castledoom.com

[JuntaJoe]

If it were only that easy.

Read this and then see my following post.



Oil Aids Venezuelan Leader's Influence

September 10, 2005 8:45 PM EDT

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - When nine Caribbean countries signed oil trading agreements with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, it was a marriage of convenience.

Fragile Caribbean economies scored modest relief from rising fuel prices, while the leftist South American leader advanced his campaign to become a counterweight to U.S. influence in the region, analysts say.

"A lot of what Chavez is doing right now is just bravado," said Vinay Jawahar of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. "But it's going to make the United States' life harder."

Jawahar said Chavez is trying to increase his influence in the 34-nation Organization of American States, whose top human rights panel has often criticized the Venezuelan government.

The OAS also is the venue for negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a U.S.-backed effort that Chavez opposes. Caribbean countries, who have concerns about how the FTAA would affect their struggling industries, often try to vote in a bloc in the OAS, making their support pivotal to many decisions.

Jawahar said Chavez also is trying to build regional support for his friend and ally, Cuban President Fidel Castro. The United States routinely backs resolutions condemning Cuba's human rights record in the United Nations. In recent years, votes on the resolutions have been close.

At a signing ceremony for the oil deals in Jamaica on Tuesday, Chavez urged Caribbean governments to consider Cuba-style socialism as an alternative to capitalism.

"Fidel, I think you were always right: It's socialism or death," he said.

Yet Chavez can only go so far in eroding U.S. influence in the Caribbean, analysts say. The United States is the biggest trade partner of most Caribbean countries and their largest market for tourism.

The same day the Dominican Republic signed the Petrocaribe oil agreement with Venezuela, its legislature overwhelmingly approved a free trade agreement with the United States and five Central American countries.

"Only a crazy person would have turned down Chavez's deal with oil at $70 a barrel," said Miguel Ceara-Hatton, a U.N. economist in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo. "This won't change relations with the United States."

Still, the Petrocaribe agreement left Caribbean countries indebted to Venezuela. Nine countries - Antigua, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Dominica, Suriname, St. Kitts, St. Vincent and the Dominican Republic - signed deals under the initiative in Jamaica. Cuba and Jamaica had previously signed.

Under the plan, Caribbean governments would pay market price for Venezuelan oil, but they only would be required to pay a portion of the cost upfront and could finance the rest over 25 years at low interest rates. Governments also could pay partly with services or goods such as rice, bananas or sugar while Venezuela would provide help expanding shipping and refining facilities.

The agreement allowed the Dominican Republic to scrap a major fuel conservation plan that would have raised gasoline prices and limited private vehicle use.

Although it may be too soon to know how much influence Chavez will gain through Petrocaribe, the initiative comes at a time when Washington appears to be having a harder time getting its way in the region.

Earlier this year, Washington's first choice for secretary-general of the OAS, former Salvadoran President Francisco Flores, dropped out of the leadership race for lack of support. It was the first time the United States' chosen candidate did not win the OAS leadership.

Venezuela had vehemently opposed Flores, who had applauded a 2002 coup that briefly ousted Chavez, and supported Chilean Interior Minister Jose Miguel Insulza, who won the post.

"Chavez has been generous," said Larry Birns, an director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs. "And in certain respects, he'll expect dividends."

[JuntaJoe]

Another piece of news is that Chavez has decided to "grace" the US with hurricaine help. His big help is to "release reserves" to SELL in the US.

He isn't giving away a penny. And he's selling those reserves at markrt rate. So his generosity constitutes selling us oil at $70 a barrel.

Did you note the "assistance" he gave the Caribbean countries? A finance agreement at full price. Then he gets $70 a barrel, interest, and a multi-year hold on the small countries.

For a socialist, he's awfully good at predatory sales tactics, huh?



Ok, we can't shoot him. It's against the law and I don't favor messing with democratically elected leaders.


But we can hurt him. He owns Citgo petroleum. Boycott his products and gas stations. I don't know if you have Citgo stations in your home area, but we do here. If you do then go somewhere else.


I wonder how hard it would be to start a national boycott program?

[CooJoe]

Wasn't there an uprising there not too long ago?

[JuntaJoe]

It failed.

Socialists can always gain the vote of the poor masses.

