U.S. NGO’s Case against Venezuela’s Citgo and Chavez Dismissed

Source: Venezuelanalysis.com

Mérida, September 2nd 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - On Monday a U.S. judged dismissed a lawsuit filed against Citgo, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA. The company and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez were accused of alleged terrorist acts and human rights abuses.

News service EFE reported that Judge Cecilia Altonaga granted Citgo's request to make the proceeding null and void and also closed the cases against Chavez, Vice President Ramon Carrizales, Foreign Affairs Minister Nicolas Maduro and four other officials.

The petitioner of the lawsuit against Chavez, journalist Ricardo Guanipa, failed to follow an order to notify all of the defendants. Through his lawyer he managed to notify Citgo, which responded with a request to annul the case, but not Chavez and the other officials.

EFE reports that the U.S. NGO Freedom Watch lodged the lawsuit last April on behalf of Guanipa. According to Aporrea.org, Guanipa used to work with Radio Marti, a U.S.-financed station that transmits to Cuba against the government there, and Radionexx, a private Venezuelan station that has called for the overthrow of the Chavez government and for the president's assassination.



Read more: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4765

by US interest in Venezuela's oil anymore. It's a sad realization for many of us who grew up thinking of the US as the good guys, that those who control this country, care nothing at all for the people of the world, and even less for the people of oil-producing countries.

Still, the threat to those countries that have succeeded in ridding themselves of Big Oil friendly dictators, has not gone away. The only hope is that engaging in oil wars in S. A. and the ME at the same time, is just not possible.

Maybe the US should try a novel idea. How about supporting democracies, and buying their resources at a fair price. Sort of like the way Capitalism is supposed to work.