Chavez: China to become a top oil client

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/4657808.html

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez said China is set to rival the United States as Venezuela's top oil buyer as he announced new plans with the Asian powerhouse to jointly ship oil, build refineries and expand crude production.

Chavez, speaking Friday after meeting with an official from the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., told reporters that, "As a power, the United States is going down, while China is moving up."

Chavez said Venezuela was on track to reach its goal of raising oil sales to China to 1 million barrels a day by 2012 from its current level of about 150,000 barrels a day.

"When we begin speaking of 1 million barrels of crude, we're nearing the level of Venezuelan supplies to the United States," Chavez said. Venezuela currently ships about 1.5 million barrels a day to the United States.

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This will make it MUCH more difficult for the US to continue to attempt to bully Chavez because China can now come along and yank our chain and tell us to SIT and HEEL.

Chavez ain't stupid. He might be a loose cannon or an asshole, but hey, we've got one of those.

you say "he might be." Just wondered what you are basing your impression on.

It seems to me that Chavez has done more for his people than any other leader on earth that I can think of, and more for Latin American self-determination and regional cooperation than anybody since Simon Bolivar. Just to enumerate some of the social programs of the Chavez government--a government, by the way, that won 63% of the votes in the latest election (so, apparently Venezuelans don't think of him as a "loose cannon" or an "asshole"): schools and teachers in the poorest areas of the country that have never had schools before, universal medical including an intense program of local medical clinics in poor areas, low cost housing (important in Caracas, where the poor shantytown homes regularly slide off the hills in heavy rains), community centers in poor areas, free university education for all qualified students, land reform (to keep farmers on farm land, especially helpful to poor farmers--the goal is Venezuelan food self-sufficiency), food subsides for the poorest of the poor, small business loans and grants, and encouragement of worker cooperatives.

In addition to these and many other beneficial programs--aimed at equalizing things a bit more in a country with a huge gap between the tiny rich elite and the vast population of the poor and the neglected--the Chavez government has established a fund to help its neighbors out of World Bank/IMF debt. Argentina was the first beneficiary. Its economy was a basketcase, due to World Bank/IMF/Global corporate predator policy. Venezuela bought out some of its debt on easy terms. Argentina is now on the road to recovery, with all indicators up, and thus has become a healthy trading partner for Brazil, Venezuela and others. The World Bank/IMF had forced Argentina to drastically cut all social programs--education, medical care and all helps for the poor. These programs are now restored. Bolivia and Ecuador are also receiving critically needed help to pull out of the economic devastation of so-called "free trade" policies. Venezuela is also embarked on several national and regional infrastructure projects, including one big and important one, just completed--the new Orinoco bridge between Venezuela and Brazil--which Chavez and Brazil's Lula da Silva recently celebrated. Projects like these, and the Bank of the South, are aimed at regional integration, trade, mutual assistance and regional economic prosperity.

Are these the works of an "asshole"? Kids having food in their bellies. Poor kids going to school. The sick having medical care. The poor having hope. Latin American countries achieving self-determination. The improvement of local economies. They don't seem like that to me. They seem like serious good works--seeing to the interests of the many.

Please tell me how you came by this characterization. I am curious about how our corporate news monopolies create negative impressions of Chavez--probably due to their billionaires CEOs' hostility to good government--to government of, by and for the people--to government that might cut into their ungodly profits just a bit. And if you didn't get this possible impression of Chavez from the corporate news monopolies, where did you get it from? Is it just a personal dislike, or the result of something else?

I admit that Chavez is a bit of a clown and a showman--and his humor is sometimes playing to gallery, as they say (peasant humor). But he also seems to be extremely intelligent and well-read. I think he is a very shrewd politician, with heartfelt views. And politicians should always be watched like hawks, even when you consider them to be well-meaning.

But I don't understand why people dis him like this--with a word like "asshole." I can think of a lot of politicians who ARE assholes--but most of them are north of the Mexican border.

He 'might be an asshole'. Hey, I'm an asshole. No criticism. Many successful people are regarded as assholes or crazy by their opponents, and they take it as a compliment.

No real criticism of Chavez intended really. (However, his nationalization scheme of the food supply is turning out VERY poorly.)