[Brf]

Yes. We have plenty of Citgos here.... usually next-door to Exxon/Mobils and matching their price to the penny. I knew Venezuela owned Citgo since I followed up on a chain-letter trashmail that was advocating boycotting certain gas stations because they used a small fraction of Arab oil. Citgo, of course, is not one of them, although Venezuela is a member of the price-fixing cartel of OPEC.

[JuntaJoe]

So how do we go about expanding our idea into a big boycott?

[CooJoe]

http://www.citgo.com/Home.jspTheir homepage for reference.

I can see a couple ways of going about this boycott.

Traditional means of spreading information, I couldn't see working. A TV spot would cost money, and be ignored. Pamphlets would more so be ignored.
A mass email would go into people's trash folders.

Maybe going around various Forums, and speaking the anti Citgo gospel would be the way to go about it. Start a bit of a ripple effect. It makes sense to a person, the tell there online, and RL friends, and family, and it spreads outwords.

Maybe the interweb ain't a waste of time.

As for Chavez, I'd say some Composition 4 should do the trick.

[JuntaJoe]

You made a mess out of those image links, bubba. :wink:

[JuntaJoe]

So just when oil prices start to settle down and Saudi Arabia's king decides to give an interview designed to reassure oil traders, we get Chavez screaming for everyone to panic.

Why?

Because he can hurt our economy and cash in at the same time. :evil:



Chavez: World Faces Major Energy Crisis

October 15, 2005 9:21 PM EDT
SALAMANCA, Spain - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that the world faces an energy crisis but there is little chance of his country and other OPEC members increasing production because they are already pumping near "their capacity."

"The world will have to get used to a barrel price, I think, of above $50, and energy will have to be saved," he told reporters as leaders from Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries met in this central Spanish town.

After soaring in August, crude oil prices have been between $60 and $70 a barrel for more than a month.

"We're at the doorway of major energy crisis worldwide," Chavez said. "We'll have to develop other resources such as wind, solar and nuclear energy - naturally for peaceful purposes." He said Venezuela was in talks with Argentina and Brazil regarding nuclear power.

"Prices will continue to rise but oil is running out," he said.

Chavez said a "lack of imagination in the United States and the war in Iraq, which has destabilized the market in the Middle East, has also driven up prices." Increased demand from countries such as China and India is making the problem worse, he said.

"The whole world right now is producing petroleum at their maximum capacity," he said. "In Venezuela, for example, we can't produce a single barrel more."

Venezuela, a member of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is the world's fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the U.S. market.

Venezuela's state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, says it pumps 3.2 million barrels of crude oil a day. But industry analysts put the figure lower, saying the country has never fully restored output since an extended strike in 2003 that sought to force Chavez's resignation.

Increased production would not solve the price problem, Chavez said.

"The cause of the increase in the price is not in the production. It's partly the intermediaries who make things dearer. It's also because of the increase in demand and the irrational capitalist consumerism model," he said.

"The United States for example, with scarcely five percent of the world's population, uses almost 25 percent of the petroleum and combustion fuels produced in the world," he said.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

[CooJoe]

That's a great deal, seeing that oil is $62 per barrel. (source)

[JuntaJoe]

Where's the Pope when you need him to complain?


Tribes Protest Chavez Expulsion Order

October 28, 2005 3:22 PM EDT
PUERTO AYACUCHO, Venezuela - Hundreds of indigenous Venezuelans marched Friday to protest President Hugo Chavez's threat to expel a group of U.S.-based evangelists, amid intensifying government scrutiny of foreign missionaries operating in the country.

The protesters - including some who traveled for days by boat from their homes in the dense Amazon jungle - showed their support for New Tribes Mission, which Chavez has accused of "imperialist infiltration" and exploiting indigenous communities.

Luis Rodriguez, a Piapoco Indian, said the missionaries helped indigenous tribes during hard times when aid from government authorities was scarce or nonexistent.

"The government didn't arrive here to do anything important for us," said Rodriguez, 41, as he marched with fellow demonstrators, some of whom sang hymns.

Two weeks ago, Chavez ordered the New Tribes missionaries to leave the country, accusing the Sanford, Fla.-based organization of links to the CIA and gathering "strategic information" in the country's Amazon rainforest.

