Entries Tagged as 'Chávez'
13 February 2008 · Comments Off
I mentioned a few days ago that Chavez was threatening to cut off oil exports to the U.S. unless he got his way in a lawsuit brought against the Venezuelan national oil company by Exxon over the nationalization of Venezuelan oil projects.
Well, maybe Chavez’s temper-tantrum has eased just a little bit. From an AP story:
Venezuela’s state oil company said Tuesday that it has stopped selling crude to Exxon Mobil Corp. in response to the U.S. oil company’s drive to use the courts to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.[...]
The U.S. remains the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan oil, and Chavez relies largely on U.S. oil money to stimulate his economy and bankroll social programs that have traditionally boosted his popularity.
Some analysts say it would make little sense for Chavez to follow through on his broader threats to cut off oil sales to the U.S. because Venezuela owns refineries in the United States that are customized to handle the South American country’s heavy crude.
Tags:
Energy · Chávez · Venezuela
11 February 2008 · 1 Comment
You’d think that Hugo Chavez could redirect some of the country’s oil revenue to hire better lawyers or buy a few judges. This AP story causes him to sound almost petulant:
President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an “economic war” if Exxon Mobil Corp. wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion dollar oil project by Chavez’s government.[...]
A British court has issued an injunction “freezing” as much as $12 billion in assets.
Chavez has repeatedly threatened to cut off oil shipments to the United States, which is Venezuela’s No. 1 client, if Washington tries to oust him. Chavez’s warnings on Sunday appeared to extend that threat to attempts by oil companies to challenge his government’s nationalization drive through lawsuits.[...]
“The outlaws of Exxon Mobil will never again rob us,” Chavez said, accusing the Irving, Texas-based oil company of acting in concert with Washington.
Tags:
Energy · Chávez
11 December 2007 · Comments Off
About a week ago, I gave Chávez credit for respecting the outcome of the referendum in Venezuela. However, if Jorge Castañeda is to be believed, maybe that credit was misplaced. Quoting Castañeda’s editorial in Newsweek:
[B]y midweek enough information had emerged to conclude that Chávez did, in fact, try to overturn the results. As reported in El Nacional, and confirmed to me by an intelligence source, the Venezuelan military high command virtually threatened him with a coup d’état if he insisted on doing so. Finally, after a late-night phone call from Raúl Isaías Baduel, a budding opposition leader and former Chávez comrade in arms, the president conceded—but with one condition: he demanded his margin of defeat be reduced to a bare minimum in official tallies, so he could save face and appear as a magnanimous democrat in the eyes of the world.
I suppose that it’s still something to respect the outcome of the vote…even if that is tarnished by tweaking the results so as to enhance propagandic value.
Perhaps credit really belongs to the Venezuelan military for holding Chávez’s feet to the fire.
Tags:
Elections · Chávez · Venezuela
