US seeks to sway Russia on jet sales to Venezuela

US seeks to sway Russia on jet sales to Venezuela
Fri Jun 16, 2006 5:46pm ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - The United States on Friday said it will ask Russia to reconsider selling two dozen fighter jets to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez after Washington banned all U.S. arms sales to Caracas.

The U.S. government, which calls Chavez an autocrat threatening regional stability, has already opposed Spanish and Brazilian aircraft and warship sales to Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a key U.S. crude supplier.

Chavez, a former soldier who says he is battling U.S. influence in Latin America, said on Wednesday he will buy 24 Sukhoi 30 fighters to replace his government's U.S.-made F-16 jets after charging Washington blocked sales of spare parts.

"We'll certainly be in touch with the Russian government, who would be the potential source providers for those fighter aircraft," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.

"I think we will ask them to take another look at any potential sales they have, given what Venezuela's real defensive needs are," he said.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-06-16T214559Z_01_N16223155_RTRUKOC_0_US-VENEZUELA-RUSSIA.xml



State Department spokesman Sean McCormack

Honestly, Chavez has been forced to replace all US military equipment because of the embargo.

And Negroponte "The Nun Killer" is looking forward to his new directive from his corporate criminal Masters.

and Russia has oil interests in Venezuela which need protecting.

The US has very little to bargain with in urging Russia to do anything. Plus there is still that business of Cheney making nasty remarks about Putin which is still unresolved.

I'm almost afraid to find out. Such a vindictive little man.

Cheney: Russia's Putin Restricting Rights
Cheney: Russia's Putin Restricting RightsU.S. Vice President Dick Cheney Says Russian's Putin Restricting Rights

By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent

VILNIUS, Lithuania May 4, 2006 (AP)— Vice President Dick Cheney accused Vladimir Putin's Russia on Thursday of restricting the rights of its citizens, and said "no legitimate interest is served" by turning energy resources into implements of blackmail.

"In Russia today, opponents of reform are seeking to reverse the gains of the last decade," Cheney told a conference of Eastern European leaders whose countries once lived under Soviet oppression, and now in Russia's shadow.

Cheney's speech blended praise for the progress Eastern European countries have made toward democracy since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, with an exhortation to continue on the same path.

"The democratic unity of Europe ensures the peace of Europe," he said.

He said Russia has a choice to make when it comes to reform, and said that in many areas, "from religion and the news media to advocacy groups and political parties, the government has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of the people."

Other actions "have been counterproductive and could begin to affect relations with other countries," Cheney said, mentioning energy and border issues.

"No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail, either by supply manipulation or attempts to monopolize transportation," he said.

"And no one can justify actions that undermine the territorial integrity of a neighbor, or interfere with democratic movements."
(snip/...)

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1921641

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Maybe Cheney will ask him to go hunting.

to hold over his trading partners.

Just Cheney being Cheney pushing his own vices off on his opponents.

First we trigger a region-wide movement toward socialism in South America (and now maybe Mexico!), and then we get snitty because other world powers are trying to win friends among the countries we've alienated? Nice try. Next let's ask the pick pocket to ignore the twenty dollar bills we leave lying around on our front lawns at night.

arc of history always bends toward justice. South America has been on this path for decades. Kissinger interrupted it in the 70s, but, 30 years later, it's back on track.

"They have already purchased 100,000 AK103 assault rifles from Russia. So I'm not quite sure what else they might need a factory for," McCormack said. "It certainly raises questions about what their intentions are."

Well Mr. McCormack, Chavez is paying attention to BushCo's greedy eyes on Venezuela's oil. That's all.

that they will clone the ak. Purchase a few and use some of them and others to create tool and dies to make their own. A no no.

That is what I took from it.

Russia is going to help Venezuela build a plant to make its own Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition? It ain't a no-no when Venezuela has a license and the tooling comes directly from Russia.

ago, but I couldn't form any kind of adequate response to the post you answered. Couldn't locate the words at all.