Government officials and other critics of the evangelist group have since backed Chavez's decision, accusing the missionaries of destroying indigenous culture and using their presence in remote, mineral-rich tracts of Venezuela to conduct reconnaissance work for foreign mining and pharmaceutical interests.

New Tribes has denied the accusations and is seeking a meeting with Chavez to try to resolve the matter, said a New Tribes spokesman, Ronald Van Peursem. He said the group believes the president has been misinformed about its work in the country.

Supporters say the missionaries have brought much-needed medical, educational and other assistance to impoverished indigenous communities who have long been neglected by the authorities.

"There is no proof of the accusations," said Nereo Silva, a 45-year-old leader of the Piaroa tribe in southern Venezuela.

Liborio Guarulla, the governor of Amazonas state, defended Chavez's decision to expel New Tribes missionaries from the South American nation of 26 million, saying "it's a question of sovereignty."

Guarulla, a government ally, told the state-run Bolivarian News Agency that past administrations largely ignored indigenous groups and their cultures, but left-leaning Chavez has embraced them.

"Venezuela had a debt with the indigenous cultures ... it was this government that first truly took them into account," he said.

Leaders of seven indigenous groups submitted a statement to Gaurulla's office opposing Chavez's decision.

"We request justice and the right to decide our own future. ... We demand that we be consulted before any decision," it said. "This is not a fight against the government but a sign of our disagreement with the decision by the president."

The New Tribes Mission, which has about 160 missionaries in Venezuela, was founded in 1942, specializes in evangelism among indigenous groups and has 3,200 workers worldwide in 17 nations.

The controversy has overshadowed Chavez's efforts to grant collective property titles to indigenous communities. He made the threat two weeks ago while granting 10 land titles for more than 865,000 acres to indigenous communities in the southern Venezuelan state of Apure.

Chavez has said that defending the rights of Venezuelan's approximately 300,000 indigenous people is a priority. He oversaw the adoption of a new constitution in 1999 that recognizes their collective ownership of ancestral lands and allows them to participate in demarcating territory.

But poverty remains acute among many Indian communities, and many protesters said the missionaries were the only people who have tangibly improved their lives.

Chavez's action against the New Tribes missionaries has raised tensions between some church groups and Chavez's government, which is closely allied with communist-led Cuba and frequently critical of the United States.

More than 200 Mormon missionaries have left Venezuela in recent weeks after difficulties renewing visas or obtaining new ones.

The Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has had a presence in Venezuela since 1966, announced Wednesday that the last of its foreign missionaries would be pulling out of the country soon and be reassigned to other countries.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

[JuntaJoe]

Bicycle and oil deals cement Chavez's ties to Iran

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez enveloped his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a bear hug on Sunday and the two men backed their anti-U.S. rhetoric with deals on everything from bicycles to oil.

In a typically verbose speech, robust ex-paratrooper Chavez lambasted their common enemy, Washington.

"If the U.S. empire succeeds in establishing its dominance, there will be no future for humanity. Therefore we should save humanity and end the American empire," Chavez told a crowd at the University of Tehran.

Chavez also criticized the current offensive by Israel, Iran's arch-enemy, against Lebanon as "both fascism and terrorism." This chimed with the view of Iran's president who has compared Israel's conduct to that of Adolf Hitler.

A beaming Ahmadinejad presented Chavez with the golden "High Medallion of the Islamic Republic of Iran" and slipped a blue sash around his chest.

"Mr Chavez is my brother, the brother of the whole Iranian nation and of all freedom-seeking people in the world," he said.

"He is a perpetual warrior against the dominant system, a worshipper of God and a servant of the people," he added.

Chavez and Ahmadinejad are both ex-military populists who take a hawkish price stance in the OPEC oil cartel. They enjoy a close personal rapport.

Both countries frequently boast they are steeled for any military assault the United States may launch.

Venezuelan Energy and Mines Minister Rafael Ramirez echoed the leaders' defiant attitude by threatening to cut oil exports to the United States if Washington did not drop its hostile stance toward Chavez's administration.

MORE THAN RHETORIC

But there was more than Yankee-bashing to the visit, and the Venezuelan delegation signed several Memorandums of Understanding on joint work in the oil industry and housing.

