Castro Condemns Bush's Ethanol

[ScreamingEagle]

Please spell it out for me, just so im not mistaken.

You can do your own research. However, here's one link that depicts many of the useful idiots of Castro.

THE USEFUL IDIOTS

Through the years, many famous people, including politicians, sport figures, millionaires and Hollywood luminaries have been going to Cuba and allow themselves to be used by Castro's propaganda machine. Many have done it out of sheer ignorance; some have done it because they are dumb; and some others because they are benefiting economically from their association with this brutal dictator.

It is a great propaganda tool for the Castro regime. Cubans who are enslaved by this brutal dictator are told that they can't expect much international help when all these famous people are going there to make jokes, play games or show their support for the dictator.

Some day, these people will have to hang their head in shame for having used their names and fame to support Castro's genocide against the Cuban people.

Here is what some of the useful idiots have said:

http://www.therealcuba.com/The Useful Idiots.htm

 

[Superlative]

You can do your own research. However, here's one link that depicts many of the useful idiots of Castro.

I guess you got me, although id rather be a "useful idiot" than an ignorant Republican.

 

[Superlative]

Venezuela's Chavez pledges to undermine U.S. ethanol plans with Brazil

CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela President Hugo Chavez pledged to undermine a U.S.-Brazil ethanol agreement, but denied any conflict with his South American neighbor and ally.

In a televised speech on Tuesday, Chavez said he plans to "knock down" the ethanol proposal in the same way he lobbied against a U.S.-backed hemispheric trade pact.

"We are working on an alternative proposal," he said without elaborating. "Just as we overthrew the Free Trade Area of the Americas, we will now overthrow" the ethanol plan.

U.S. President George W. Bush and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, signed a memorandum of understanding last month to promote international ethanol use and production. The two countries are the world's leading producers of the alternative fuel.

Chavez has accused the United States of trying to promote an ethanol cartel to divide the region, and warned that ethanol production will end up destroying the environment if the aim is to replace U.S. gasoline consumption with fuel from industrial agriculture.

But he denied having any conflict with Silva, and accused Washington of trying manufacture a confrontation.

"There is a strategy to try to make us fight with Brazil," Chavez said. "We will never fight with Lula, we will never fight with Brazil. About this we are very clear: our enemy is the U.S. empire."


http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/11/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Brazil-US.php

 

[ScreamingEagle]

Venezuela's Chavez pledges to undermine U.S. ethanol plans with Brazil

CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela President Hugo Chavez pledged to undermine a U.S.-Brazil ethanol agreement, but denied any conflict with his South American neighbor and ally.

In a televised speech on Tuesday, Chavez said he plans to "knock down" the ethanol proposal in the same way he lobbied against a U.S.-backed hemispheric trade pact.

"We are working on an alternative proposal," he said without elaborating. "Just as we overthrew the Free Trade Area of the Americas, we will now overthrow" the ethanol plan.

U.S. President George W. Bush and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, signed a memorandum of understanding last month to promote international ethanol use and production. The two countries are the world's leading producers of the alternative fuel.

Chavez has accused the United States of trying to promote an ethanol cartel to divide the region, and warned that ethanol production will end up destroying the environment if the aim is to replace U.S. gasoline consumption with fuel from industrial agriculture.

But he denied having any conflict with Silva, and accused Washington of trying manufacture a confrontation.

"There is a strategy to try to make us fight with Brazil," Chavez said. "We will never fight with Lula, we will never fight with Brazil. About this we are very clear: our enemy is the U.S. empire."


http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/11/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Brazil-US.php

That's interesting. I wonder what Chavez has in mind. More free oil?

 

[Superlative]

Chavez says reconciliation with U.S. 'impossible'

CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that reconciliation with Washington was impossible and threatened again to cut off oil shipments to the United States if it supports any effort to oust him.

He said a thirst for oil motivated both the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and a failed 2002 coup against him. Chavez has often accused the United States of being behind the coup, and Washington has repeatedly denied the allegation.

"There is no possibility of understanding for our revolution with the government of the United States, with U.S. imperialism," Chavez said during a news conference Friday to mark the fifth anniversary of his return to power two days after the coup.

Chavez also said that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were "a gift for (U.S. President George W.) Bush" because they enabled him to wage war.

He did say "coexistence" was possible, but warned: "If there were another aggression against us, there wouldn't be another drop of oil for the United States ... We're prepared for it."

Venezuela was the fourth-largest supplier of crude oil to the United States last year despite the antagonism between the former paratroop commander and the Bush administration.

Chavez alleged that Pedro Carmona, who briefly replaced him during the 2002 coup, tried to have him killed in a faked accident.

"There are witnesses that say Pedro Carmona Estanga issued an order from the presidential palace to kill me ... but to make it look like an accident, and he had just received a call from Washington," Chavez said at the news conference. "The order to get rid of me came from Washington."

U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield, asked about Chavez's remarks, listed more than two dozen accusations that he said Caracas has leveled against Washington recently.

"Look, I shouldn't do this, but I'm going to mention that during perhaps the last six months more or less, my government has been accused of (attempting) assassination, invasion, coup d'etat ... a campaign for abstention in the elections, a campaign to assure that the international observers offer negative opinions ... a campaign of espionage, a transport strike ..." Brownfield told reporters.

