been caught web surfin, once … Liberal Street Fighter
I stumbled across a couple of interesting tidbits today in my link hopping. Pat Robertson’s bete’ noire, President Hugo Chavez, made another provocative statement in a BBC interview:
Asked why he thought the US was trying to invade Venezuela, Mr Chavez said: “We have denounced intentions.
“A coup happened in Venezuela that was prepared by the US. What do they want? Our oil, as they did in Iraq.
“We have detected with intelligence reports plans of a supposed invasion, one that would never happen. But we have to denounce it,” Mr Chavez said.
So what does this have to do with France?
President Chavez was interviewed by the BBC while on an official visit to France. Before I get to how the French get involved, lets check out a few other little bon mots shared by the irrepressible populist President:
Mr Chavez went on to describe the US as a terrorist government.
“It is an imperialist government, one that says it fights against terrorism but protects it. The US throws stones to Latin America.
“But apart from that, Venezuela is the world’s fifth oil exporter, and we send a million and a half barrels to the US every day,” he added.
“We sell oil to people. Another thing is our political differences that I wish could be toned down.”
He also denied claims that Venezuela was a threat to the international community, saying that his country wanted open relations with the whole world – a multi-polar world – but “with respect”.
“George W Bush should not have any reason to fear. If he does it is because he has a dark ghost in his subconscious,” he said.
So, given that President Chavez has made such statements in the past, and plainly believes the threat is real, is he in France hoping for a friend who might act as a counterbalance?
France and Venezuela Affirm “Common Vision,” Deeper Ties
France and Venezuela affirmed their strong ties and said they wanted deeper cooperation “on all levels” in a Paris meeting of their leaders which was sure to add another sore point to their already prickly relations with the United States.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said after meeting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez there was “a common vision between the two countries on relationships between the north and south (hemispheres) and on the need to change things, to have new ideas.”
Villepin added, in an impeccable Spanish he learnt growing up in Caracas, that “relations between France and Venezuela are very good and we are looking to develop our cooperation on all levels,” citing the sectors of education, energy and defence specifically.
“I think the next few months and years are going to prove very important in the cooperation between our two countries,” he added.
Chavez went from that meeting to one with President Jacques Chirac.
This is an interesting development, especially given the recent news that VENEZUELA PLACES RESERVES IN EUROS:
And now Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has reportedly moved his country’s monetary reserves out of Treasuries and over to Europe where presumably they reside in euro-denominated instruments of some sort.
Moving assets from dollars to euros or gold is a way of launching a bloodless but fairly effective attack on the United States which routinely spends a great deal more than it takes in from taxes and other revenue sources. Were other countries to follow this lead, the United States would have a harder time finding buyers at Treasury auctions – and would either have to find another of funding its deficits or would have to cut back on social and military spending. Chavez announced his monetary reconfiguration on TV, from a South American summit he was attending. “We’ve had to move the international reserves from U.S. banks because of the threats [from the United Staes],” the AP quoted him as saying. “The reserves we had [invested] in U.S. Treasury bonds, we’ve sold them and we moved them to Europe and other countries.”
President Chavez is plainly playing a high-stakes game of David vs. Goliath. Could one of the reasons he’s in France be that they have some very effective stones to sell?
The fact that his country is a major exporter of oil to the US, that he is building up his military forces and that he has developed close relations with Cuban leader Fidel Castro all means Washington is wary of him and his attempts to forge a Latin American grouping opposed to US “imperialism”.
US officials are also worried that Chavez might be embarking on a nuclear programme, according to a report in Monday’s Washington Times newspaper.
“They are quite kissy-kissy with Iran,” the paper quoted an unnamed official as saying. “There is a lot of back and forth. Iranians show up at Venezuelan things. They are both pariah states that hang out together.”
France was evidently not treating Venezuela as a pariah, however.[…]
Chaderton said Venezuela viewed France as a “privileged partner” and said: “Our relationship with France goes beyond sentimentality and is based on political convergence, a similar vision of the world and significant trade.”
Exchanges between the countries in the first half of this year stood at 235 million euros (280 million dollars) with the balance tilted in favour of Venezuela, thanks to its exports of oil and derivative products to France.
The French oil group Total is involved in Venezuela through a consortium called Sincor, which includes the state-run Petroleos de Venezuela company and the Norwegian group Statoil.
Chaderton said Venezuela also “admired France’s military infrastructure” but said he was not aware of any deal for Paris to sell Mirage fighter jets to Caracas, despite behind-the-scenes lobbying by French officials.
Chavez arrived in Paris from Italy, where he called Tuesday for a “strategic alliance” with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the oil sector.
“Venezuela wants to become the principal oil provider for Europe and Italy,” he said.
Some very interesting developments in President Chavez’ aggressive strategy to press back against what he insists continuously is unwelcome bullying behavior by the American government in South and Central America. He could develop as a standard bearer for numerous small countries fed up with our cowboy politics, and present a very interesting problem for international diplomats.
