Tag Archives: United States

Jul
28
2010
Posted by
editor
Comments

Tense energy ties between Venezuela and United States

This article was originally posted by Reuters Africa

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has threatened to cut off oil supplies to the United States in case of any military attack by Colombia as a row escalates over charges that Venezuela harbors leftist Colombian guerrillas.

Despite his heated rhetoric, the former paratrooper has never followed through on several previous threats to stop U.S. shipments. But energy ties between the two nations have become increasingly tense in recent years.

FALLING EXPORTS

* The United States is the Latin American OPEC member’s top customer, and Venezuela is currently the fifth biggest U.S. supplier after Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Nigeria. The volume of Venezuelan crude shipped to the United States has fallen 39 percent to 1.08 million barrels per day (bpd) last year from a peak of 1.78 million bpd in 1997, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. (r.reuters.com/hyp99m)

* The decline is partly due to increasing sales by Caracas to customers such as Cuba, China and Iran, as well as stagnating production by Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.

* U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, for its part, wants to develop an energy policy that reduces foreign oil dependence.

THREATS TO SUPPLIES

* Chavez first warned back in February 2004 that he would shut off Venezuelan oil supplies to the United States if it tried to invade the Andean nation or impose a trade blockade against his country — after he accused former U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration of backing a short-lived coup attempt against him in 2002. The following month, he backed away from the threat and said he did not have any intention of damaging relations with Washington.

Read more

 
Jul
27
2010
Posted by
editor
Comments

Venezuela on ‘red alert’ after Colombia row, envoy says

Credits: The Associated PressThis article was originally published by: The Washington Times

Venezuela is in a state of “red alert” after its latest high-profile diplomatic dispute with Colombia, the country’s U.S. envoy said Tuesday.

“I have to be honest with you. We are now in red alert,” Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez told reporters at his residence in Washington.

“We know what happened with Ecuador,” he said, referring to Colombia’s March 2008 cross-border strike on a base of a leftist insurgent group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Venezuela, which shares a 1,375-mile border with Colombia, severed ties with its neighbor over the weekend after outgoing President Alvaro Uribe and other Colombian officials accused Venezuela of harboring FARC forces.

“These bandits enter, do us harm, and then return to a foreign country, violating the sovereignty of brother nations,” Mr. Uribe said in a speech Saturday.

His comments came two days after Colombian diplomats made a multimedia presentation before the Organization of American States, where they presented maps, photographs, videos and GPS coordinates that they said warranted an OAS investigation into FARC’s presence in Venezuela.

Read more

 
Jul
26
2010
Posted by
editor
Comments

Chavez puts pressure on Colombia ahead of polls

Credits: AFPThis article was originally posted by AFP

Venezuela stepped up its words of war with neighboring Colombia Monday, in moves seen as an effort by President Hugo Chavez to distract voters from domestic problems ahead of key September elections.

The escalating diplomatic row, sparked by Bogota’s allegations last week that Venezuela was harboring 1,500 Colombian rebels on its territory, had prompted Chavez to cancel a trip to Cuba citing the danger of “armed aggression” by Colombia, warning the United States to stay out of the crisis.

In his place Monday, Electricity Minister Ali Rodriguez upon visiting Havana claimed Bogota’s accusations were a “foul, vulgar and offensive pretext to attack Venezuela.”

Chavez meanwhile threatened to cut off oil supplies to the United States if it backed a Colombian attack, although the US State Department also made clear it was reiterating its stance that the United States “has no intention of engaging in military action against Venezuela.”

Chavez broke off diplomatic relations with Bogota Thursday in response to charges by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that the FARC guerrillas had set up bases inside Venezuela and were launching attacks from its territory.

Venezuela’s anti-American leftist president added on Sunday he had intelligence that “the possibility of an armed aggression against Venezuelan territory from Colombia” was higher than it has been “in 100 years.”

Political experts pointed out, however, that the saber-rattling came just in time for the Venezuelan ruling party’s electoral campaign for legislative polls two months away.

Chavez, analyst Jose Vicente Carrasquero told AFP, was seeking to “excite the spirits of his supporters” while simultaneously trying to “divert attention from the internal situation in Venezuela to a possible international conflict.”

Read More