Venezuela's Chavez Accelerates Sincor II Talks With Total

[Say_What]

Hugo's in Paris signing more deals. Plenty of quotes by Venezuela's president throughout the article.

Hey, no anti-Chavez propaganda in this article either! Real news and not the inflammatory TRIPE that's spun in the USSA. Whodda thunk it.


<clips>

Venezuela is looking to accelerate talks with France's Total (TOT) for a $5 billion heavy crude upgrading project, President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday.

"We've given the green light, so that in a week, a (Total) team negotiates with PdVSA and the Oil Ministry what Sincor II will be," said Chavez, following a meeting with Total President Thierry Desmarest in Paris.

Total is a partner with Petroleos de Venezuela (PVZ.YY) at the Sincor crude upgrading project in the Orinoco area. Sincor, which also includes Norway's Statoil (STO), processes more than 200,000 barrels a day of heavy crude into 160,000 b/d of marketable synthetic crude.

"They are ready to jump forward, and double production in the next few years," Chavez said in a statement.

Venezuela has invited foreign companies to expand heavy oil operations in the Orinoco tar belt, one of the largest hydrocarbon deposits in the world.

http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top.jsp?cat=TOPBIZ&src=704&feed=dji§ion=news&news_id=dji-00074220050309&date=20050309&alias=/alias/money/cm/nw


French President Jacques Chirac, left, greets Venezuela President Hugo Chavez upon his arrival at the Elysee palace in Paris, Wednesday March 9, 2005. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

[Mnemosyne]

1. Go Chavez!! But watch your back!! nt

[Say_What]

2. Venezuela keen on Qatari investments

Check that quote about Venezuela's goal is to supply the US with MORE oil, not cut it off. Some much for US propaganda.

<clips>
Doha: Venezuelan Foreign Minister and former Opec Chairman, Ali Rodrigues yesterday told reporters that his country was seeking to attract Qatari investments and expand commercial bilateral relations in petrochemical sector.

"We are both members of the same organisation, Opec and we have strategic common interest in this area. Besides, Qatar has a very good experience in the field of offshore gas production and we need that experience", he said after attending a forum on investments in Venezuela.

...The Foreign Minister, meanwhile, said in reply to a question that Venezuela has no intention to reduce its oil supply to the US following the strategic partnership that Venezuela signed with Russia, Brazil and China.

"The idea is not to reduce, but to increase our supplies to the US", he said, pointing out that Venezuela is planning to make a multi-billion dollar investments in the next five years in its oil industry to increase its production capacity to 5 mb/d.

Venezuela will thus have the capability to increase oil export to the US and to supply a percentage of demands in China, India, and Thailand as well as in South America and Caribbean countries, he said.


http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Business_News&subsection=market+news&month=March2005&file=Business_News2005030925442.xml

Intersting how the non-inflammatory threads about Chavez or Venezuela get little response from a group who is supposed to be so well informed LOL

[cliss]

3. As the dagger goes in and twists around,

Washington cringes.

Look at Chirac's face. Notice the open mouth, the jolly laughter. The warm, grasp of Chavez' hand. The body language tells it all: they are physically close, embracing each other.

I've never seen that kind of display when Chirac greets Bush.

As the world laughs, Chavez is only getting warmed up. He has 1,001 tricks up his sleeve.

I'm fully expecting more fireworks: A worldwide Chavez Day with parades, holidays, celebrations. Glasses will be clinked together, new phrases will be coined, like "hugo" will be the new word to replace 'cheers'.

As Washington goes into a meltdown, Chavez is warming up.

[bemildred]

4. Compare:

[Say_What]

10. Check out who's running for pres in Mexico--this could really throw

the Bushistas for a loop--at least that's what COHA's latest report thinks. Lopez Obrador is the leading candidate in the 2006 presidential election in Mexico (see article following COHA)

<clips>
...What to Look for in the Future
Could the next step be a single South American currency modeled after the euro? If López Obrador wins, that possibility could be on the docket and certainly Chávez –notwithstanding Washington’s fear of another debilitating blow against the dollar, as happened with the advent of the euro – will continue pushing for it. Meanwhile, the danger Latin America’s New Dealers face is that Bush’s cabal of neoconservatives does not seem to realize that having an occasional dinner with Castro does not make one a Che Guevara. In Professor Smith’s words, “Vázquez needs to court Castro because if he can’t deliver to his base materially then he can at least deliver symbolically. But politically, he will throw his lot in with Kirchner and Lula.” Unfortunately, if the past is to be our guide, there is no indication that Washington has the patience or wisdom to interpret such courting as merely symbolic.

http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2005/05.26%20Venezuela%20and%20the%20New%20Left%20the%20one.htm

---

Mexico Poll: Rising Public Opinion Against the Desafuero

By Al Giordano,
Posted on Wed Mar 9th, 2005 at 08:45:52 AM EST

A new poll by the Mitovsky survey research company in Mexico shows that public opinion – not just in Mexico City, but also nationwide - is turning rapidly against the “desafuero” plot to remove Mexico City Governor Andrés Manuel López Obrador from the 2006 presidential race.

