AI
Big turnaround in our own backyard
Background –
Bush wants to get rid of Chavez in order to control Venezuela’s oil.
The United States is waging a war in neighboring Colombia which could spill over into Venezuela in order to aid the agenda.
Colombia had just purchased 46 AMX-30 battle tanks from Spain.
This is also the ideal formula to create a border war: A paramilitary infiltration, which the Venezuelan Army would try to repel, whose defenses the Colombian Army's new heavy tanks, conveniently posted on 'border patrol', would be able to smash through once the initial 'incident' was set. This would then be presented as 'Venezuelan aggression', and no doubt the US papers would set to work writing about how Chavez started a war to prevent the referendum. The war could then quickly change from one between Colombia and Venezuela to one between the US and Venezuela.
#msg-3389459
In a turn of events that is going to cause some scrambling in Washington Venezuela has just signed a $100 million gas pipeline deal with Colombia.
At the same time Colombia has canceled an order to buy battle tanks from Spain due to concern in neighboring Venezuela and the change of Spanish government.
Another important development discussed between the two presidents of Venezuela and Colombia is the construction of a future oil port on Colombia’s pacific coast to access Asian markets for the export of Venezuelan oil.
President Chavez stressed the importance of the proposed Colombian oil port. “We will continue selling oil and its derivatives to the United States, to Caribbean countries and South America, but there is a market that is very far from us because of a lack of interconnection, that is the Asian market. Imagine a Venezuelan supertanker sailing through the Caribbean and through the Atlantic, crossing the horn of Africa in order to find a route to far away China. China is very far that way but through Colombia, it’s not. Through Colombia it would be straight shot,” Chavez said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Bush will now have to deal with the new alliance between Venezuela and Colombia and Venezuela’s Asian exports to China either of which I don’t imagine will please him. The recent developments could make it more imperative that Chavez disappear.
The economic integration between Central American countries may not be greeted with warmth in Washington.
Colombian president Alvaro Uribe expressed his enthusiasm for the new deal between the two countries pointing to further integration of both countries into Plan Panama Puebla in the near future. “Now that the plan to construct a gas pipeline between Venezuela and Colombia has been finalized, we have to look towards the future. We are making progress towards a larger project, towards the extension of that gas pipeline to the sister republic of Panama. It is the extension of Venezuela and Colombia to Plan Panama Puebla,” Uribe said.
Uribe invited Chavez to a meeting with Panama's new President Martin Torrijos to discuss Venezuela and Colombia's adherance to the Puebla Panama Plan which seeks economic integration between Central American countries.
see also:
#msg-3142418
#msg-2503118
#msg-3399949
-Am
Venezuela Signs $100 Million Gas Pipeline Deal with Colombia
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004
By: Robin Nieto - Venezuelanalysis.com
Caracas, July 15, 2004—With a firm step towards further energy sector integration with neighboring South American countries, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a $100 million deal with Colombia’s president Alvaro Uribe yesterday to build a 177 km long natural gas pipeline from Colombia’s northeastern Guarija state to Venezuela’s westerly Lake Maracaibo area, Venezuela´s main oil producing region.
The Guarija-Maracaibo gas pipeline deal was signed in a petrochemical plant that has been out of operation due to a lack of gas to power the plant. Although Venezuela has the eighth largest gas reserves in the world, it has yet to be developed sufficiently to transport the gas from the country’s eastern most region, where the reserve is located, to Lake Maracaibo, the western most of Venezuela’s regions.
According to the Venezuelan Minister of Energy and Mines, Rafael Ramirez, the gas will be sent from Colombia to Venezuela for the next seven years but after that time, the flow will be reversed. “Venezuelan gas will be sent to Colombia, Panama, through a previous plan of integration that will extend to Mexico,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez admitted that Venezuela is 10 years behind in natural gas development and said Venezuela will commit $200 million towards developing an internal pipeline system to connect Venezuela’s distant regions together. This would include a pipeline from Venezuela’s eastern gas reserves to the Guarija-Maracaibo gas line in the west, where it will form part of multiple pipelines to Panama to access Central American, western US and Asian markets.
