Venezuela to Seek Nuclear Power Assist from Iran

May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela President Hugo Chavez said he plans to seek Iran's help to develop a nuclear energy program.

``It's one of the ways to diversify energy sources,'' Chavez said in a televised speech in Caracas. ``But not to make bombs.''

Chavez did not elaborate on plans for the nuclear program or what help Iran might provide.

Chavez in March said Iran can count on his support in its confrontation with U.S. over its nuclear program. The U.S. has accused Iran of disguising its nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment, as a cover for building a nuclear bomb.

``I'm sure Iran is not making an atomic bomb,'' Chavez said. ``They're doing research to advance science.''

Opec Needs to Consider OutPut Cut
Published: Monday, 23 May, 2005, 12:11 PM Doha Time
By Peter Wilson
Caracas: Opec, which pumps about 40% of the world’s oil, needs to consider cutting output at its meeting next month to guard against a “collapse’’ in prices, Venezuela’s oil minister said.
Venezuelan Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said at a press conference on Saturday that prices are in “descent,’’ and Opec members shouldn’t add any more barrels to the market at this time.
“At the meeting in June, we have to evaluate a possible cut in output,’’ Ramirez said. “We have to be careful’’ to “avoid a collapse in prices,’’ he said.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries next meets on June 15 in Vienna. Venezuela is the group’s third-largest producer.
Venezuela, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, is trying to avert a decline in prices as the government boosts spending on social programmes. Ramirez’s remarks followed charges by former managers of Petroleos de Venezuela that output is now 2.58mn bpd, or about 600,000 barrels less than the government’s estimate of 3.3mn bpd.
Crude-oil futures in New York fell below $48 a barrel, a three-month low, after an Energy Department report showed that US oil inventories rose more than expected last week.
“We have to protect oil prices,’’ Ramirez said, who said they are being pressured downward by growing inventories and speculators. Venezuela boosted government spending by 38% in February as surging revenue from higher oil prices paid for bigger outlays for social programs. Spending last year jumped 61% from
2003. – Bloomberg

Chavez "to review" US Ties...
23.5.2005. 14:38:52

RELATED STORIES
- Struggle over terror suspect
- US arrests exiled Cuban
Venezuela will review its ties with Washington if anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles — wanted by Cuba and Venezuela on terrorism charges — is not extradited, President Hugo Chavez says.

Venezuela Threatens to Sever Ties with US

http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=D99FAD:2F72C9D

President Hugo Chavez asks US to extradite Cuban dissident Luis Posada
Carriles to Venezuela to face terrorism charges

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is
threatening to sever ties with the United States over a Cuban
dissident wanted in Venezuela on terrorism charges. The Venezuelan
leader's comments could further escalate tensions between the nations.

In a national address, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to
severe diplomatic ties with the United States if it does not extradite
Cuban dissident Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela to face terrorism
charges.

Mr. Posada was arrested last week in Miami for entering the country
illegally, a violation of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act.

President Chavez accused the United States of harboring Mr. Posada,
who he called an "assassin and terrorist." Mr. Posada is wanted in
Venezuela for masterminding the bombing of a Cuban jetliner over
Venezuela in 1976, killing 73 people.

The Venezuelan leader says United States has 60 days to turn over Mr.
Posada.

Mr. Chavez said, if they don't turn him (Posada) over by the deadline
stipulated, we are going to fully revise our diplomatic relationship
with the United States.

Both Venezuela and Cuba are demanding his extradition to Venezuela.

Mr. Posada has also been accused of participating in an assassination
attempt on Cuban President Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000 and a series
of bombings in Cuba in 1997.

He has repeatedly denied his involvement in the 1976 airline bombing.
Mr. Posada did admit to participating in the 1997 Havana bombing, only
to deny the accusation a year later.

