Brazil Sends Gasoline at Venezuelan's Request
By LARRY ROHTER
>[...] Mr. Chávez in turn has said "Lula is a great man" whose rise to power
>he has wished for "day and night." After Mr. da Silva won a landslide
>victory here in October, Mr. Chávez said he hoped Brazil would join
>Venezuela and Cuba in establishing an "axis of good" in the
>hemisphere.
According to Cuban shortwave, Cuba is now experiencing a serious oil crunch, since half of its oil comes from Venezuela. Anyone seen written material about this?
Here's an October article about the Cuba-Venezuela deal which included a swap of oil for medical care.
######## Cuba, Venezuela Sign Oil Deal
Associated Press
October 30, 2000
By Alexandra Olson
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)--Fidel Castro capped a five-day tour of Venezuela-- a virtual love fest with his host, President Hugo Chavez--by signing a controversial oil assistance pact Monday that opponents say Venezuela can ill afford.
Chavez touted the five-year pact as proof of his commitment to help developing nations. Venezuela's private sector and labor unions said the money could be put to better use creating jobs and paying off billions of dollars of government debt. Others called it a thinly disguised gift to a government accused of human rights abuses.
Venezuela will provide 53,000 barrels of oil a day--at current prices, worth more than $500 million a year. Cuba will pay for part of the oil in cash and up to one-quarter of it under preferential financing terms, depending on the price of a barrel, Venezuelan Energy Minister Ali Rodriguez said.
Cuba will also receive an unspecified amount in exchange for treating Venezuelan medical patients; supplying doctors, medical equipment and aid in producing medicines; and providing expertise in agricultural, tourism, sports, computer technology and scientific research.
The financing terms give Cuba 15 years to pay, with a two-year grace period, and a 2 percent interest rate. Venezuela has signed similar pacts with Central American and Caribbean nations.
The state-to-state sale will replace part of the more than 100,000 barrels a day that Cuba buys on the open market, Rodriguez said. The amount to be sold by barter will be set by annual meetings to estimate the worth of services Cuba will provide.
Cuba already owes Venezuela's Central Bank an estimated $69 million, and its government has agreed to begin paying down that debt.
Cuba has sent 450 doctors to Venezuela to help victims of landslides in December that killed an estimated 15,000 people and left 100,000 homeless. But anti-Chavez lawmakers say it is difficult to put a price tag on Cuban medical care under a permanent oil pact. Venezuela will pay to house and feed the doctors.
Monday's signing ended a state visit in which Castro, 74, and Chavez, 46, cemented their friendship. Castro proclaimed Chavez a successor to his role as Latin America's most visible revolutionary. Chavez called his radical changes to Venezuela's government a "social revolution."
As an army paratrooper, Chavez led an unsuccessful 1992 coup attempt and was imprisoned for two years. Since his election in 1998, he has deepened ties with Cuba and overhauled political institutions in this oil-rich but poverty-stricken country of 24 million people. His leftist coalition swept away the old Congress and Supreme Court and curtailed the power of the two traditional political parties that ruled Venezuela for 40 years.
Chavez has come under increasing criticism by trade unions because of billions of dollars in unpaid raises and pensions, and last week thousands of workers protested in a march that coincided with Castro's arrival.
On Sunday, the presidents talked for four hours on Chavez's weekly radio program, "Hello President," which was broadcast from Valencia's Carabobo Battlefield where South American liberator Simon Bolivar defeated the Spanish colonial army in 1821.
They closed the program with an off-key rendition of "Venezuela," a popular ballad, a demonstration of their mutual affection.
"I have confidence in you," Castro told Chavez. "At this moment, in this country, you have no substitute."
######
Jenny Brown