The numbers are interesting because they show dramatic growth – both nationally and in the country’s largest metropolis – of sentiment against the desafuero and a corresponding shrinkage of any support for the anti-democracy maneuver that continues to be promoted by President Vicente Fox and other political insiders.

Nationwide, 48 percent of the people oppose the desafuero whereas only 15 percent support it. And by tracking the sharp shift in public opinion in the nation’s capital – where the desafuero debate had a head start on the national discussion and now 80 percent of the public opposes the plot – the poll makes it clear that those nationwide numbers are trending upward for democracy, as support for the attempted pre-electoral coup d’etat is dwindling sharply toward the single digits…

The new nationwide results are similar to those among capital city residents six months ago in a September 2004 poll, when 58 percent opposed the desafuero compared to 27 percent in favor.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/3/9/84552/73566



French President Jacques Chirac (R) accompanies Venezuela President Hugo Chavez as he leaves the Elysee Palace, March 9, 2005. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

[bemildred]

16. Yes, I had read Giordano's story on Narcosphere.

I expect Senor Obrador is one of the things Condi has
on her agenda. I had not been aware of that before.
With any luck Condi's brain will short out from the overload.

Edit: another nice pic there BTW.

[Say_What]

18. I saw the CondiSleeza in Mexico article--not a mention of Obrador

but of Clee, who AP is touting as the front runner. The title had the usual US 'Bully of the World' theme, something like *Condi faces resentment in Mexico* or some other horsesh*t.

Meanwhile Obrador is looking pretty intersting. LatAm papers have him picked as favorite. He was World Mayor finalist for the Americas. Someone to watch closely over the next year or so.


Andres Manuel López Obrador, 2004 Mayor of Mexico City and World Mayor finalist for the Americas

[AP]

6. VZ just signed a huge contract with Chevron in the US. Didn't get any...

...press.

There's no dagger going into America's back. Chavez doesn't agree with Bush's politics, and Bush doesn't agree with Chavez's politics. But there are no economic daggers twisting in America's back. Chevron is going to make a lot of money off of VZ oil, and VZ is going to make a lot of money selling oil in America and to Americans at a competitive price -- not too high, not too low.

[Say_What]

7. Of all the oil companies in Venezuela, Chevron, or is it Exxon,

is the only one, that is objecting to the 16.6% tax under the new hydrocarbon law. On edit: Can't remember which now and I read it just this morning :o

Additionally, Venezuela's foreign minister and head of OPEC stated yesterday in Qatar that Venezuela wants to sell the US MORE oil. I posted that somewhere today, maybe in this thread, not sure.

:bounce:

[cliss]

8. Just business as usual?

I wonder. I've read about these recent agreements, as well. I still believe Washington considers Chavez THE most urgent threat in their hemisphere.

If you read articles from the Right, you'll notice the increasing hysteria about what he's doing in South America. The thin veneer of "free trade" versus "American Interests", our "security issues", Trade, and so on, becomes paper-thin when they write about him. They absolutely consider him a huge threat.

Consider, also, the troop buildup in the vicinity. Just because Chavez is increasing production to the US (which is to Chavez' benefit), he's signing deals from here to Kingdom Come.

The oil execs may be short-sighted, but they're looking down the road a little bit, and they see nothing but trouble with him.

[AP]

9. Your post wasn't super clear.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say there, but I'll respond to part of it:

I suspect the oil companies in the US are interested in making money. They know that Chavez is going to make them money. They know that he's not going to cut off the suply. They know he's going to respect the agreements into which he enters. They know he's every bit the free-market capitalist they like to think they are.

But if Bush could get a friendlier government in there that would find ways to increase the profit margin for the oil companies (by, say, pretending that RW ideolgoy trumped the rationality of selling oil to India and China, or by not asking for a reasonable tariff for exports to the US), they'd take that too.

They'll make a lot of money either way, but they'd prefer making the most money possible.

It's not that they see trouble with Chavez. They just don't see maximum profit.

[Blue to the bone]

11. Actually, some American oil companies have pulled out of Venezuela....

....because they felt he was not respecting agreements signed by the Venezuelan government before he took office.

I hope he does respect the agreements into which he's entered and suspect that he will, otherwise he'll risk alienating friendships he's earned in other parts of the world.

And I also disagree that "he's every bit the free-market capitalist they like to think they are". I don't think he is, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. JMHO.

[AP]

12. I was reading a book about Chile and one of the things Nixon did was ask..

...private companies to stop doing business with Allende so that it would hurt the economy. The companies made up reasons for pulling out, but the truth was they would have made money if they didn't leave. They were basically doing Nixon a favor agains their best financial interests.

I suspect that's really why American co's pulled out of VZ, if that indeed happened (have an links?).

And if they did pull out, then they can turn their forlorn gaze on Chevron Texaco and the dozens of other oil companies who are going to be making the profits they decied to forego in order to make whatever stand they thought they were making.

What's more of a free market capitalist attitude? Selling your product on a free and fair market for the best price it can get? Or using ideology to push out market competitors so that one player can get a really low price on an extremely uneven playing field?