According to news reports Mr. Posada was a paid CIA informant and
anti-Castro operative in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Bush administration has expressed concerns that the leftist Mr.
Chavez is pushing Venezuela toward becoming a Cuba-style state. In
turn, the Venezuela president says the United States is meddling in
Venezuelan affairs and plotting his demise. Mr. Chavez also recently
moved to further meld the economies of Venezuela and Cuba. Last month,
Mr. Chavez met with Mr. Castro in Havana in hopes of wooing other
Latin American nations into an alternative trade pact not led by the
United States.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...uban_militant_2

Venezuela's Chavez to Reconsider US Ties

Chavez says Venezuela interested in nuclear energy:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday his government was interested in nuclear energy and could start talks with Iranian partners to study possible atomic and solar power projects.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?t...storyID=8567072

http://snipurl.com/f2nw

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/n..._venezuela_dc_1

Brazil wary on nuclear cooperation with Venezuela

Venezuelans see some 'Don Quixote' in their populist leader
Everyone recently interviewed in Caracas's historic Plaza Bolivar was
ready to discuss the man of La Mancha. By Danna Harman
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0525/p01s03-woam.html?s=hns

http://www.counterpunch.org/frank05242005.html

Hugo Chavez's Economy
Joshua Frank

VENEZUELA: Admitted Cuban Terrorist Poses Tough Test for U.S.
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS - Cuban-born Luis Posada Carriles, an admitted terrorist who was taken into custody in Miami and whose extradition has been formally requested by Venezuela, may be sent by the United States to a third country, like Barbados or Trinidad and Tobago.
http://ipsnews.net/new_notan.asp?idnews=28736

Venezuela to buy more argentin bonds

MAY. 24 8:09 P.M. ET Venezuela plans to buy an additional US$400 million (euro317 million) in Argentine public debt this year, the country's finance minister said.

"This year we will purchase the remaining US$400 million (in bonds) if market conditions allow it," Finance Minister Nelson Merentes told foreign reporters on Tuesday.

Venezuela 1st Qtr GDP Grows 7.9%-Jump in Spending
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's economy grew for a sixth straight quarter in the January-March period as manufacturers such as automakers Toyota Corp. and General Motors Corp. benefited from a surge in consumer demand.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of a country's production of goods and services, expanded 7.9 percent in the first quarter from the year-earlier period after growing a revised 12.1 percent in thefourth quarter, a central bank report showed.

vENEZUELA: CITGO MAY TRY TO RECOVER TAXEShttp://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8AADKPO0.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down

MAY. 25 4:04 P.M. ET Venezuela's Citgo Petroleum Corp. could seek to recover excess taxes paid in recent years to tax authorities in the United States, Venezuela's oil minister said Wednesday.

During a speech to lawmakers, Rafael Ramirez said Venezuela's oil ministry is currently conducting a study of petroleum sales to the United States since 1999.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1632118,00.html

'New Castro' threatens to take his feud with America nuclear

Venezuela Rallies Over Cuba Exile
BBC News - UK
The march comes a day after the US rejected Venezuela's request for it to arrest Cuban-born Luis Posada Carriles, saying there was not enough evidence. ...


US Urged to Extradit Posada and Accomplices
Prensa Latina - Havana,Cuba
... Prensa Latina) Journalist Alicia Herrera, author of the book on the Cuban civilian plane bombed in 1976, urged the US to extradite to Venezuela terrorist Luis ...

Venezuela Trains Voluteeers to Bolster Army
Contra Costa Times - CA,USA
CARACAS, Venezuela - Scores of men and women crawl through a mud-filled ditch, ducking barbed wire and coughing in a mixture of tear gas and smoke while ...

ExxonMobil Progresses in Venezuela

ExxonMobil is moving ahead with a US$3 billion project to build a petrochemicals plant in Venezuela despite an ongoing tax row with the government, a representative of ...