Iran and Venezuela also signed deals on jointly making bicycles, medicines and industrial moulds, and pledged to cooperate in aviation and on environmental issues, though details on all these contracts were hazy.

Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said the Iranian firm Petropars would invest $4 billion in two Venezuelan energy projects.

Petropars is already certifying some tarry crude in the Orinoco Belt and is looking to develop reserves there. It also wants to supply training and services to the Norte de Paria offshore gas field.

A planned deal for Venezuela to export gasoline to Iran was canceled. Industry Minister Alireza Tahmasbi told Reuters this was because of problems over pricing and quality.

The contract had attracted considerable interest because of confusion over whether Iran is going to cut gasoline imports from September 23.

Iranian investors have already poured $1 billion of investment into Venezuela, mainly in sectors such as energy, construction and tractor-building.

Carmaker Iran Khodro said it would start making its Samand model in Venezuela in October.

Although commercial deals are proceeding, some analysts have said that Chavez's dependence on the United States as a major buyer of his oil will probably prevent him from striking any arms deals with Tehran.

Chavez visited Moscow before Iran, and on Thursday Russia said it had sold Venezuela 77 aircraft and helicopters as part of a long-term package of arms deals worth over $3 billion.

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited.

[JuntaJoe]

He's trying to make friends everywhere, if you get my drift.

Note the report's comment about a certain side trip when he visits China. :roll:

Chavez seeks Chinese support, Beijing wants oil

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will be seeking political support as well as energy deals when he visits China from Tuesday, but Beijing is keen to stick to business and avoid antagonizing Washington, analysts say.

The globe-trotting populist leader will spend nearly a week in China on his fourth visit there and hopes to secure investment in oil production and shipping -- exploiting the shared interests of the world's number two oil consumer and its number five exporter.

But their courtship has raised hackles in U.S. corridors of power, where some officials fear the emerging Asian heavyweight is trying to edge its way into Washington's sphere of influence in South America.

Chavez will be aiming to drum up support for Venezuela's bid for a slot on the United Nations Security Council, in opposition to U.S.-supported Guatemala.

And he is always ready to bait Washington, which buys around 12 percent of its crude imports from Caracas, by flaunting his ties with oil-hungry Beijing.

"All (Latin American) countries want autonomy but Chavez wants more than that. He wants to go a step further and even confront the United States, so for that China is an important actor," said Juan Gabriel Tokatlian, of the University of San Andres in Buenos Aires.

Chavez may even visit China's secretive neighbor, North Korea, which recently infuriated the United States by test-firing missiles.

The Venezuelan leader said in July he had received an invitation from Pyongyang and planned to visit, although it was dropped from the itinerary of his last trip.

But Beijing does not share Chavez's taste for public spats and has no desire to dent Sino-American relations, which are gradually improving after trade and currency disputes last year.

With Washington already fretting about Beijing's ties with Iran, and concerned it is not exerting enough pressure on North Korea, Chinese leaders will be keener to pore over oilfield maps than risk criticizing the United States.

"We need their oil, and from a commercial point of view we are happy to buy it, but we don't want to get caught up in the politics," said one researcher from a government think-tank, who declined to be identified as the issue was sensitive.

"China's relations with America are more important."

EXCHANGE LIMITED

At present, Venezuela's contribution to China's energy security is minimal, with just 1.72 million tones of crude imports -- 2.3 percent of the total -- in the first six months of the year.

The obstacles to more trade are mostly logistical. The trip to China is so long that oil usually needs to be carried in very large crude carriers (VLCCs) for shippers to turn a profit.

Venezuela's oil cannot be piped to Latin America's Pacific coast and VLCCs are too large to journey through the Panama canal. Once it reaches China, the heavy, sour oil is hard for most refineries there to process.

"I would say the economic attractiveness is relatively low, then but China is getting oil from everywhere," said Kang Wu at the East-West Center in Hawaii.

China should probably look to gain profit and experience from Venezuelan oilfields rather than extracting crude to ship directly to its own refineries, he said.

"I see it as more of an investment opportunity, it makes more sense for them to develop it and sell the oil elsewhere."

Chavez will head south to Malaysia from Beijing, for a trip expected to focus on trade and investment ties. One possibility is getting state oil firm Petronas, which has invested in 30 countries, to expand across the Pacific.

