Venezuela remains price hawk

May 13, 2004. 07:21 AM

Venezuela remains price hawk


BUENOS AIRES - Venezuela disagrees with a Saudi Arabian proposal to raise OPEC's oil output, arguing the market is actually oversupplied, Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said yesterday.

"Venezuela's position has not changed. (An output increase) would not be convenient," Ramirez said during an official visit to Argentina.

"The market is sufficiently supplied and, in fact, there is excess supply of 1.5 million barrels," Ramirez added.

Venezuela is one of the founding members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

OPEC heavyweight and top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia called Monday for the oil cartel to hike production quotas by at least 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) to stop high oil prices from hurting world economic growth.

U.S. crude futures have surged to more than $40 (U.S.) a barrel in recent days, their highest price in 13 years since the 1990-1991 Gulf war that was sparked by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

more
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1084399811036&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851

...looks like they want to roost!

the Bush Family Evil Empire will want that oil. Hope they're prepared for the next invasion since the coup didn't work.

Oil corporations would make *alot* of money by pushing up the prices on oil futures, as those high oil futures give them an excuse to raise their markup/barrel of oil.

Over 100 Colombian paramilitaries detained in plot in Venezuela: Chavez

Hugo Chavez

Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 13 May 2004 0649 hrs

CARACAS : President Hugo Chavez said that more than 100 Colombian right-wing paramilitaries, including a leader known as "Commander Cabezas", have been arrested in Venezuela in connection with a coup plot.

Chavez, who said Venezuela had effectively been "invaded" through the plot, questioned the role of Colombia's intelligence service and armed forces in the matter.


He accused Colombian armed forces chief Martin Carreno of being an "adversary" of his government.

Venezuela's ambassador to the Organization of American States, Jorge Valero, charged Wednesday in Washington that a "sinister triangle" had been set up aimed at "destroying Venezuela's democratic institutions.

The triangle, Valero alleged, is comprised of "coup-plotters and fascists from Venezuela's political elite, foreign-backed Colombian paramilitaries and members of the Miami-based Cuban exile community" who oppose Chavez ally communist President Fidel Castro.


more
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/84660/1/.html

Venezuelan soldiers guard alleged Colombian paramilitary members

Venezuelan police search opposition leaders' homes

CARACAS : Police searched property around Venezuela belonging to leading opposition figures, seeking evidence to link them to an alleged plan to topple President Hugo Chavez with right-wing paramilitary Colombian fighters.

The search follows the arrest Sunday of 88 people authorities say are Colombian paramilitary fighters plotting to join Venezuelan dissidents in a bid to overthrow the populist-leftist Chavez.

"The searches will continue," police official Miguel Rodriguez Torres told Venpres state news. The idea is to "dismantle possible paramilitary camps" within Venezuelan territory.

At least 12 more people were arrested Monday and Tuesday, Rodriguez Torres said.

Those arrested include a National Guard colonel believed to have taken food and supplies to the paramilitaries, holed up on an estate on the outskirts of Caracas.

Opposition leader Robert Alonso -- who owns the estate -- told the Nuevo Herald newspaper in Miami that the arrests were "staged."

more
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/84494/1/.html

T Bone (623 posts) Wed May-12-04 11:59 PM
Response to Original message

2. NPR was reporting more US military forces requested by B* for Columbia

just yesterday, I think. Coinkydink?

I know it was within the last week I heard it. I thought at the time Bush wants to send more military manpower to Columbia NOW? Why?

No oil coming out of the shambles in Iraq, gas prices in the US soaring. US election looming.

Coincidences certainly abound.

peterh (1000+ posts) Thu May-13-04 12:14 AM
Response to Reply #2

4. More coincidences….or maybe not….


As we all know, mercenaries are in vogue with this cabal….we still have the story of 70 of these critters still sitting in a Zimbabwe jail…..and it involves….dare I say it…..OIL….

http://www.truthnews.net/daily/2004050162.htm

Zimbabwe Judge Refuses to Dismiss Case Against Suspected Mercenaries

http://www.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=Coup%20d\'%20etats

US Denies Africa Coup Plot Allegations

International court cases to be brought against US Ambassador to Venezuela

Wow thanks, I'm glad I asked about it.