Venezuela warns U.S. over judge's canceled visa:

Venezuela may stop allowing visits by American officials after U.S. immigration authorities canceled the tourist visa of the Venezuelan Supreme Court president, the country's vice president said.
http://snipurl.com/f8w9



US Rejects Venezuelan Request on Posada :

Posada, is wanted by Venezuelan authorities for his alleged role in the bombing of a Cuban passenger plane in 1976 that killed 73 people.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0...5036883,00.html

http://snipurl.com/f8x9



Venezuela to Continue to Seek Posada's Extradition:

Venezuela said it will continue to seek the extradition of terrorism suspect Luis Posada Carriles, even after the Bush administration rejected a provisional request that he be arrested.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=100...r=latin_america

http://snipurl.com/f8xb



Cuban militant worked for U.S. in covert Contra supply network:

Shortly after escaping from a Venezuelan prison twenty years ago, Luis Posada Carriles turned up as "Ramon Medina" at a Salvadoran airfield that was part of a secret White House project to funnel weapons to U.S.-backed Contra rebels waging war against Nicaragua's Sandinista government.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8976.htm

http://snipurl.com/f8xc



Oil giants owe more than $2 billion to Venezuela:

Most of the 22 foreign oil companies that owe back taxes to the Venezuelan government have agreed to pay up, the country's tax agency chief said.
http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/b...ss/11773000.htm

http://snipurl.com/f8xe



Chávez leads the way :

In using oil wealth to help the poor, Venezuela's leader is an example to Latin America
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,...1495260,00.html

http://snipurl.com/f8xf

Russia and Venezuela Start Negotiation Round

Caracas, May 30 (Prensa Latina) Russia and Venezuela began their first round of negotiations Monday, with the participation of 80 businesses from both countries with the purpose of significantly reinforcing economic cooperation.

Michigan's Miller Among US Lawmakers to Visit Venezuela
Detroit Free Press - Detroit,MI,USA
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Michigan Rep. Candice Miller joined four other US lawmakers for a meeting with Venezuela's justice minister ...

Bush Meets Leading Opponent of Venezuela's Chavez
Washington Post - Washington,DC,USA
... Venezuela is a major supplier of oil to the United States. Bush and Machado discussed "the current situation confronting Venezuela's ...

Venezuela to Inform Sincor of Tax Changes
BusinessWeek - USA
MAY. 31 3:46 PM ET Venezuela's oil minister said Tuesday the government will hold meetings with its partners in the Sincor heavy crude project to explain the ...

Retalix Partners With Venezuela's Eniac for Latin American Market
Globes Online - Israel
... Nasdaq: RTLX; TASE: RTLX) announced today that it has entered into a partnership with Eniac, a software and services company based in Venezuela, to market and ...

Chavez Leads The Way
Venezuelanalysis.com - Caracas,Venezuela
... villages that perch on the hills above Caracas, a permanent reminder of the immense gulf between rich and poor that characterizes oil-rich Venezuela. ...

Bush meets opponent of Chavez :

President George Bush has met a prominent opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the White House.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10328462

http://snipurl.com/fauk



“Working Behind the Scenes”:

The Details of U.S. Government Support for the Venezuelan Opposition
http://www.narconews.com/Issue37/article1307.html

http://snipurl.com/faul

US, Venezuela clash at OAS meeting Xinhua

Rights group leader says US has secret jails CNN

Chavez "attacks" US :

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused the United States on Sunday of trying to impose a "global dictatorship". He said the US, not Venezuela, should face scrutiny by the Organisation of American States.
http://snipurl.com/feen

Missiles Headed for Israel Intercepted in Caracas :

Venezuela’s justice minister reported five missiles heading to Israel from Colombia were found in an international airport north of the capital.
http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=83443

http://snipurl.com/ff90



Venezuelan Authorities Seize Five Missiles Allegedly Bound for Israel:

The missiles apparently arrived in Venezuela from neighboring Colombia late last month and "were destined for Tel Aviv, Israel," according to the statement issued by prosecutors.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBFS6UYM9E.html

http://snipurl.com/ff94



Mysterious Transport Of Missiles From Colombia To Israel:

The sequester came as a surprise given that the material comes from the Colombian armed forces – closely tied in different activities to the US forces – and the motive is unclear of their systematic transferral to Tel Aviv on normal passenger flights.
http://www.misna.org/news.asp?lng=1&id=135474

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/7239/1/274

Author: W. T. Whitney Jr.