[Say_What]

13. "Make their economy scream" Nixon's order to Kissenger

about Allende's Chile. Interesting letter to the editor at the El Paso Tribune about Allende's statue. Photo shows funeral of Pinochet foe Gladys Marin, as the funeral procession passes by Allende's statue.

http://www.elpasotribune.com/archive/vol02/nov03/241.htm


Thousands of Chileans pay tribute to Chile's Communist leader Gladys Marin outside of La Moneda government palace as the funeral procession passes by the statue of the late President Salvador Allende during her burial ceremony in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, March 8, 2005. Gladys Marin, the combative leader of the Chilean Communist Party, who became a symbol in the fight against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites), died after a long fight with cancer at the age of 63 years-old. (AP Photo/Santiago Llanquin)

[Say_What]

14. Interesting COHA report said about Chavez (FDR and New Deal) and LatAm

<clips>

....But Just How Left-wing Are They?
In contrast to right-wing jitters over Latin America’s “rising red tide,” a sober look at these governments – certainly Brazil, Argentina and even Venezuela – reveals a significant gap between their anti-neoliberal rhetoric and their actual economic policies. While bashing the IMF and the World Bank has become the region’s polemical norm, no leader – not even Chávez – is seriously contemplating a wholesale rejection of the basic principles of Keynesian economics even if some, like Kirchner, challenge IMF mandates. What this means is that Latin America’s new left governments will favor mixed markets modeled on the post World War II monetarist policies of social democratic European states, like Clement Atlee’s Britain. Befitting this pattern, as Latin America’s new left-of-center states go about creating safety nets for the poor, they continue to court foreign investment and encourage capitalist ventures to help pay for them. As the Economist rightly notes, “While Mr. Castro makes it spitefully difficult to set up even the smallest of micro-enterprises as a private business, his Venezuelan counterpart is cheerfully ploughing funds into the creation of as many small entrepreneurs as possible.”

Latin America’s New Deal
On the gap between the theory and practice of the new left in Latin America, as can be seen in Chávez’s government, Dr. James Petras of the University of New York at Binghamton has written that, “The euphoria of the left prevents them from observing the pendulum shifts in Chávez’s discourse and the heterodox social welfare and neoliberal economic politics he has consistently practiced.” Confirming Chávez’s progressive bona fides while at the same time calling attention to his standard Keynesian economic policy, Professor Petras writes that the Venezuelan leader’s “policy has always followed a careful balancing act between rejecting vassalage to the U.S. and local oligarchic rentiers on the one hand and trying to harness a coalition of foreign national investors . . . He is closer to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal than Castro’s Socialist revolution.”

None of the above is meant to suggest that the region’s leaders have not made significant strides towards alleviating poverty and hunger. To the contrary, Lula and Chávez have enacted some of South America’s bolder initiatives in order to reduce the region’s draconian levels of inequality. The important point is that while the new left-of-center governments are launching many New Deal-style reformist initiatives, the core free market structures remain intact. Accordingly, if Vázquez follows Latin America’s other neo New Dealers, we can expect the following from his Broad Front administration: first, a neoliberal economic policy coupled with a politically left agenda; second, interest in revivifying the Pan-American ideal, currently modeled on Chávez’s Bolivarian dream of South America as a regional economic hegemon; third, a gradual turning away from Washington politically, if not economically. An amalgam of these three creedal beliefs – Keynesian economics hitched to left-of-center politics, intra rather than interhemispheric integration and a gradual shift towards Europe and Asia is probably the most apt description of the new variant of leftism being displayed in Latin America today. If Vázquez ends up fitting this mold, then we can expect him to be far more like Lula and even Chávez than Fox and Alvaro Uribe of Colombia.

http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2005/05.26%20Venezuela%20and%20the%20New%20Left%20the%20one.htm

[AP]

15. Yeah, FDR was right and 70 years later Latin America is getting the New

Deal that came (and is about to leave) in America.

And how 'bout an article about how far the IMF has drifted from Keynes?

[Say_What]

17. Great Chavez quote from a Brazilian article

"The 19th was the century of Europe, the 20th was the century of the United States and the 21st century will be that of Latin America"

Hugo Chavez,
Venezuela president

Published in English on Al Jazeera--highlights of the LatAm view:

<clips>
Latin America turning left

Vazquez's presidential ceremony in the capital Montevideo was a roll call of those who have turned the politics of this hemisphere upside down in six short years:

...On the horizon are potential victories for Evo Morales in Bolivia, Michelle Bachellet in Chile's December vote and Manual Lopez Obrador, the mayor of Mexico city and presidential candidate.

...And all three leaders, together with Brazil's Lula, vowed to have a united front in the face of external debt and international credit institutions.

...Agreements with the International Monetary Fund have been kept and the US appeased, but with a new focus on poverty and social programmes within these constraints.

With each election, Latin America's face is changing against the Washington consensus. Unity between the left's leaders is becoming strengthened and they are looking wider afield, forging ties with China, India and South Africa.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3A4E97E5-0A8F-45FF-BAE0-A107660441E2.htm

[Blue to the bone]

5. Chavez at his best, IMHO. n/t