Lord Ellpus wrote:I read recently that he's got a plan underway to bulldoze a couple of "Millionaire" golf courses by the coast, in order to build some good quality social housing for "blue collar" workers from a nearby city.
Sounds like he's got his people at heart, if this is true.
Four years ago, imports and exports between the USA and Venezuala was running at about $20billion a year.
It now stands at about $47 billion a year, with the USA supplying almost a third of Venezuala's imports.
The problem may be that Chavez is possibly considering sending some of his oil to China, and this has the Whitehouse scared as it could possibly affect the amount of oil sent to the USA.
Currently, the USA imports $39 billion worth of oil each year from him.
THIS is why there is the possible "meddling" going on, leading to Chavez being a bit pissed off with Bushco, IMO.
I would recommend that they be nice to him, if they want to keep the U.S. factories running.
I believe Elpus is exhibiting a serious misunderstanding of the international oil market as well as some basic economics and the attitude of the U.S. government towards Venezuela.
Chavez' need to sell his oil is every bit as great as ours (or China's) to buy it. The market is well established and anyone with the money to buy gets the oil he wants. In fact, as a result of our proximity Venezuela's best customer (from its own profit perspective) has long been and will continue to be the United States.
Chavez is quite obviously using the United States as a rhetorical hate figure to give the poor Venezuelans he is so effectively duping something to focus on while he removes their freedoms. We have no particular history of (or interest in) meddling in Venezuelan internal affairs, though Venezuela has a very long history of corrupt government, class warfare, exploitation and economic inefficiency. The enormous natural wealth iof the country has been wasted for generations, and under Chavez that is likely to accelerate rapidly.
I doubt that our government enjioys the insulting rhetoric that Chavez spews out so prodigiously. However, the truth is Venezuela isn't particularly important to us or anyone else. They will continue to pump and export their oil (though likely less efficiently with government management), and continue to waste the revenues on subsidies designed primarily to enhance the great leader's political power -- and likely destroy what remains of Venezuela's economy in the process.
The U.S. has no interest or intent on an embargo of Venezuela. The embargo with respect to Cuba is an artifact of Cuba's former status as a client state of the Soviet Union and agent of revolution in Central America. That is all over now, and the only reason the embargo continues is that we don't want to be made to pay the bill for the restoration of the Cuban economy through loans and investments -- a process that will likely take a generation or two.