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited.

[JuntaJoe]

First Cuba. Then Iran. Next China.

And now?


Chavez eyes Syria visit to strengthen ties

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Friday he planned a visit to Syria to bolster ties in a move likely to rankle Washington, which charges the Arab nation with sponsoring terrorism.

Chavez, a harsh critic of U.S. foreign and trade policies, has strengthened political and energy ties with nations at odds with the Bush administration, such as Cuba and Iran, as he seeks to counter Washington's influence.

The Bush administration and British Prime Minister Tony Blair accuse Syria of backing militant groups in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon and stoking recent violence in the Middle East.

"A few weeks before the Middle East crisis we were sorting out dates to go. It has been our plan to visit Syria for the last few months. We will very likely visit," Chavez said in comments broadcast on state television during a tour of China.

Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, has reached out to Latin American neighbors as well as Russia, China and India to forge energy cooperation deals that Chavez says are an antidote to U.S.-backed free-trade accords.

Chavez has also said he plans to visit North Korea, the communist state under pressure from the West over its recent missile tests and nuclear program.

Washington paints Chavez as a destabilizing force bent on copying Cuban communism and spreading an anti-democratic message in the region.

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited.


Would someone please let the CIA buy one single 7.62mm bullet? :roll:

[JuntaJoe]

News Release

Charles Rangel
Congessman 15th District

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 21, 2006

CONG. RANGEL CONDEMNS CHAVEZ'S ATTACK ON BUSH

WASHINGTON - I want to express my extreme displeasure with statements by the President of Venezuela attacking U.S. President George Bush in such a personal and disparaging way during his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly.

It should be clear to all heads of government that criticism of Bush Administration policies, either domestic or foreign, does not entitle them to attack the President personally.

George Bush is the President of the United States and represents the entire country. Any demeaning public attack against him is viewed by Republicans and Democrats, and all Americans, as an attack on all of us.

I feel that I must speak out now since the Venezuelan government has been instrumental in providing oil at discounted prices to people in low income communities who have suffered increases in rent as heating oil prices have risen sharply. By offering this benefit to people in need, Venezuela has won many friends in poor communities of New York and other states. I am surprised that American oil companies have not stepped up to provide that kind of assistance to the poor.

Venezuela's generosity to the poor, however, should not be interpreted as license to attack President Bush. Those who take issue with Bush Administration policies have no right to attack him personally. It was not helpful when President Bush referred to certain nations as an "axis of evil." Neither is it helpful for a head of state to use the sacred halls of the United Nations to insult President Bush.

[JuntaJoe]

Massive rally backs Chavez opponent

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans packed a major highway Saturday in a rally for opposition presidential candidate Manuel Rosales, one of the largest demonstrations against President Hugo Chavez in years.

Shouts of "Dare to change!" rose up from the dense crowd filling the highway for several miles and spilling into nearby overpasses and streets in Venezuela's capital, Caracas. The rally came eight days before the country's presidential election on Dec. 3.

Rosales, speaking from a stage, promised democracy for a country he said was sinking into Cuba-style authoritarianism under Chavez.

"I don't want to be a president who controls all the branches of government," Rosales shouted to thundering applause. "Let there be true democracy in Venezuela!"

He denounced the government for prohibiting television crews from using helicopters to film the march, saying, "They don't want the people to see this multitude."

"They are scared," he shouted, pumping his fists. "We are going to win on Dec. 3."

The crowd appeared to number in the hundreds of thousands. Organizers claimed more than 1 million people attended.

Rosales, the governor of the oil-rich western state of Zulia who favors a free-market economy over Chavez's brand of socialism, trailed the Venezuelan president by a wide margin in an AP-Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month.

However, his candidacy has managed to galvanize Venezuela's fractured opposition, reviving a movement that had struggled to recover from a crushing defeat in a 2004 recall referendum against Chavez.

Rosales said the vast crowd on Saturday was proof he would defeat Chavez.

"It's Caracas in the streets," he said. "A great avalanche of votes!"

Marchers departed from various points in the city of 5 million and converged on the Francisco Fajardo Highway, where they danced to Venezuelan folk music booming from loudspeakers and chanted anti-Chavez slogans.

"After seeing this, nobody should have any doubts about Rosales' chances," 43-year-old accountant Franklin Salas said.