VHeadline.com correspondent Philip Stinard writes: On April 11, in Caracas, the Venezuelan group ASOVIC (Association of Victims of the April 11, 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez) announced that they would file charges in US courts, and in the World Court in the Hague, against US Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro, for his involvement in sniper shootings at the Llaguno Bridge during the coup at the Miraflores Palace that left several people dead, including a journalist.

According to a statement released by Merly Morales, a spokeswoman for the lawyers representing ASOVIC, there are “elements for conviction, which in our judgment, serve as evidence to ask for the opening of an inquiry before US courts and the appropriate international tribunals” against Ambassador Shapiro. Such evidence ranges from “special courses in assault given by US authorities to members of the Caracas Metropolitan Police Phoenix Group and Chacao and Baruta municipal police in the months of October 2001 and with greater frequency in March and the first days of April 2002, to conversations recorded in the Center of Operations of the Metropolitan Police on April 11 of that year (2002) between Commissioner Forero and Ambassador Shapiro during the hours of greatest intensity of shots fired by members of the aforementioned police institution (Caracas Metropolitan Police) against people concentrated in the areas immediately surrounding the Miraflores Palace.”
In addition, there is also evidence “presented by the (Chavez) administration relating to the presence in Venezuelan territory of US ships on April 11, as well as (US) military personnel in the military installations at Fort Tiuna that would lead one to believe that there was an act of State committed against the constitutional government of Venezuela that directly affected members of our association that were injured and killed.”

"It is important that these be made known, and I come here to make this (tape) public because I don’t want to be involved in the cover-up of criminal activities. On the tape, it is clearly evident how the Metropolitan Police participated in the crucial moment of the 11th of April, and several things that they have tried to cover up will be revealed.”

more
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=17335



Billionaire's farm raided to thwart Chávez 'coup plot'

AP in Caracas
Thursday May 13, 2004
The Guardian

Three people suspected of an alleged paramilitary plot to topple President Hugo Chávez were arrested at a Venezuelan billionaire's coffee farm.
The arrests bring the total number of people in custody to more than 100. The interior minister, Lucas Rincon, did not specify whether Gustavo Cisneros, who owns the farm outside Caracas, was a suspect. Mr Cisneros is the chairman of Cisneros Group, a Latin American media conglomerate.

The defence minister, Jorge Carneiro, said documents were found during more than 20 raids implicating "important people in Venezuelan public life, including businessmen and media owners" in the plot to mount a coup.

Mr Rincon said Colombian paramilitary fighters were involved. On Sunday, authorities raided a farm owned by a Chávez opponent outside Caracas and arrested dozens of purported members of Colombia's outlawed, rightwing paramilitary forces.

Some opposition leaders have dismissed the raids as a government show to divert attention from efforts to force Mr Chávez to step down in a recall vote.

more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1215390,00.html


Colombian gov't softens position on FARC for freedom of kidnapped

www.chinaview.cn 2004-05-13 09:25:54


BOGOTA, May 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The Colombian government offered notto describe the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as terrorist if the sick kidnapped people are freed.

Governmental official Eduardo Herrera Verbel told the press that the FARC could become a "middle negotiator" to reach a humanitarian accord with the Colombian government.

Verbel said the government had given up very important political spaces to achieve the freedom of the kidnapped people, as long as the FARC also fulfilled their commitments.

The FARC holds several foreigners, as well as soldiers, policemen and politicians. Former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt is among them.

Colombia has been locked in a four-decade civil war, the longest in Latin America, in which government forces, leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries fight against one another.The conflicts kill an average of 3,000 people every year. Enditem

more
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-05/13/content_1466524.htm


Published: Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Bylined to: David Coleman


Venezuela's OAS Ambassador: mercenaries and coup-plotters trying to foment chaos

Venezuela's Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Jorge Valero has told OAS delegates that Miami-based anti-Castro groups, mercenaries and Venezuelan coup-plotters are trying to foment chaos in Venezuela by hiring right wing Colombian mercenaries to do their dirty work for them.