People's Weekly World Newspaper, 06/16/05 12:25


News Analysis

“Madam Secretary, democracy cannot be imposed,” said Celso Amorim, Brazil’s foreign minister, in reply to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the 35th General Assembly of the Organization of the American States (OAS). “Latin America has its own identity,” he said. “It has recuperated its dignity — not to confront the United States, but to confront imperialist politics.”

That was the kind of roughing up Bush officials faced at the first OAS meeting hosted on U.S. soil in 31 years, this time in Ft Lauderdale, Fla. The OAS was set up in 1951, and shortly became an instrument of U.S. cold war politics.

The Assembly turned aside U.S. proposals directed against the Hugo Chavez government in Venezuela, as it passed declarations supportive of both national independence and a common front against the region’s social and economic devastation. Only a month earlier, in an unprecedented move, the OAS had rejected Washington’s choice for OAS leader in favor of Chilean diplomat Jose Miguel Insulza.

Speaking to reporters, Secretary of State Rice, apparently alluding to the need to intervene in Venezuela, declared, “The OAS has intervened in the past,” adding, “It is a matter of intervening to try and sustain the development of democratic institutions.” In an address to the Assembly June 7, President Bush said, “We must replace excessive talk with action.”

The U.S. government offered a “Declaration of Florida,” which would have authorized OAS-sponsored military interventions in member countries on behalf of “democracy.” The Assembly ultimately voted 28-6 to back a watered-down version of the resolution, holding that OAS interventions would have to wait on an invitation from an elected head of a targeted government.

The OAS Assembly passed eight out of nine resolutions introduced by Venezuela. One of them, offered in response to the U.S. interventionist proposal, stated that “for there to be world peace there must be respect for sovereignty.” Another condemned media concentration and rejected “support of hate” in the media. Still another called for member nations to “commit themselves not to support terrorists that are wanted for crimes in other countries,” a clear reference to U.S. sanctuary provided to Cuban-exile terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

Delegates backed the social and economic rights of Latin America’s estimated 240 million poor. As Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez noted: “In these conditions quality of life simply doesn’t exist, adding, “Where the calamities of hunger and poverty exist, democracy is in doubt and human rights are a fiction.” The Assembly’s final declaration incorporated a Venezuelan resolution calling for adoption of a “Social Charter of the Americas.”

Roger Noriega, U.S. Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, staged a “temper tantrum,” in the words of one reporter. Apparently reacting to Washington’s failure to have its way, Noriega proclaimed that Venezuelan money and influence were behind unrest in Bolivia, a charge immediately dismissed by the Venezuelans.

Secretary of State Rice met June 5 with Maria Corina Machado, head of the Venezuelan group Sumate, accused of bringing in National Endowment for Democracy funds in the efforts to defeat Hugo Chavez at the polls. Machado took part in the 2002 coup attempt against Chavez, and is reportedly preparing to oppose him in the 2006 presidential elections.

The week before, Machado met with President Bush in the White House. By contrast, Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela’s ambassador to Washington, has been waiting two months to meet with U.S. State Department officials.

Outside the Assembly, police from 26 agencies stopped delegates’ cars at roadblocks, searching them with dogs and metal detectors. The Mexican daily La Jornada reported that journalists required a State Department escort to approach OAS delegates.

Some 20 Secret Service agents detained Venezuelan reporter Lyng-Hou Ramirez. She came under suspicion when police, searching her bag, found an OAS document on human rights. Agents reportedly refused to verify her credentials with the OAS. After all, they said, “They don’t make the rules, we do.”

Venezuela Cites Evidence Of Plot Against Chavez:

Venezuela's government believes it has found evidence of an assassination plot against President Hugo Chavez by dissidents working with paramilitary groups in Colombia, the interior minister said Monday.
http://www.tampatrib.com/News/MGBMUPRN7AE.html

http://snipurl.com/fqik

Chavez seeks regional gas company:

Chavez said Venezuela's gas reserves in the Caribbean could be tapped and shipped to markets in South America. Pipelines could be laid from Venezuela's offshore reserves in the Caribbean to markets in Brazil and Argentina, he said.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3233749

http://snipurl.com/fq2d

The Venezuelan national softball team will be in town in the near future.

