Chavez Suffers Loss, But Still Wields Petroleum Power - $34 Billion From The United States Alone
Posted by: Hector M. Barajas | 07/07/2008 12:48 PM
After suffering a humiliating defeat with the recent rescue of 15 hostages in the hands of FARC guerrillas, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez has now declared a new policy to expel banks and other businesses from European countries that apply rules to deport illegal immigrants.
As the European Union tries to set new guidelines to standardize the deportation process, Chavez has threatened to cut off oil and block investments from countries that apply such rules, which Chavez says shows "signs of fascism." ("Chavez Threatens To Expel Banks From European Countries That Apply New Immigration Rules," Associated Press, 7/5/08)
Chavez has routinely tried to use his petro-power to advance his influence in Latin America.
In addition to his immigration threats, Andres Oppenheimer noted in the Miami Herald that Chavez has tried to use the recent hostage situation in Columbia as leverage for both personal recognition as a negotiator for the hostage release and to provide international diplomatic recognition to the FARC (to declassify them as a terrorist organization).
Dozens of e-mails in the rebel computers show that the FARC commanders and Chávez were building what they referred to as a 'strategic relationship' to strengthen the Bolivian movement in the region.
There are at least eight references to an estimated $300 million in financial assistance that Chávez had pledged to the FARC rebels. In addition, the e-mails show that the FARC had agreed to give military training in irregular warfare to the Venezuelan army, and that the Colombian rebels even had an 'office' at Fuerte Tiuna, the headquarters of Venezuela's military command in Caracas.
'The strategy was to create an international mediation group fashioned after the Contadora group that mediated in the Central American conflict in the 1980s, but aimed at consolidating Chávez's leadership in the region, and at using Chávez's clout to achieve international diplomatic recognition for the FARC,' a senior Colombian official told me in an interview last week. (Andres Oppenheimer, "Chavez A Big Loser In Hostage Liberation," Miami Herald, 7/6/08)
With more than 60% of our oil coming from OPEC and the United States continuing to spend "$34 billion a year for oil imports" from Venezuela, what our country needs is leadership on energy issues and a willingness to offer short-term, mid-term, and a long-term plan to energy independence. We can't afford to let our national security and economy be influenced by dictators any longer.
As the European Union tries to set new guidelines to standardize the deportation process, Chavez has threatened to cut off oil and block investments from countries that apply such rules, which Chavez says shows "signs of fascism." ("Chavez Threatens To Expel Banks From European Countries That Apply New Immigration Rules," Associated Press, 7/5/08)
Chavez has routinely tried to use his petro-power to advance his influence in Latin America.
In addition to his immigration threats, Andres Oppenheimer noted in the Miami Herald that Chavez has tried to use the recent hostage situation in Columbia as leverage for both personal recognition as a negotiator for the hostage release and to provide international diplomatic recognition to the FARC (to declassify them as a terrorist organization).
Dozens of e-mails in the rebel computers show that the FARC commanders and Chávez were building what they referred to as a 'strategic relationship' to strengthen the Bolivian movement in the region.
There are at least eight references to an estimated $300 million in financial assistance that Chávez had pledged to the FARC rebels. In addition, the e-mails show that the FARC had agreed to give military training in irregular warfare to the Venezuelan army, and that the Colombian rebels even had an 'office' at Fuerte Tiuna, the headquarters of Venezuela's military command in Caracas.
'The strategy was to create an international mediation group fashioned after the Contadora group that mediated in the Central American conflict in the 1980s, but aimed at consolidating Chávez's leadership in the region, and at using Chávez's clout to achieve international diplomatic recognition for the FARC,' a senior Colombian official told me in an interview last week. (Andres Oppenheimer, "Chavez A Big Loser In Hostage Liberation," Miami Herald, 7/6/08)
With more than 60% of our oil coming from OPEC and the United States continuing to spend "$34 billion a year for oil imports" from Venezuela, what our country needs is leadership on energy issues and a willingness to offer short-term, mid-term, and a long-term plan to energy independence. We can't afford to let our national security and economy be influenced by dictators any longer.