Ambassador Valero says the Colombian mercenaries had "sought to provoke clashes between the Venezuelan Army and National Guard to create chaos" as well as "to hijack Air Force aircraft with the aim of bombing the Miraflores Presidential Palace. Those behind the plot include sectors of the opposition backed by people abroad (a.k.a. Washington D.C.) and anti-Castro groups based in Miami."

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=21127

Opposition apologists have, however, denied any connection with the captured Colombians ... Colombia's OAS Ambassador Horacio Serpa has reaffirmed Bogota's support for a Venezuelan investigation into the activities of the paramilitaries who were discovered at a ranch belonging to a rabid anti-Chavist south of Caracas. Serpa emphasizes that Colombia accepts absolutely no responsibility for the presence of Colombian mercenaries in Venezuela.


gold_bug (256 posts) Thu May-13-04 12:40 AM
Response to Original message

8. surprising

Edited on Thu May-13-04 12:54 AM by gold_bug
or maybe not...
Here's the story on The Washington Times, UPI Colombia to verify paramilitaries

BTW, Foreign Policy In Focus had a recent (April 13) article about the NED funding of the Chavez opposition, U.S. Funds Aid Chávez Opposition


Thanks so much from your link U.S. Funds Aid Chávez Opposition


The revelations about the endowment’s work in Venezuela are provoking criticism from some high-level officials, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus, that the United States is trying to destabilize and overthrow democratically elected governments in Latin America.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY, charged that the Bush administration helped oust Haiti’s President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and that it is trying to depose Chávez, as well. “We’re doing the same thing in Venezuela because we don’t like Chávez,” Rangel said during a radio roundtable discussion.

U.S. officials deny the allegations, and say Aristide fell and Chávez almost did because of economic mismanagement and human rights abuses.

The controversy over the U.S. role in Latin America intensified March 16 when Chávez joined Jamaica in declaring he would not recognize the interim government in Haiti that replaced Aristide. Chávez also offered asylum to the deposed Haitian president, who arrived a day earlier in Jamaica, where he has received temporary refuge.
..

Published: Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Bylined to: Patrick J. O'Donoghue


Colombian Ambassador says only 1 alleged paramilitary has a criminal record

State Political & Security (DISIP) director, Miguel Rodriguez Torres says raids will continue on properties to dismantle paramilitary camps in other parts of Venezuela.

National Guard (GN) Captain Douglas Perez Perez has been arrested after allegedly having 510 anti-bullet jackets in his possession. The discovery was made during a raid on his Prados del Este house.

A house that once belonged to former President Carlos Andres Perez in Oritopo and the El Encantado farm in La Guairita have also been raided.
Rodriguez Torres says the presence of paramilitaries in Venezuela is a State security problem that "threatens the Venezuelan family and national sovereignty."

more
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=21123


Paco (82 posts) Thu May-13-04 01:37 AM
Response to Original message

14. If it quacks like a duck....


This brings to mind Operation Northwoods. Substitute Venezuela for Cuba and you see how shallow and shortsighted these wackos are.
Time and distance are irrelevant to these morons - they never learn.
Check the link below and see what I mean.

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/Northwoods.html

-Chavez blames Bush's "imperialism" for soaring oil prices-
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday blamed the recent spike in world oil prices on U.S. counterpart George W. Bush and his "imperialist policies."
http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=3629

Chavez, whose nation is one of the main suppliers of crude to the United States, said the U.S. invasion of Iraq has unleashed an "inferno" in the Middle East. It is that situation, he claims, which has driven the international price of oil to $40 a barrel.

"George W. Bush is the great culprit for the entire disaster" with petroleum prices, Chavez said at a public event in Caracas.

--

According to Chavez, Bush "believed that by sending tanks and the Marines to Iraq he was going to take over the petroleum," of that country, but "it turned out he couldn't dominate Iraq and now the conflict has extended to other countries of the region." "We feel the fair price should be around $30 a barrel," said Chavez.

It is about Bush's imperialism, though of course the problem of imperialism goes well beyond only Bush.