Any and all ideas for simple and serious expressions in a welcoming message to them would be greatly received. PM me.

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7...%7D&language=EN

Venezuela Ratifies as World Hydrocarbon Reserve Leader

Caracas, Jun 26 (Prensa Latina) Venezuela will carry out research to quantify and certify reserves at the Orinoco oil belt to confirm its place as the largest hydrocarbon reserve of the world, local authorities informed Sunday.

State-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) indicated the zone is thought to keep 78 billion barrels in light crude reserves and 253 billion barrels of heavy and extra-heavy crude oil.

According to the PDVSA report, Venezuela has the largest oil reserves of the world, which equal to 50 percent of those possessed by all Middle East countries.

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Iran and Qatar reserves account for 676 billion barrels, while the South American nation´s are estimated at 313 billion barrels.

They are followed by Africa (75 billion barrels), America, without Venezuela, (71 billion), Russia (49 billion), Asia (44 billion), Europe (19 billion) and other nations (10 billion), says the PDVSA report.

ef/ecq/ml

Venezuela plans nuclear development despite Washington's paranoid flap..

President Chavez Frias pledges thousands of plastic homes for Venezuela poor

Chavez warns US on ties at Caribbean summit:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday accused the United States of meddling in his efforts to create an energy alliance with Caribbean neighbors and said he may one day have to cut ties with Washington.
http://snipurl.com/fy19

Venezuela tightens control over oil industry
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7...%7D&language=EN
Miguel Lozano

Caracas, Jul 16 (Prensa Latina) With a lawsuit filed against Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell for tax evasion and the confiscation of financial data from US-based Chrevon-Texaco, Venezuela went ahead with a campaign to tighten control over its oil industry.

The National Customs and Tax Management Service (SENIAT) said Shell has already been ordered to pay $131 million in back taxes.

According to the statement, if Shell complied with the payment demand within the 15 days established by law, it would only have to pay 10 percent in interest and fines. If it failed to do this, the penalties could increase to up to 250 percent.

SENIAT officials said the financial data was temporarily confiscated from Chrevon because the company had failed to produce it on request.

Both cases form part of a probe into the activities of foreign oil companies, after finding irregularities in 32 oil field operating agreements involving foreign partners signed between 1992 and 1997.

Those foreign firms are paying merely 1 percent in royalties, which only applies in exceptional cases, while they should be paying 16, 6 percent.

In back taxes and unpaid royalties, Venezuela is owed $4 billion, authorities said.

nm/rm/ml

US Does Not Invade Venezuela Because of the FARC, Says Heinz Dieterich
http://www.periodico26.cu/english_new/world/farc060805.htm
Caracas, August 6 (P-26) An outstanding academic and expert on Latin American issues –Heinz Dietrich— says that Venezuela is safe from a US attack via Colombia thanks to the existence of the rebel guerrilla there.

“As long as the FARC (Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces) exist, there is no chance that the US will launch paramilitary or military operations against Venezuela from Colombia,” said Mexican-German sociologist Heinz Dieterich.

Interviewed by the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, Dieterich noted that, albeit unintentionally, the FARC act as a force of containment for likely US military actions against Venezuela. “Its very existence renders impossible any military or paramilitary destruction strategy on the part of the US forces or those of (Colombian President) Uribe,” stressed Dieterich.

Well-known for his documenting of US intervention activities in Latin America, Heinz Dieterich is currently in Venezuela for the launching of his latest book, “Chávez y el socialismo del siglo XXI” (Chavez and 21st Century Socialism).

The statements by the Mexico-based scholar come on the heels of a strong offensive by the FARC in the Colombian region of Putumayo, on the boarder with Ecuador, which has cut off the area from the rest of the country. The escalade in rebel activities has raised serious doubts regarding the effectiveness of the so-called ‘Plan Patriota,’ a US-backed war action by the Colombian government seeking to wipe out guerrilla forces.

Heinz Dieterich told Colombia’s El Tiempo that the foundations upon which 21st century socialism will rest are “a democratically planned economy that works based on the principle of value not price; a State that is not an instrument of the economic elite; and a democracy with a strong and direct involvement of its citizens through plebiscites.”