More than 3,000 police were deployed along the march route to prevent clashes with Chavez supporters who gathered on several street corners, shouting "Viva Chavez!" as marchers passed. There were no reports of violence.

Despite the revived opposition movement, Chavez remains hugely popular among the poor, especially those who see benefits from oil-funded social programs ranging from free health care to heavily subsidized government grocery stores.

Rosales lashed out at Chavez for wanting to be "president all his life, until he dies like Fidel Castro — indefinite re-election."

"This country doesn't want that. It wants modernity," he said.

Chavez, first elected in 1998, has said he wants to continue governing Venezuela until 2021 or longer. He said he plans to ask Venezuelans in a referendum if they support changing the constitution to allow indefinite re-election. It currently allows two consecutive presidential terms.

Rosales accused the Chavez administration of having no respect for private property and giving away the country's oil wealth to leftist allies overseas while neglecting the poor at home. He said Chavez wants "a new rich and more poor people ... an elite that runs everything."

Rosales, who temporarily stepped down as Zulia governor to run for president, is one of the few opposition politicians to hold on to office as Chavez's allies have gained control of the National Assembly, state offices and the courts.

Rosales accused the Chavez government of imprisoning people for political reasons and said he would free them if elected. The government says Venezuela has no political prisoners, only people legitimately convicted of crimes.

Ernesto Galindez, a 58-year-old butcher who backs Chavez, said he was surprised by the size of Saturday's march, but predicted Rosales would lose.

"They are going to have to wait six more years because Chavez is still very strong, and he's not going anywhere," said Galindez, grinning.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.

[JuntaJoe]

Venezuela's Chavez sworn in for radical new term

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was sworn in on Wednesday for a new six-year term and vowed to press a radical socialist revolution including nationalizations that have roiled financial markets.

Emboldened by his landslide re-election win, the typically combative anti-U.S. leader kept up his attack on private property, proposing a constitutional reform that would wrest control over the natural gas sector back to the state.

The move followed his decisions before the swearing-in to strip a private opposition TV channel of its license and take over major telecommunications and electricity companies, some owned by foreign investors.

"The people voted for the path of socialism, the people want and require socialism and the fatherland needs socialism," Chavez said.

The man who calls Cuban President Fidel Castro his mentor changed tradition by draping the presidential sash from his left shoulder instead of his right in what he says is a symbol of his socialist credentials.

Investors took fright this week at the leftist drive that further consolidates power in the hands of a former coup leader who already controls Congress, the courts and says he has total support in the army and the OPEC nation's state oil company.

As the United States criticized Chavez's moves against private property, the stock market lost almost a fifth of its value on Tuesday, debt prices tumbled to a six-week low and the currency changed hands at nearly twice the official rate.

Chavez dismissed the stock market plunge as the result of speculators stoking alarm among investors.

He cited passages of the bible praising the redistribution of wealth, but gave no details to flesh out his nationalization plan against utilities, leaving investors to guess whether he wants the state to have a majority stake or 100 percent control.

But his new economy minister told Reuters the government ruled out using confiscation to nationalize leading telecom CANTV and was studying mechanisms to possibly compensate shareholders for the takeover.

BLANK CHECK FROM VOTERS?

Buoyed by strong oil prices and high popularity, Chavez is expected to ride out any economic and political storm -- especially because crude revenues and not Venezuela's economic policies generally lure investment into the country.

In his political career, the former army officer has survived jail, a coup and a recall referendum.

A leading anti-U.S. voice in the world and in the vanguard of a shift to the left in Latin America, Chavez now wants to scrap presidential term limits and stay in power for decades.

Chavez, who won 63 percent of the vote in December, reiterated he wants new powers to rule by decree.

The opposition has accused Chavez, in office since 1999, of seeking to transform the fourth-biggest oil exporter to the United States into a Cuban-style centralized economy.

Polls have shown Venezuelans are generally leery of expropriations of private property but in principle support nationalizations of companies if the moves are believed to be in the interest of the country

Chavez's natural gas proposal extends his policy of gradually taking control over the energy sector.

But by opening new fronts against the media and utilities in his new term, Chavez is homing in on two sectors that could complete his state control.

