- The reforms being promoted by Venezuela's populist president,
Hugo Chavez, and financed with his nation's immense oil wealth are reinvigorating
economic nationalism across Latin America. Already, Bolivia and Argentina
have joined forces to take control of their natural resources and develop
a regional bank as a counter to U.S. imperialism. How far will it go? Read
Christopher Bollyn's detailed report.
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- Chavez Influence Growing
- Populist Advances Economic Reforms Across
Latin America
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- By Christopher Bollyn
- American Free Press
- 1-13-6
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- The economic reforms and nationalist policies being advanced
by Hugo Chavez, the populist president of Venezuela, are liberating Latin
American nations from the suffocating grip of the international financial
oligarchy. The wide-ranging reforms promoted by Chavez are being financed
by the immense oil wealth of Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest exporter
of oil. The year 2006 brought increased state control of Venezuela's oil
production.
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- Venezuela, with the largest proven oil reserves outside
of the Middle East, produces more than 3 million barrels of oil per day.
On Jan. 1, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez announced that 32 privately
operated oil fields had come under state control with the start of 2006.
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- In 2001, Venezuela passed a law requiring oil production
to be carried out by companies in which the government held the majority
share. The deadline for the oil companies to convert their operations to
joint ventures in which the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA
(PDVSA) has the controlling stake expired at midnight on Dec. 31, 2005.
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- The oil fields that came under state control on New Year's
Day produce about 500,000 of Venezuela's declared production of 3.2 million
barrels a day. The Venezuelan state could own as much as 90 percent in
some of the new ventures, depending on how much the private companies had
invested in the field.
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- The soaring price of crude oil has allowed Chavez to
support other nations and economic reforms across the region. From Argentina,
for example, Venezuela purchased more than $1 billion in bonds in 2005
and may buy as much as $2 billion more.
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- "Venezuela has been supporting Argentina in freeing
it from International Monetary Fund debt, and we will con-tinue, as much
as we can, to help Argentina end its dependence on the IMF," Chavez
said.
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- The Venezuelan investment allowed Argentina's President
Nestor Kirchner to completely pay off its $9.8 billion debt to the IMF
on Jan. 3.
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- "With this payment, we are interring a significant
part of an ignominious past," Kirchner said.
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- Many Argentines believe that the IMF was responsible
for the disastrous economic policies that caused the financial crisis of
2001 and then abandoned the country to recover on its own.
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- BANK OF THE SOUTH
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- Chavez has proposed the creation of a new multilateral
bank to free the region from IMF influence and the increasing "dollarization"
of the region. He called on Brazil and Argentina to contribute some of
their international reserves to help fund the new regional bank.
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- During a recent speech in Brazil, Chavez called for the
creation of the "Bank of the South" to "allow us to manage
all this money for our own interests," he said. "Venezuela would
bring a part of its reserves; Brazil would bring a part of its reserves,
Argentina, too, and other countries."
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- Chavez said South American countries should disinvest
from rich countries that "manipulate, lend and make a lot of money
off our resources." Venezuela's central bank, for example, sold $10
billion of U.S. bonds and other U.S. assets in the first half of 2005.
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- "How stupid we've been," said Chavez.
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- The Bolivian president-elect, Evo Morales, met Chavez
in Caracas as he began a seven-nation world tour. Morales said he and the
Venezuelan president were united in a "fight against neo-liberalism
and imperialism."
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- Morales and Chavez represent a growing number of Latin
American leaders who are opposed to U.S. attempts to impose a "free
trade" agreement on the region.
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- Morales, a Socialist, is the first Bolivian politician
to be elected with an absolute majority having won 54 percent of the vote.
Morales is also the first Indian to come to power in Bolivia where 85 percent
of the population is indigenous.
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- During the trip, Morales discussed his plans to nationalize
Bolivia's vast natural gas holdings, the second largest in South America.
"Hydrocarbons and their nationalization-we're going to talk about
that," Chavez said as he met Morales at Caracas's international airport.
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- If the United States "wants bilateral diplomatic
and com-mercial relations, it will have them, but without submission, without
subordination, without conditions and without blackmail," Morales
said in Cuba.
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- On his return from Cuba, Morales held a private meeting
with U.S. Ambassador David Greenlee. Representatives declined to give details.
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- "We join in the task of Fidel [Castro] in Cuba and
Hugo in Venezuela to respond to the needs of the national majori-ties,"
Morales said in Caracas the following day, Jan. 3. "The time of the
people has arrived. This is the new millennium of the people."
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- "We are going to change Bolivia. We are going to
change Latin America," he said. Chavez referred to the three nationalist
presidents as "an axis of good."
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- Chavez offered to provide Bolivia with diesel fuel, trade
benefits and financial assistance for the social reforms Morales has proposed.
Venezuela provides some 200,000 barrels a day of subsidized oil to Cuba
and 12 other nations in Central America and the Caribbean Basin.
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- Chavez said Venezuela would supply 150,000 barrels of
diesel fuel monthly to Bolivia. "I won't accept you paying us a cent,
you are going to pay us in agricultural products," Chavez said.
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- Venezuela will also donate $30 million to Morales's government
following his Jan. 22 inauguration, Chavez said.
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- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad welcomed a proposal
from Chavez to develop three-way cooperation between Tehran, Caracas and
La Paz on energy.
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- Chavez proposed cooperation in the field of oil and gas
and asked Iran to supply Bolivia with the technical assistance required
to help the Morales government nationalize its oil and gas industry. Morales
said he intends to nationalize Bolivia's vast natural gas holdings but
not touch foreign oil and gas companies.
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- "I don't want to prejudice anybody. I don't want
to expropriate or confiscate any wealth," Morales said on a recent
trip to Santa Cruz, the center of Bolivia's gas production.
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- "I want to learn from the businessmen."
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- Christopher Bollyn is a much-traveled international journalist
cur-rently based in Chicago, serving as Midwest bureau chief for American
Free Press. He has written extensively on a wide variety of subjects including
the controversy surrounding computerized voting systems, the Arab-Israeli
conflict and the many unanswered questions surrounding the 9-11 terrorist
attacks.
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- LET IT FLOW: CITGO CEO Felix Rodriguez (right), U.S.
Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-N.Y.) center and Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo
Alvarez (left) attach a heating oil hose to a tank at a housing project
in the Bronx section of New York. Serrano, Rodriguez and Alvarez announced
details of a pilot program to deliver discounted heating oil to three non-profit
housing corpora-tions in the Bronx, as a result of an offer by Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez during a visit to the Bronx in September 2005
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- SOUTH AMERICAN ALLIANCE: Standing in front of a painting
depicting Latin American 19th century hero Simon Bolivar, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez (right) and his guest, Bolivia's President-elect Evo Morales,
exchange documents during a ceremony held in the Miraflores presidential
palace in Caracas. Morales signed an energy agreement with his Venezuelan
counterpart and fellow nationalist Chavez, and vowed to join the "anti-imperialist
struggle." Following their talks in Caracas, the fiery Chavez warned
that the United States "would be sorry" if it tried to organize
a coup against the new Bolivian leader. Chavez and Morales signed several
cooperation agreements, and underlined their commitment to further boost
ties between the two South American governments.
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