Dieterich teaches at Mexico’s Autonomous University and has co-authored several books with US political scientist and linguist Noam Chomsky.

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=44722

Published: Sunday, August 07, 2005
Bylined to: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

BBC report: Irish Colombia Three reached Ireland via Venezuela

The home appearance of three Irish Republicans convicted in Colombia has created several political seismic waves stretching 2 continents.

Known as "The Colombia Three," Jim Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley jumped bail after being condemned to prison for 17 years for allegedly training the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in urban guerrilla techniques.

The men were arrested in 2001 at Bogota international airport for carrying false passports as they returned home from a visit to FARC-controlled zones. The Colombian government claimed that the visitors were Irish Republican Army (IRA) active service members.

At the initial trial the Three were acquitted and freed from jail but had to await an appeal by the Colombian Attorney General, who succeeded in overturning the ruling a year later.

Jim Monaghan says the group was helped by "many people in many places" to return to Ireland.

The Colombian government's first reaction is to ask that the Three be extradited to face their sentence but Ireland has no extradition treaty with Colombia.

The British government, on the other hand, has stated that if the men return to Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, they will face arrest.

The Three claim that their presence in Colombia at the time of their arrest was in connection with the Colombia Peace process and the distention zone agreement established under former Colombian President Andres Pastrana and reversed by his successr, Alvaro Uribe.

Monaghan's press interview Irish television (RTE) has come a week after the IRA announced its decision to end the armed struggle and seek peaceful methods to achieve Irish unity.

The appearance of the Colombia Three has embarrassed British, Irish, Colombian and US governments and perhaps Venezuela, as the BBC reports (Colombian) intelligence sources, alleging that the Three passed through Venezuela to Cuba where Niall Connolly had been Sinn Fein's representative.

VENEZUELA: Brigadistas witness workers’ control
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/637/637p19.htm

Paul Benedek, Venezuela solidarity “brigadista”, describes his experiences meeting with workers and unionists, including teachers, in Merida.

After returning from a beautiful trip through the Andes, we entered the offices of the UNT (National Union of Workers), the new revolutionary union that has quickly superceded the old conservative union structures.

The offices are spartan, with a huge banner proclaiming support for the revolution and workers’ control. Immediately we are inspired by a very different type of unionism — a unionism far removed from any limitation to merely “bread and butter worker issues”. Instead we deal with the rich, integrated cake of the revolution.

Benito is in the teachers’ union, and explains to us the revolutionising of education. He describes how the simoncitos (pre-schools) promote care and education and challenge violence in pre-school, and care for children all day. Before President Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998, parents could only leave children at school either in the morning or the afternoon, which made it extremely difficult for workers. There were very few pre-school places. Now that has all changed.

The Bolivarian schools for students aged 6-13 promote overall education from 8am to 4pm, and like simoncitos, are completely free. Every meal is also free. Activities are broad, such as watching over a plantation and how it develops, and a range of recreational activities.

High school was previously divided between education for those going to university and those going to work. Now united for a rounded education, every person gains an understanding of the world, and there is more creativity and an emphasis on out-of-classroom learning. Part of this is endogenous development — learning to use what is in the community for the greatest development for the people.

There are more students staying at school now, and education is no longer considered an institution, but part of the community.

Mission Robinson (1 and 2) is providing literacy, especially for the aged, using the Cuban method of the young teaching the elderly. Around October, Venezuela will be declared illiteracy-free! Mission Rivas is for those who were excluded from, or who left early from, high school education and Mission Sucre is helping to get tens of thousands into university.

At this point in time, approximately half the population of Venezuela is involved in some form of study — schools, universities, technical colleges, pre-schools, missions, etc!

This is the base of the Bolivarian revolution, that is changing society fundamentally. And of course, it is all totally free.

Next we heard from Hugo, the regional president of the UNT, who described how Venezuela is a government of the working people, with the UNT involved in drafting laws and so on (compare that to Australia!). The UNT has a very youthful leadership. Another union leader told us how they want their resources to be used not just for Venezuelans, but for people across the world.