It's interesting seeing the rest of the world stirring itself and starting to operate with some self-confidence, after all these many years.

President Chavez intends to arm and train millions of Venezuelans and organize them into popular militias to defend their homes, their neighborhoods, and villages against Bush's Judeo-Christian Crusaders. The people of Venezuela will make Iraq look like a picnic to any foolish Republican offspring that think that they are bringing "freedom and democracy" to Venezuela.

...defensive needs are."

Well, let's see, they need the U.S. to stop backing coup attempts against their democratically elected president. They need the Bushite Congress to stop funding the tiny rightwing political opposition in Venezuela, and throughout South America. They need the U.S. to withdraw its death squads from Columbia. They need the U.S. to stop trying to bully Chile's new president, and Bolivia's new president, into anti-Venezuela actions that are against their own interests. They need the murderous U.S. "war on drugs" to go away. They need John "death squad" Bolton out of the UN. They need US-based global corporate predators to stop exploiting and oppressing the poor in neighboring countries and throughout South America. They need to stop calling Chavez an "autocrat" when he was honestly elected and Bush was not. Finally--as to Venezuela's "real defensive needs"--they need the American people to wake up, throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor,' and throw the Bushites out of office.

Then Venezuela would have considerable less need for fighter jets and guns. As it is, they can anticipate nothing but hostility--including armed covert or overt hostility--from the Bush junta, which loathes and hates the vast population of poor people in South American who are finally asserting their sovereign right to control their governments, their resources and their economies.

-------------------

To Bucky, upthread: I'm not sure what you mean by us "triggering a region-wide movement toward socialism in South America," but I have a somewhat different view. The "trigger" for anti-US sentiment in South America certainly was NAFTA, as well as IMF/Word Bank policies (which we control), on top of decades of US-sponsored, brutal oppression. South Americans are also very opposed to Bush's war on Iraq. But the mixed socialist/capitalist economies that are emerging now, led by leftist governments and populist movements, were not triggered by any particular US action--they are the result of many years of hard work on TRANSPARENT elections, conducted by local civic groups, the OAS, EU election monitoring groups and the Carter Center. They are an expression of true representative government in South America. They would be the choice of the majority, no matter what we did--primarily because a mixed socialist/capitalist economy is the best solution for most people. It is the most open, humanitarian, equitable, progressive, democratic, and wise way to proceed, to close the gap between rich and poor, to provide schools, medical care, jobs and small business grants and loans, to the poor, to create a more even-handed and better society for all; to use the country's resources for the benefit of all; and to heed the wishes of the majority on issues such as the environment and foreign policy.

It is we in the US who have been brainwashed into thinking that socialism is bad. Socialism is nothing less or more than creating an equitable society. And the best of both worlds--a mixed socialist/capitalist economy--is possible when the capitalists are kept under control and compelled to pay their proper dues. Here, the capitalists are completely out of control, and are just plain looting us and our government, at the open invitation of the Bush junta. We are becoming the third world country now--while South America advances toward European standards of equity. The Bushites' only answer to these developments is bullying and warmongering. Through free and fair elections, the South Americans are slipping out of their control. The South Americans are at the same time providing us with a heartening example of what transparent elections can accomplish. If they can do it there--after all the grief they've suffered--we can do it here.

alliances will trade and barter for a common goal of their own.

Bush stop Putin?

Hmmmmm......we shall see.

US, under the direction of the neocon-fascist Bu*h Administration, will do whatever it takes to fulfill their obligations to their anti-democratic globalist masters at all and any cost:

"The global power of the financial centers is so great, that they can afford not to worry about the political tendency of those who hold power in a nation, if the economic program (in other words, the role that nation has in the global economic megaprogram) remains unaltered. The financial disciplines impose themselves upon the different colors of the world political spectrum in regards to the government of any nation. The great world power can tolerate a leftist government in any part of the world, as long as the government does not take measures that go against the needs of the world financial centers. But in no way will it tolerate that an alternative economic, political and social organization consolidate. For the megapolitics, the national politics are dwarfed and submit to the dictates of the financial centers. It will be this way until the dwarfs rebel . ."

