'' he says. ``And there is less and less good faith now.''

Chavez is betting that Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil will keep their faith, and money, in Venezuela.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Michael Smith in Rio de Janeiro mssmith@bloomberg.net
Peter Wilson in Caracas at pewilson@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 24, 2005 00:03 EDT

[heritage]

Chavez Now in the International Spotlight

Updated 5:46 PM ET August 24, 2005
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...8c6elc02&src=ap

By IAN JAMES

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - A call for the U.S. to assassinate Hugo Chavez is playing into the Venezuelan leader's political hands, bolstering his claim that Washington wants to kill him, putting him in the international limelight and probably boosting his popularity at home.

Chavez supporters said Wednesday the suggestion by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson that the United States should "take him out" gave credence to Chavez's warnings that the U.S. government is searching for ways to overthrow his leftist regime.

"If anyone had a doubt, now they no longer do," said Maritza Uzcategui, a 50-year-old nurse and Chavez supporter. "He's been saying they want to kill him."

U.S. officials called Robertson's on-air remarks inappropriate and repeated assurances that the United States is not considering killing Chavez despite its questions about his commitment to democracy and accusations he is spreading instability in Latin America.

Robertson apologized Wednesday, saying it was wrong to call for someone's assassination. "I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him," he said in a statement.

For months, Chavez has peppered his speeches with mentions of assassination plots and purported U.S. efforts to oust him. He warns that Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter, will cut off oil shipments to the U.S. if it backs any sort of conspiracy against him.

At the same time, Chavez has been seeking to raise Venezuela's profile internationally, extending preferential oil deals to countries from China to Argentina in an effort to strengthen alliances and line up alternative trade partners from the U.S., which is the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan oil.

By legitimizing Chavez's warnings about plots, Robertson's words will raise the president's profile and bolster his already high domestic support, which is drawn primiarily from the country's poor majority, said Luis Vicente Leon, director of the Venezuelan polling firm Datanalisis.

"What is certain is that the statement strengthens Chavez domestically and internationally," said Leon, whose polling firm said last month that Chavez has a 70 percent approval rating. "It amplifies the connection that Chavez has with the population who follows him."

Venezuela's government responded swiftly to Robertson's remarks Monday, calling them "terrorist statements."

Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and supporter of President Bush's re-election bid, said on his TV show "The 700 Club" that the United States should stop Chavez from making Venezuela a "launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's state-run television began broadcasting a brief segment blending images of Robertson and Bush while displaying the message "Who Gives Orders to Whom?"

The controversy arose while Chavez was on one of his frequent foreign trips, making stops in Cuba, Jamaica and Martinique.

He signed a deal with Jamaica on Tuesday night that is to be one of many across the Caribbean, pledging Venezuelan oil at special rates and allowing the island to pay through goods and services as well as low-interest loans.

"Don't thank us. It is the call of conscience," Chavez said.

Venezuela already ships about 90,000 barrels of oil a day to Fidel Castro's government in Cuba on preferential terms, and it has started a plan called Petrocaribe to supply oil to Caribbean countries on favorable terms.

While in Cuba on Tuesday, Chavez also offered for the first time to help poor U.S. communities by selling them gasoline directly to eliminate middle men.

Chavez, a former army officer elected in 1998, often blames U.S. "imperialism" for the world's poverty and says he is leading his country toward socialism _ a term that in Venezuela has yet to be clearly defined.

When asked by reporters in Jamaica about Robertson's remarks, Chavez showed little concern, comparing Robertson and other critics to the "mad dogs with rabies" that chased after the characters in "Don Quixote," the classic novel by Miguel de Cervantes.

"When the dogs bark it is because we are working all the time," Chavez said. "The dogs bark ... because we are advancing."

Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., criticized the U.S. stance toward Venezuela's government as well as Robertson's comments.

Serrano said Chavez "has been repeatedly targeted by this administration and its proxies with the worst kind of character assassination, solely because they disagree with his social and economic policies."

Top U.S. officials say they are concerned about democracy under Chavez and have accused his government of financing "antidemocratic groups" in Bolivia, Ecuador and other Latin American countries. [look who's calling the kettle black]

Chavez has firmly denied it. And for every U.S. accusation, he has a counteraccusation.

Many observers, both among Chavez's supporters and critics, say he appears to be capitalizing on his conflict with Washington by stirring feelings of nationalism among Venezuelans and casting the United States as the country's most dangerous enemy.

