Chavez keeps tweaking the US nose .... 2nd World gets it's act together

Last month, President Chavez of Venezuela agreed deals to provide oil on preferential terms to most Caribbean nations after a meeting of regional energy ministers in Caracas. Bilateral agreements were signed with the Dominican Republic, Dominica, Grenada, Suriname, Belize, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda. He has earlier concluded preferential deals with both Cuba and Jamaica. The arrangement allows participating governments to pay market price for Venezuelan oil, for just a small portion of customary up-front costs, and allows them to finance the rest of the payments over 25 years at one percent interest if oil prices exceed $US40 per barrel.

Governments could also pay for part of the cost with services or goods such as rice, bananas or sugar. Venezuela has also agreed to provide assistance in expanding shipping and refining facilities.

Leaders of South American nations, without Argentina, Colombia, Guyana, Uruguay and Surinam, met with the intention of developing a South American free-trade zone.It was the first meeting of the South American Community of Nations in Brazil's capital, Brasilia.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez boasted in a local press interview on Sunday that his country has a 'strong oil card' to play in its contentious relations with the US, and said its hand will be even stronger if other Latin American countries join it in a regional economic alliance.

'In Venezuela, we have a strong oil card to play on the geopolitical stage, and we're going to play it clearly in the interests of regional integration,' Chavez told the daily Clarin newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

'It is a card that we are going to play with toughness against the toughest country in the world (but governed by 'transparency and respect'). With the United States,' Chavez said.

He stressed that Venezuela's actions will always be governed by 'transparency and respect'.

Chavez, who has offered to invest US$5 Bn in a 'South American Development Bank', has also expressed disappointment with the South American trade summit, which produced a vague program with no start-up date.

Chilean international affairs expert Juan de Dios Parra the secretary general of the Latin American Association for Human Rights, said that – to date – South America’s relations “with the rest of the world (have been) from the First World to the Third World.”

Saying that South America had been forced to eat the crumbs left by the big developed countries. He envisaged ,"... a united South America , ... there’s a new actor on the world stage made up of these countries of the Second World, which didn’t exist before now."

George had better get that call in to Pat Robertson ...REAL SOON NOW

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