Oil port on Colombia’s Pacific for Venezuela’s Asian exports
Another important development discussed between the two presidents is the construction of a future oil port on Colombia’s pacific coast to access Asian markets for the export of Venezuelan oil.
President Chavez stressed the importance of the proposed Colombian oil port. “We will continue selling oil and its derivatives to the United States, to Caribbean countries and South America, but there is a market that is very far from us because of a lack of interconnection, that is the Asian market. Imagine a Venezuelan supertanker sailing through the Caribbean and through the Atlantic, crossing the horn of Africa in order to find a route to far away China. China is very far that way but through Colombia, it’s not. Through Colombia it would be straight shot,” Chavez said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Chavez said yesterday that he met with Chinese investors who want to buy Venezuelan oil for China’s expanding market. “Recently we were visited by Chinese business leaders who want to invest, through an agreement between Colombia and Venezuela, in multiple pipelines from western Venezuela to the Pacific from which we would have direct access to the vast world that is the Asian market,” Chavez said.
"China is growing and it is a giant that has awaken. It has risen and its growth has taken off, Japan as well. These are countries that need energy for the future,” Chavez said.
Colombia's Uribe enthusiastic
Colombian president Alvaro Uribe expressed his enthusiasm for the new deal between the two countries pointing to further integration of both countries into Plan Panama Puebla in the near future. “Now that the plan to construct a gas pipeline between Venezuela and Colombia has been finalized, we have to look towards the future. We are making progress towards a larger project, towards the extension of that gas pipeline to the sister republic of Panama. It is the extension of Venezuela and Colombia to Plan Panama Puebla,” Uribe said.
Uribe invited Chavez to a meeting with Panama's new President Martin Torrijos to discuss Venezuela and Colombia's adherance to the Puebla Panama Plan which seeks economic integration between Central American countries. Uribe's statements and his visit overall dismissed claims of sour relations between Venezuela and Colombia. Opponents of Chavez, and U.S. government officials have accused him of providing aid to Colombian guerrillas and of being soft of narcotraffiking.
The Guajira-Maracaibo gas pipeline will be built by Ecopetrol and ChevronTexaco on Colombia´s side and by Venezuela´s state oil company PDVSA on Venezuela´s side.
South American energy sector integration is an important part of Venezuela’s international policy. In November of 2003, Chavez announced an initiative, PetroSur, at the Congress of Andean Parliaments, which would combine Venezuela's oil assets with those of Ecuador, Brazil and Trinidad, integrating the continent's oil resources.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1312
Colombia decides not to buy tanks from Spain
16 Jul 2004 16:08:13 GMT
BOGOTA, Colombia, July 16 (Reuters) - Colombia has canceled an order to buy battle tanks from Spain due to concern in neighboring Venezuela and the change of Spanish government, a Colombian official said on Friday.
Colombia's deal to buy 46 second-hand AMX-30 tanks and 20 artillery pieces for $6 million, agreed earlier this year when Jose Maria Aznar was still Spain's prime minister, had annoyed the Venezuelan government, which fretted the French-made tanks could be stationed on its border.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's decision not to go ahead with the purchase was also due to the reluctance of the new socialist Spanish government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to follow through with the deal, the official said.
"Because of international politics, President Uribe decided to suspend the contract," he said, asking not to be named.
Military analysts had criticized the planned purchase, saying the tanks were obsolete and unsuited to fighting Marxist rebels in Colombia's 40-year-old conflict.
Colombia's relations with Venezuela have been strained since leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took office in 1999. Colombian officials suspect Chavez of sympathizing with their Marxist insurgents and Chavez has attacked Colombia's ruling class and criticized its alliance with the United States.
Uribe, a right-winger who has launched an offensive against the rebels, met Chavez in Venezuela earlier this week, signing a deal to build a natural gas pipeline.
Zapatero, who won an election in March, is far less sympathetic to Uribe's military strategy than the conservative Aznar.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16216041.htm
Background –
Bush wants to get rid of Chavez in order to control Venezuela’s oil.
The United States is waging a war in neighboring Colombia which could spill over into Venezuela in order to aid the agenda.