[Snuffysmith]

The Preacher's Fatwah on Chavez:

What Robertson has to say is based on a paradigm from the most conservative voices in this country, and those voices have no God except themselves and no soul except their selfish point of view!
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9953.htm

http://snipurl.com/h74h



Chavez offers Americans cheap fuel:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, popular with the poor at home, has offered to help needy Americans with cheap supplies of petrol.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/998...533DD28659C.htm

http://snipurl.com/h74j



Good Things Happening in Venezuela

Chavez charges that the United States government is plotting to assassinate him. I can believe it.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Parenti/..._Venezuela.html

http://snipurl.com/h74s

[mommadona]

Venezuela curbs foreign preachers
by
Friday 26 August 2005 11:53 PM GMT

President Chavez says the US is plotting to kill him

Venezuela's government has temporarily suspended permits for foreign missionaries after a US evangelist said Washington should assassinate President Hugo Chavez.

The policy announcement came four days after conservative evangelist Pat Robertson said Washington should assassinate Chavez, a former soldier who has several times accused the US of plotting to kill him.

The chief of the Justice Ministry's religious affairs unit, Carlos Gonzalez, said on Friday that authorisation of good office permits for missionaries would be curbed while the government tightened regulations on preachers inside Venezuela.

The permits "are suspended for a short time, it could be three or four weeks, while we organise a system to see what additional data we need for people coming into the country to preach", Gonzalez said.

"We were already working on this, but these declarations have made us speed things up," he said.

Worsening ties

Robertson later apologised, but his comments have illustrated the political gulf that has opened up between the United States and one of its biggest oil suppliers since Chavez was elected in 1998 promising populist reforms.

The Venezuelan president said on Friday US President George Bush would be to blame if anything happened to him after the comments by Robertson.

"He was expressing the wishes of the US elite... If anything happens to me then the man responsible will be George W Bush. He will be the assassin," Chavez said at a public event. "This is pure terrorism."

Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition and a leader of the Christian right that has backed Bush, said that if Chavez "thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it".

He retracted his comments on Wednesday, saying he spoke in frustration over Chavez's constant accusations against Washington.

Relations between Caracas and Washington have soured since Chavez survived a brief 2002 coup he says was backed by US authorities. US and Venezuelan officials have since frequently traded accusations.

A close ally of communist Cuba, Chavez presents his self-proclaimed revolution as an alternative to US policies in the region.

Agencies
By

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A4D...F9326567B18.htm
Close

[rla]

It appears that the International Interventionist Bush Administration seeks another
regime change. With one of the world's largest oil reserves and a rapidly emerging
socialistic and democratic worker revolution where half of the population is involved in some form of goverment supported study, Chavez, in Venezuela,
is directly challenging US domination of the Americas. If this movement should
spread throughout South and Central America and these hugh populations were
no longer under the control of a few dictatorial elites who dealt directly with the
US Goverment and Corporate elites, the US might have to change the way we do things. The male hauncho attitude of keeping them pregnant and bare footed
may not work so well. The cheap labor conservatives and religious reactionary
right better enjoy their dominion while it last because their days are numbered.

[mommadona]

It appears that the International Interventionist Bush Administration seeks another
regime change. With one of the world's largest oil reserves and a rapidly emerging
socialistic and democratic worker revolution where half of the population is involved in some form of goverment supported study, Chavez, in Venezuela,
is directly challenging US domination of the Americas. If this movement should
spread throughout South and Central America and these hugh populations were
no longer under the control of a few dictatorial elites who dealt directly with the
US Goverment and Corporate elites, the US might have to change the way we do things. The male hauncho attitude of keeping them pregnant and bare footed
may not work so well. The cheap labor conservatives and religious reactionary
right better enjoy their dominion while it last because their days are numbered.

To: BU$HCO

"You're Fired"

From: "The Help"

[mommadona]

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southam...ter_1044777.php
Judge said he`d send Posada to Venezuela
By UPI
Aug 30, 2005, 19:00 GMT

EL PASO, TX, United States (UPI) -- A U.S. immigration judge he will send a Cuban dissident accused of terror activity to Venezuela if he is denied asylum in the United States.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security reportedly did not object to sending Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela, where he is a naturalized citizen. The Miami Herald reported Posada was born in Cuba.

Posada is on trial for charges he entered the country illegally this year. A judge said his alleged involvement in terror attacks was another reason why he should remain behind bars.

The 77-year-old Posada is charged in Venezuela with masterminding the bombing of a Cuban jetliner in 1976, killing 73 people. He has denied any involvement in the bombing.