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico/ezln/1997/jigsaw.html

Chavez is trying to protect the sovereignity of Venezuela by defying the will of the fascist globalists. Venezuela is at this time one of the rebel "dwarfs" that Subcomandante Marcos writes about in the excerpt above.

Godspeed, President Chavez.

Many Americans still suffer from a slave-owning mentality. Not having Blacks to exploit at home, they think it is alright to exploit other countries in order to maintain the illusion of "the American way of life" at home, i.e., a low cost consumer society.

I am sure that there are people in the Pentagon that regret the loss of easy sex that was once available to US troops and civilian employees in Latin countries, and they are hell-bent in restoring the glorious whorehouse days in places such as Cuba.

The Russians will ignore the US request, and they will go ahead and provide Venezuela with the fighter jets she needs to defend herself against the Bible-thumping, Jesus fearing, offspring of Republican parents that don American military uniform nowadays. I would put my money and support on the exploited masses of Latin America as they resist American imperialism and this new breed of Crusaders that Bush has unleashed on the world.

It always has been. It's the relationship between Hugo Chavez, the oil companies, and the US.

As long as the price of oil continues to spiral upward, the US will always have a weak hand. Chavez is in a position of enormous strength and to quote Noam Chomsky, "It's driving them berserk in Washington".

Now the oil companies also make more money when oil is at $72.00/barrel. But many of these companies are multi-nationals and they don't necessarily have an allegiance to Bush (like Shell Oil). And I do believe the companies that Chavez kicked out were American companies.

But the price of oil seems to have stabilized (around $72-$73), which means that Chavez is holding 4 aces.

The US economy is driven by lots of cheap crude oil. The good stuff: Light, sweet crude. When anything happens to that cheap pipeline, you have the machinery sputtering, wheezing, slowing down.....coming to a stop....

One, and only one, company opted out of the renegotiated contract - Exxon Mobil . Big difference between being kicked out and walking away from a proven money maker, something the boys in DC can't successfully spin. You know what I mean, Vern?

Oh, Exxon Mobil sold their contract to Repsol, a Spanish company so they don't have much to complain about beyond the usual sour grapes,

Vern. This happened last December....December 31. Hugo Chavez revised some conditions for the petroleum companies. I believe 2 large multinationals left Venezuela.

Before that, he charged some oil companies back-taxes adding up to several million dollars.

There were several articles about this here. I'll try to locate a link.

The point I was trying to make was that no oil company was thrown out of Venezuela. Are you saying others left because they couldn't come to agreement on the final terms?

http://today.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?type=naturalResources&storyID=nN30244214

UPDATE 2-Exxon out; Venezuela's PDVSA, Repsol set oil deal
Fri Dec 30, 2005 11:53am ET



By Patrick Markey

CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA said U.S. oil company ExxonMobil sold its stake in the La Ceiba oil field contract to Repsol, clearing the way for the Spanish company to forge a new joint venture with PDVSA.

The agreement with Repsol was the last deal to be reached with 22 foreign and local private oil companies with operating contracts who the government had demanded migrate to new joint ventures and hand PDVSA a controlling share.


The conversions came as President Hugo Chavez campaigns to secure more state control over revenues from Venezuela's vital energy sector as part of his socialist revolution in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

"PDVSA and Repsol YPF have agreed to sign a transitory deal for the transformation to a joint venture in the Quiamare-La Ceiba field, the last operating contract to agree to migrate," the company said in a statement.

Exxon was the only foreign company that did not sign a transitory agreement for the new joint ventures. The U.S. major held a 25 percent stake in the Quiamare-La Ceiba operation though its local representative Ampolex Venezuela.

<more>

And say this is business, and Americans shouldn't try to interfere with business.

Stop buying oil from the autocrat's country.

That will teach them.