The terrorist and "national liberation" movements and groups are all interlinked. Consult my links, and view the evidence- judge for yourself. They have been for decades.
There is a fire burning and growing in our own backyard:
Bump!
The Foreign Ministry characterized as a "gross fascist lie," charges by those trying to oust Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that the World's No. 5 oil exporter sells Cuba cheap crude to prop-up the communist-run Caribbean island.
"Those with evil intentions who are putting forward the slander about Chavez giving oil to Cuba, not only fail to mention the millions of dollars paid by Cuba ... but also in a fantastic manner ignore that there is no gift at all," the Foreign Ministry said.
Chavez's praise for Cuba, and friendship with President Fidel Castro, is one reason his opponents are trying to force him from office, as they fear he plans to impose a similar workers' state on the country.
Cuba, which depends on Venezuela for more than half of its oil imports, received some relief this week from a mounting energy crisis caused by the strike and rising oil prices, when two tankers carrying Venezuelan crude arrived.
Cuba imports approximately 100,000 barrels of oil per day for transportation, agriculture and industry, the government has reported, and produces the equivalent of 75,000 to 80,000 bpd in oil and gas, mainly used to generate electricity.
Chavez's opponents called demonstrations for Thursday that include the demand he stop giving away oil to Cuba. The general strike has crippled Venezuela's oil production and exports, though Chavez insists he will break it and is restarting the oil industry.
Chavez and Castro signed an agreement in 2000 under which Venezuela exports up to 53,000 barrels of oil per day to Cuba, with up to 25 percent of the cost payable over 15 years after a two-year grace period.
The Foreign Ministry said it was on time with payments that have amounted to some $550 million since the deal was signed, adding that Cuba had sustained $200 million in damages due to disruptions in supplies caused by the political turmoil in the South American country.
A botched coup against Chavez last April led to a five-month disruption of supplies, forcing Cuba to close a refinery and purchase oil and derivatives on less favorable terms, the Foreign Ministry said, adding a similar situation had developed since Dec. 2. [End]
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service
http://www.iht.com/articles/83027.htmlThe United States is also working with Mexico and the Organization of American States to cobble together a coalition of South American governments to broker a truce. Diplomats working on the crisis are worried that the OAS, which has spearheaded negotiations, lacks the clout to get Chavez to consider concessions.
. But senior Venezuelan officials have already expressed suspicions about the administration's intentions.
. "We trust that the United States will not take a stand that will divide this country into pro-Americans and anti-Americans," Venezuela's foreign minister, Roy Chaderton, said in an interview. "It is not important to us that they see our mistakes and our defects. But we want them to respect that this is a democratically elected government."
. The Venezuelan constitution allows for a recall vote halfway through a president's term, which in Chavez's case would be August. The opposition has said that is too late. The constitution could also be amended by the national legislature to allow for earlier elections, but Chavez has rejected that idea. A third option would be a nonbinding referendum on Chavez's popularity in February. The opposition is proceeding with plans for the plebiscite, but Chavez has challenged its constitutionality.
. American officials say they do not care which electoral option is accepted, as long as an agreement is reached that ends the violence and allows renewed oil production.
. "This is an incredibly important moment in Venezuelan history," a senior State Department official said. "Things are happening now that are going to affect Venezuela for decades: its energy relationship with the United States, the structure of PDVSA, the integrity and credibility of its democratic institutions, all of these things are at stake."
. But many Latin American experts say the administration's efforts have been too little, too late. They contend that the Bush administration, distracted by Iraq, allowed Venezuela's problems to fester.
. Others say the administration committed two blunders last year that have hurt its credibility with Chavez and other Latin American leaders: in April, by appearing to endorse an attempted coup against the democratically elected Chavez government, and in December by briefly joining the opposition's call for "early elections."
. The result has been a low-keyed, unproductive effort by Washington to resolve the impasse, experts said. "The U.S. only seems able to give rhetorical calls from the sidelines in favor of a constitutional solution," said Michael Shifter at the InterAmerican Dialogue, a Washington policy group. "Washington is missing an opportunity to show some leadership." WASHINGTON The crisis in Venezuela is creating major new complications for the Bush administration's campaign to oust Saddam Hussein, causing oil shortages that would probably make a Gulf war more costly to the economy than once anticipated, American officials and industry experts said.
. A 40-day strike has virtually shut down Venezuela's oil industry, the fifth largest in the world, and proven more difficult to resolve than the administration had expected, American officials and experts said. Administration efforts to broker a truce also have been hamstrung by mistrust toward American diplomats and disagreements among Venezuela's neighbors, they said.
. Venezuela has for decades been one of the United States' most dependable sources of petroleum, and the strike has already hurt some American refineries and driven up the price of gasoline at the pump by at least 10 cents a gallon, the officials and experts say.
. Those shortages will only worsen, and prices continue to rise, if the United States attacks Iraq, the experts predicted. That means war in the Gulf could prove significantly more costly to the American economy than had been projected, if the Venezuelan standoff is not ended soon. For that reason, the Bush administration has been debating plans to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency stash of nearly 600 million gallons of crude.
. For now, though, the White House has decided to defer those plans, mainly to keep oil available in case of war in Iraq, officials said.
. "A few months ago, everybody thought that if we went to war in Iraq, oil wouldn't be a major problem because there was enough spare capacity to make up for lost Iraqi oil," said Larry Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, a research organization. "But no one then was contemplating lost Venezuelan oil."
. "Now," he said, "we won't have enough spare capacity to take care of both those events."