Venezuelan and Cuban officials are demanding his extradition to Venezuela. Posada sneaked into the United States along the Mexico-Texas border but was apprehended by authorities in Miami.

In May, declassified U.S. documents revealed Posada was a paid informant for the CIA during the 1970s and 1980s. Venezuelan officials released documents alleging he had advance knowledge of the plane bombing.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International

[mommadona]

U.S. turned to Venezuela for help, ambassador says
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Sep/20050910News014.asp
Published Saturday, September 10, 2005

WEBSTER GROVES (AP) - The United States did not officially ask Venezuela to increase fuel supplies after Hurricane Katrina, but some Bush administration officials turned to the oil-rich neighbor for help despite the countries’ uneasy relations, Venezuela’s ambassador to the United States said yesterday.

They "were telling us they need help," Bernardo Alvarez said yesterday during a visit to Webster University in this St. Louis suburb. "We understand that."

With 12 percent of Gulf Coast refineries down, Venezuela’s infusion of 1 million barrels of gasoline - in addition to its normal shipments - "will make a real and immediate impact" to ease hurricane-related energy problems, Alvarez said. The first shipment will leave Venezuela on Wednesday and should arrive at the Gulf Coast in four to five days, he said.

The shipment is not a gift but rather an additional supply for the market, he said. Roger Noriega, the Department of State official responsible for Western Hemisphere affairs, said Thursday that the United States is paying for it.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose close relations with Cuban President Fidel Castro puts him at odds with the United States, also authorized the release of as much as $5 million in humanitarian relief. The money is being sent to the American Red Cross at the request of U.S. officials, Alvarez said.

Chavez’s aid offers also came with a criticism of the U.S. government for failing to evacuate the victims before disaster struck.

But Venezuela’s offer of mobile clinics; rescue, safety and evacuation specialists; power generators; and water-cleansing machines has not been accepted Alvarez said.

He said that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco welcomed the relief but that the U.S. government has so far snubbed the offer.

Washington has not responded to a number of offers from foreign countries.

The administration has been attempting to match offers from countries with needs on the ground. Many offers have been accepted; others have yielded no responses yet.

"We felt a bit disappointed," Alvarez said. "In the end, this is for the people."

Venezuela also helped in the evacuation of thousands of Katrina refugees in Lake Charles, La., where the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s national oil company has a refinery.

Alvarez’s remarks come at a time when relations between Washington and Chavez are strained, which the ambassador compared to a sort of Cold War isolation.

Last month, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested American agents should assassinate Chavez because he poses a threat to the United States.

The Bush administration swiftly distanced itself from those remarks, and Robertson has since apologized.

However, Bush administration officials have been linking Chavez and Castro as destabilizing troublemakers in fragile Latin American democracies.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[Snuffysmith]

Venezuela to Start Nuclear Energy Projects
(Associated Press)
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pag...d=1128219510343

Monday, October 3
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday his government is starting research into peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Chavez did not give details, but he has previously said he is interested in developing nuclear power like countries such as Iran and Brazil.

"Brazil has advanced in its nuclear research, nuclear power, and that's valid. Argentina too, and we also are starting to do research and projects in the area of nuclear energy, with peaceful aims of course," Chavez said during his weekly radio and TV program "Hello President."

[jeffmoskin]

Venezuela to Start Nuclear Energy Projects
(Associated Press)
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pag...d=1128219510343

Monday, October 3
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday his government is starting research into peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Chavez did not give details, but he has previously said he is interested in developing nuclear power like countries such as Iran and Brazil.

"Brazil has advanced in its nuclear research, nuclear power, and that's valid. Argentina too, and we also are starting to do research and projects in the area of nuclear energy, with peaceful aims of course," Chavez said during his weekly radio and TV program "Hello President."

Hmmmm.

Nukes.

Time to put 'em on the "Axis of Evil."

Invade 'em after Iran.

(thoughts of BushCo)

[Snuffysmith]

Chavez: Venezuela Moves Reserves to Europe

September 30, 2005 01:50 PM ET
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/
D8CUNLQO0.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela has moved its central bank foreign reserves out of U.S. banks, liquidated its investments in U.S. Treasury securities and placed the funds in Europe, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday.

"We've had to move the international reserves from U.S. banks because of the threats," from the U.S., Chavez said during televised remarks from a South American summit in Brazil.

"The reserves we had (invested) in U.S. Treasury bonds, we've sold them and we moved them to Europe and other countries," he said.