Then it was off to see for ourselves the situation for workers. Packing a dozen of us into a taxi meant for just eight people, we drove to a construction site at the foot of the Andes, a massive operation building several sporting complexes for the upcoming Andes games and Latin America-wide COPA football cup.

We were greeted by worker delegates and rank-and-file workers who outlined the gains in occupational health and safety, wage rises of some 60%, and the weekly workplace meetings they engaged in to involve everyone in decisions.

Then late in the afternoon we are dropped at Merida’s Plaza Bolivar, where we swapped stories with left groups campaigning in the upcoming council elections, then off to dinner to celebrate the first day of the brigade in Merida, and Chavez’s birthday.

Revolution doesn’t even escape us when my brother and I slip into a late-night web cafe. The guy running it is a Chavista, and is eager to tell us of the fantastic state TV, and the new Latin America-wide television network Telesur, which is set to challenge CNN and Co. We have a great political exchange before bed.

[For more eye-witness accounts from the Australia-Venezuela solidarity brigade, visit <http://www.venezuelasolidarity.blogspot.com>.]

From Green Left Weekly, August 10, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...world-headlines
Venezuela Leader Accuses DEA of Espionage
By PATRICIA RONDON ESPIN
Associated Press Writer

2:30 PM PDT, August 7, 2005

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of using its agents for espionage, and said Venezuela was suspending cooperation with the U.S. agency.

Chavez, who regularly accuses the U.S. government of plotting against him, said "the DEA isn't absolutely necessary for the fight against drug trafficking."

U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said last week that the United States had hoped to maintain cooperative anti-drug efforts in Venezuela, and that without them "there is only one group that wins, and that group is the drug traffickers."

But Chavez maintains that the DEA has been using the fight against drugs as a pretext to gather intelligence on Venezuela.

"The DEA was using the fight against drug trafficking as a mask, to support drug trafficking, to carry out intelligence in Venezuela against the government," Chavez said.

"Under those circumstances we decided to make a clean break with those accords, and we are reviewing them," Chavez said, referring to the cooperative agreements under which the DEA has operated in the South American country.

Prosecutors last month opened an investigation into the DEA in Venezuela.

"We have detected intelligence infiltration that threatened national security and defense," Chavez said.

He acknowledged that Venezuela is a major transit point for cocaine moving from Colombia to the United States and Europe. But he said Venezuela's own armed forces have made important advances against trafficking.

As for the DEA, he said specifics of his government's decisions will be announced soon. Chavez's comments were the most specific to date on the accusations against the DEA.

Chavez criticized U.S. policy on drugs, saying that while the United States is the world's top consumer of drugs, its government does little to try to lessen consumption.

He also criticized the CIA and FBI of not doing enough to catch major drug kingpins in the United States. "How strange they don't find them," he said.

The relations between Venezuela and the United States have been marked by tension during Chavez's more than six years in power. Chavez accuses the U.S. government of backing a brief coup against him in 2002, while U.S. officials have dismissed such accusations as ridiculous.

Despite frequent harsh words between the governments, Venezuela remains a major supplier of oil to the United States.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...23/ixworld.html

Venezuela vows to help Castro repel US 'lord of war'
By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 23/08/2005)

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has launched a blistering tirade against the United States, describing President George W Bush as the "lord of war".

Mr Chavez also pledged to send troops to the aid of President Fidel Castro if Washington ever dared to order an invasion of Cuba.

He sat beside Dr Castro following a summit meeting in western Cuba, as the two men used a six-hour live broadcast on Sunday night to set out their plans for the region and to condemn Washington's foreign policy.

Mr Chavez, apparently responding to accusations by Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, that he was funding anti-democratic movements in Latin America, hit back, saying: "The grand destroyer of the world and the greatest threat … is represented by US imperialism.

"The truth is that they [the Bush administration] are the great destabilisers in the region." He defended his close ties with Dr Castro, whose latest crackdown led to the arrest of scores of opponents for discussing a post-authoritarian Cuba, and hailed almost half a century of communist rule on the island.