"Chavez interprets the election result as giving him a blank check to develop a program that runs against the interests of Venezuela and only serves to benefit himself," Omar Barboza, a leading opposition official, told Reuters.

Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited.

[JuntaJoe]

Chavez to U.S. officials: 'Go to hell'

President Hugo Chavez told U.S. officials to "Go to hell, gringos!" and called Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "missy" on his weekly radio and TV show Sunday, lashing out at Washington for what he called unacceptable meddling in Venezuelan affairs.

The tirade came after Washington raised concerns about a measure to grant the fiery leftist leader broad lawmaking powers. The National Assembly, which is controlled by the president's political allies, is expected to give final approval this week to what it calls the "enabling law," which would give Chavez the authority to pass a series of laws by decree during an 18-month period.

On Friday, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said Chavez's plans under the law "have caused us some concern."

Chavez rejected Casey's statement in his broadcast, saying: "Go to hell, gringos! Go home!"

He also attacked U.S. actions in the Middle East.

"What does the empire want? Condoleezza said it. How are you? You've forgotten me, missy ... Condoleezza said it clearly, it's about creating a new geopolitical" map in the Middle East, Chavez said.

In typical style, Chavez spoke for hours Sunday during his first appearance on the weekly program in five months. He sent his best wishes to the ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, his close ally and friend who has been sidelined since intestinal surgery last summer.

Other comments ranged from watching dancing Brazilian girls wearing string bikinis at a recent presidential summit to Washington's alleged role in the hanging of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"They took out Saddam Hussein and they hung him, for good or worse. It's not up to me to judge any government, but that gentleman was the president of that country."

Holding up a newspaper with a photograph of him gazing at a string bikini-clad Brazilian dancing samba during a summit last week in Rio de Janeiro, Chavez laughed and said: "I didn't know where to look ... It was truly a thing of beauty."

Chavez, who was re-elected by a wide margin last month, has said he will enact sweeping reforms to remake Venezuela into a socialist state. Among his plans are nationalizing the main telecommunications company, CANTV, and the electricity and natural gas sectors.

He said Sunday his government will not pay the market value for CANTV, but rather will take into account debts to workers, pensions and other obligations including a "technological debt" to the state. CANTV, partially owned by U.S.-based Verizon Communications Inc., was privatized in 1991.

The president's opponents accuse him of using his political strength to expand his powers.

Relations between Caracas and Washington have been tense since Chavez was briefly ousted in a 2002 coup that he claimed the U.S. played a role in. The Bush administration has repeatedly denied being involved, although it recognized an interim government established by coup leaders.

Since then, Chavez has consistently accused the U.S. of conspiring to oust him and often asserts the CIA is working to destabilize his government. U.S. officials have denied trying to overthrow Chavez, but they have labeled him a threat to democracy.

Criticizing excessive consumption and self-indulgence, Chavez also announced plans in his broadcast to raise domestic gasoline prices and approve a new tax on luxury goods such as private yachts, second homes and extravagant automobiles.

He did not give details on the gas price hike, which he said would not affect bus drivers who provide public transportation, or the luxury tax. He said revenue from the new measures would be put toward government social programs.

Venezuela is one of the world's leading petroleum exporters and gasoline now costs as little as 12 cents a gallon due to government subsidies.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press.

[s_stabeler]

basically, they get to nominate how much they pay for the media. debts to workers? tehcnologiacal debt to the state? that allwosd them to name their own price. that would tend to make ti zero. zxip. zilch.nadas. that'swhat chavez will pay for the media. the princely sumof $0.00. if he's feeling generous, he might pay $0.01.

[broomdalf]

"Technological debt to the state" pretty much just means that Chavez is doing whatever he wasts to, and randomly makng stuff up, in order to get out of screwing his country further than him/his predecessors already have. Venezuela is a poorer country than it was during the 1950s, yet taking real steps to solve this would not only undermine Chavez' popularity, but go against his philosophy, so he must instead try to make other scapegoats, such as the US, in order to justify keeping ruling.

But, from what I've seen, stabbing foreign companies has never resulted in any sort of socioeconomic boom, it tends to just leave you with locals incompetant in the businesses you're trying to run.

Sure, they can name their own prices through bull like this, but is anybody really better off from it? Only Chavez. Not his country, only Chavez.