Chavez, a sharp critic of what he calls "imperialist" U.S.-style capitalism, has often criticized foreign banks for the power they wield in international financial markets at the expense of poorer countries.

Chavez again proposed the creation of a South American central bank that would hold the foreign exchange reserves of all the central banks in the region.

"I'm ready right now with the Venezuelan central bank ... to move $5 billion (euro4.15 billion) (of Venezuelan reserves), to a South American bank," Chavez said.

Central bank officials could not be immediately reached for more details.

Chavez has also argued against central bank autonomy, saying excess foreign reserves should be spent on economic development projects.

Under his presidency, Venezuela's mostly pro-Chavez Congress changed central bank laws earlier this year so the government could tap reserves for spending, despite criticism that it would lead to devaluation of the local currency and higher inflation.

Every year the central bank must now compute an "optimum" amount of reserves and hand over the rest to a newly created national development fund.

Money held in the fund will be used for overseas purchases and to pay off outstanding debt.

Foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank stood at $30.434 billion (euro25.27 billion) as of Sept. 28, according to central bank data.

[Snuffysmith]

Chávez calls Fox "a puppet of the empire":

"It is so sad to see the President of such a dignified people as the Mexican people lending himself to be a puppet of the empire,"
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10944.htm

[Snuffysmith]

FBI and CIA identified as helping Plan Venezuelan Prosecutor's Murder:

A key witness in the Danilo Anderson murder trial, Giovani Jose Vasquez De Armas, has identified FBI and CIA agents as being involved in the preparations to assassinate the Venezuelan State Prosecutor. He was murdered while investigating those who were involved in leading and organizing the April 2002 coup that briefly overthrew President Chavez
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1809

[Snuffysmith]

January 30, 2006
Chavez: Agents Have Infiltrated U.S. Spies
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:31 p.m. ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez said Monday that Venezuela's intelligence agencies have ''infiltrated'' a group of military officials from the U.S. Embassy who were allegedly involved in espionage.

Venezuelan authorities, including the vice president, have accused officials at the U.S. Embassy of involvement in a spying case in which Venezuelan naval officers allegedly passed sensitive information to the Pentagon.

''The military officers of the U.S. Embassy are involved in espionage and we have them infiltrated,'' Chavez said.

Chavez, who has accused President Bush of backing efforts to overthrow his leftist government, threatened last week to arrest any American officials caught gathering intelligence on his military.

Officials from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas have declined comment on the espionage accusations.

Monday's charges were the latest in a long string of allegations by Chavez, who has accused the United States of supporting a short-lived coup in 2002, fomenting a devastating strike in 2004 and expelled some American missionaries from Venezuela for alleged links to the CIA.

Washington has repeatedly rejected the allegations.

Diplomatic relations have been strained due to U.S. concerns about the health of democracy under left-leaning Chavez and U.S. officials have accused him of destabilizing Latin America.

Chavez has shrugged off the claims, saying his government is fully democratic.



Copyright 2006 The Associated Press

[Snuffysmith]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/02/...tion=cnn_latest

Chavez tells Rice: 'Don't mess with me, girl'

Sunday, February 19, 2006; Posted: 2:14 p.m. EST (19:14 GMT)


"Don't mess with me, Condoleezza," Hugo Chavez said Sunday during his weekly radio broadcast.

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday warned U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not to "mess with" him days after Rice described Venezuela as a menace to regional democracy.

"Don't mess with me, Condoleezza. Don't mess with me, girl," Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast, sarcastically offering her a kiss and jokingly referring to her as "Condolence."

The warning comes days after Rice described Venezuela as one of the "biggest problems" for the Western Hemisphere and promised to develop regional alliances as part of an "inoculation" strategy to expose what the State Department calls anti-democratic behavior in Venezuela.

Chavez has repeatedly accused Washington of trying to topple him, and says the United States will attempt to sow chaos this year as he launches a re-election bid.

Diplomatic relations between the United States and Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, have been strained since Chavez accused the United States of plotting a coup d'etat that briefly ousted him in 2002.

Chavez, a former soldier turned populist leader, has promised to create socialist revolution in Venezuela and promote regional integration in Latin America to roll back U.S.-supported economic reforms.

The State Department says Chavez is using the nation's bountiful oil wealth to meddle in the affairs of neighboring countries, and has slammed him for boosting ties to U.S. foes like Cuba and Iran.

Tensions between Washington and Caracas increased in February after Chavez expelled a U.S. naval attache for alleged espionage. The State Department responded by expelling a top Venezuelan diplomat.

Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.