The U.S. government "wants to have the best relations possible with the Venezuelan government," said Brownfield, who was attending a conference on freedom of speech. "We aren't responsible for all the evils, all the problems in the world. If it were so, 300 million U.S. citizens would never have time to sleep and rest with so many plots."

At the presidential palace Friday, Chavez gazed through binoculars down the packed avenue and told thousands of supporters he had never seen such a large crowd there. He compared the 2002 coup bid to the failed CIA-supported Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, which was routed by Cuban troops led by Fidel Castro.

"Does anyone believe there is any agreement possible with the U.S. empire?" Chavez asked. The crowd outside the palace responded with shouts of "No!"

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/14/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-US.php

 

[ScreamingEagle]

Chavez says reconciliation with U.S. 'impossible'

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/14/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-US.php

Well, didn't think so....PDVSA is already stretched thin...we shall see what results when Chavez officially does his socialist/fascist takeover of Venezuela's private oil sector May 1st...things are getting serious...

High Stakes: Chávez Plays the Oil Card

CARACAS, Venezuela, April 9 — With President Hugo Chávez setting a May 1 deadline for an ambitious plan to wrest control of several major oil projects from American and European companies, a showdown is looming here over access to some of the most coveted energy resources outside the Middle East.

Moving beyond empty threats to cut off all oil exports to the United States, officials have recently stepped up the pressure on the oil companies operating here, warning that they might sell American refineries meant to process Venezuelan crude oil even as they seek new outlets in China and elsewhere around the world.

“Chávez is playing a game of chicken with the largest oil companies in the world,” said Pietro Pitts, an oil analyst who publishes LatinPetroleum, an industry magazine based here. “And for the moment he is winning.”

But this confrontation could easily end up with everyone losing.

The biggest energy companies could be squeezed out of the most promising oil patch in the Western Hemisphere. But Venezuela risks undermining the engine behind Mr. Chávez’s socialist-inspired revolution by hampering its ability to transform the nation’s newly valuable heavy oil into riches for years to come.

As Mr. Chávez asserts much greater control over Venezuela’s oil industry, his national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, is already showing signs of stress. Management has become increasingly politicized, and money for maintenance and development is being diverted to pay for a surge in public spending.

During the last several decades, control of global oil reserves has steadily passed from private companies to national oil companies like Petróleos de Venezuela. According to a new Rice University study, 77 percent of the world’s 1.148 trillion barrels of proven reserves is in the hands of the national companies; 14 of the top 20 oil-producing companies are state-controlled.

The implications are potentially stark for the United States, which imports 60 percent of its oil. State companies tend to be far less efficient and innovative, and far more politicized. No place captures the shift in power to nationalist governments like Venezuela.

“We are on a collision course with Chávez over oil,” said Michael J. Economides, an oil consultant in Houston who wrote an influential essay comparing Mr. Chávez’s populist appeal in Latin America with the pan-Arabism of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya two decades ago. “Chávez poses a much bigger threat to America’s energy security than Saddam Hussein ever did.”

Consider the quandary facing Exxon Mobil after its chairman, Rex W. Tillerson, recently suggested that Exxon might be forced to abandon a major Venezuelan oil project because of its growing troubles with Mr. Chávez.

The energy world took notice. So did Mr. Chávez’s government.

Only a day later, Venezuelan agents raided Exxon’s offices here in the San Ignacio towers, a bastion for this country’s business elite. The government said that the raid was part of a tax investigation, but energy analysts said the exchange of threat and counterthreat was all too clear.

Politics and ideology are driving the confrontation here as Mr. Chávez seeks to limit American influence around the world, starting in Venezuela’s oil fields. Mr. Chávez views the Bush administration as a threat, in part because it indirectly supported a coup that briefly removed him from power five years ago. Yet the United States remains Venezuela’s largest customer.

Mr. Chávez recently decreed that Venezuela would take control of heavy oil fields in the Orinoco Belt, a region southeast of Caracas of so much potential that some experts say it could give the country more reserves than Saudi Arabia. The United States Geological Survey describes the area as the “largest single hydrocarbon accumulation in the world,” making it highly coveted despite Mr. Chávez’s erratic policies.

By setting a May 1 deadline for what some foreign oil executives consider an expropriation, the Venezuelan leader risks losing Exxon, ConocoPhillips and other companies, which are loath to put their employees and billions of dollars in assets under Venezuelan management.

A departure of expertise and investment could weaken an oil industry already unsettled by being transformed into Mr. Chávez’s most crucial tool for carrying out his reconfiguration of Venezuelan society.

Mr. Chávez has raised taxes on foreign oil companies and forced other oil ventures to come under his government’s control. And he has purged more than 17,000 employees from Petróleos de Venezuela after a debilitating strike about four years ago.

The talks have bogged down over how much the oil companies’ stakes in four big Orinoco projects are worth, whether Venezuela’s cash-short oil company would pay for the assets in oil instead of cash and, most important, who would manage the reduced operations of the foreign oil companies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/b...ei=5087 &em&en=aad2996f4aca8b0f&ex=1176350400