"People have asked me how I can support Fidel if he's a dictator. But Cuba doesn't have a dictatorship… It's a revolutionary democracy," he said. "We will do everything possible to avoid imperialist aggression, but if it occurs to some madman, he will find some young men … defending the independence and sovereignty of this land."

In the meantime, Cuba and Venezuela have found numerous non-military schemes to confound the Americans. The two leaders recently launched Telesur, a regional satellite station which Rght-wing US critics have branded "Latin America's al-Jazeera".

Cuba has been given substantial quantities of cheap oil by Caracas and, in return, has dispatched a fifth of its doctors to Venezuela's poorer neighbourhoods. Mr Chavez will travel on today to Jamaica, where he will sign a deal providing cheap oil to the island.

US officials believe that Venezuela is seeking to buy influence in the region. Mr Rumsfeld and others have also accused the Venezuelans of funding anti-democratic and populist movements in fragile democracies such as Bolivia.

Otto Reich, a former senior foreign policy official in the Bush administration, has accused Mr Chavez of aiding Left-wing guerrillas in Colombia and of offering support to Iran over its nuclear programme.

Mr Chavez came to power through the ballot box in 1998 and was re-elected in 2000. A year ago, he won a referendum endorsing his rule.

He spent two years in jail in the early 1990s after being arrested for leading a 1992 coup attempt.

Since taking office, he has styled himself a Robin Hood-like figure - taking money from the rich and handing it to the poor. Many of his initiatives are aimed at improving the lives of impoverished slum dwellers. But critics say the use of communist-style command economics has actually worsened the condition of the poor, and that selling cheap oil is robbing Venezuela of badly needed wealth.

Mr Chavez has also embarked on an arms-buying spree, purchasing 50 MiG29 fighters and 40 attack helicopters from Russia.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005. Terms & Conditions of reading.
Commercial information. Privacy and Cookie Policy.
XML RSS feeds available

Mutual defense treaties with Venezuela, Iran, Cuba. Mmmmm- let's see. We attack Iran and Venezuela cuts off our oil- with none (obviously) from Iran and Saudi Arabia can't (or won't) pick up the slack; because Iran blockades Iraqi ports and Shi'ites join Sunnis in blowing up Iraq oil facilities, little from Iraq; and Cuba becomes a staging ground for terrorist infiltration. Gas at $20.00 a gallon, the death toll in Iraq triples the following month, and a few buildings are vaporized in Miami, Houston, and Atlanta?

If we are winning, if we are going to stay the course, I'd hate to see what The Shrub considers a loss, because that seems to be the course we're on...

When are they going to impeach and convict this friggin' idiot Shrub and put us out of our misery...

Already planned out, WS.

BushCo engineered the "removal" of popularly elected Haitian President Aristede. Why? Because Haiti is geographically the PERFECT staging area for a military assault on Venezuela, should such an attck become necessary.

WE MUST HAVE OUR OIL.

WE MUST HAVE THEIR OIL.

FOR OUR SUV'S.

We have our own radical religious leaders....

Televangelist Calls for Chavez's Death

Updated 11:36 AM ET August 23, 2005
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...823_162&src=abc

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested on-air that American operatives assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network's "The 700 Club."

"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

Chavez has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of President Bush, accusing the United States of conspiring to topple his government and possibly backing plots to assassinate him. U.S. officials have called the accusations ridiculous.

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

Robertson, 75, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and a former presidential candidate, accused the United States of failing to act when Chavez was briefly overthrown in 2002.

Electronic pages and a message to a Robertson spokeswoman were not immediately returned Monday evening.

Venezuela is the fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier of oil to the United States. The CIA estimates that U.S. markets absorb almost 59 percent of Venezuela's total exports.

Venezuela's government has demanded in the past that the United States crack down on Cuban and Venezuelan "terrorists" in Florida who they say are conspiring against Chavez.

Robertson has made controversial statements in the past. In October 2003, he suggested that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has also said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."


On the Net:

Christian Broadcast Network: http://www.cbn.com/700club/

(Tell Roberston what you think of his comments)

"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?'"

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

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

Venezuela response to Robertson

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

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.

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

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