Colombia had just purchased 46 AMX-30 battle tanks from Spain.
This is also the ideal formula to create a border war: A paramilitary infiltration, which the Venezuelan Army would try to repel, whose defenses the Colombian Army's new heavy tanks, conveniently posted on 'border patrol', would be able to smash through once the initial 'incident' was set. This would then be presented as 'Venezuelan aggression', and no doubt the US papers would set to work writing about how Chavez started a war to prevent the referendum. The war could then quickly change from one between Colombia and Venezuela to one between the US and Venezuela.
#msg-3389459
In a turn of events that is going to cause some scrambling in Washington Venezuela has just signed a $100 million gas pipeline deal with Colombia.
At the same time Colombia has canceled an order to buy battle tanks from Spain due to concern in neighboring Venezuela and the change of Spanish government.
Another important development discussed between the two presidents of Venezuela and Colombia is the construction of a future oil port on Colombia’s pacific coast to access Asian markets for the export of Venezuelan oil.
President Chavez stressed the importance of the proposed Colombian oil port. “We will continue selling oil and its derivatives to the United States, to Caribbean countries and South America, but there is a market that is very far from us because of a lack of interconnection, that is the Asian market. Imagine a Venezuelan supertanker sailing through the Caribbean and through the Atlantic, crossing the horn of Africa in order to find a route to far away China. China is very far that way but through Colombia, it’s not. Through Colombia it would be straight shot,” Chavez said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Bush will now have to deal with the new alliance between Venezuela and Colombia and Venezuela’s Asian exports to China either of which I don’t imagine will please him. The recent developments could make it more imperative that Chavez disappear.
The economic integration between Central American countries may not be greeted with warmth in Washington.
Colombian president Alvaro Uribe expressed his enthusiasm for the new deal between the two countries pointing to further integration of both countries into Plan Panama Puebla in the near future. “Now that the plan to construct a gas pipeline between Venezuela and Colombia has been finalized, we have to look towards the future. We are making progress towards a larger project, towards the extension of that gas pipeline to the sister republic of Panama. It is the extension of Venezuela and Colombia to Plan Panama Puebla,” Uribe said.
Uribe invited Chavez to a meeting with Panama's new President Martin Torrijos to discuss Venezuela and Colombia's adherance to the Puebla Panama Plan which seeks economic integration between Central American countries.
see also:
#msg-3142418
#msg-2503118
#msg-3399949
-Am
Venezuela Signs $100 Million Gas Pipeline Deal with Colombia
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004
By: Robin Nieto - Venezuelanalysis.com
Caracas, July 15, 2004—With a firm step towards further energy sector integration with neighboring South American countries, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a $100 million deal with Colombia’s president Alvaro Uribe yesterday to build a 177 km long natural gas pipeline from Colombia’s northeastern Guarija state to Venezuela’s westerly Lake Maracaibo area, Venezuela´s main oil producing region.
The Guarija-Maracaibo gas pipeline deal was signed in a petrochemical plant that has been out of operation due to a lack of gas to power the plant. Although Venezuela has the eighth largest gas reserves in the world, it has yet to be developed sufficiently to transport the gas from the country’s eastern most region, where the reserve is located, to Lake Maracaibo, the western most of Venezuela’s regions.
According to the Venezuelan Minister of Energy and Mines, Rafael Ramirez, the gas will be sent from Colombia to Venezuela for the next seven years but after that time, the flow will be reversed. “Venezuelan gas will be sent to Colombia, Panama, through a previous plan of integration that will extend to Mexico,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez admitted that Venezuela is 10 years behind in natural gas development and said Venezuela will commit $200 million towards developing an internal pipeline system to connect Venezuela’s distant regions together. This would include a pipeline from Venezuela’s eastern gas reserves to the Guarija-Maracaibo gas line in the west, where it will form part of multiple pipelines to Panama to access Central American, western US and Asian markets.
Oil port on Colombia’s Pacific for Venezuela’s Asian exports
Another important development discussed between the two presidents is the construction of a future oil port on Colombia’s pacific coast to access Asian markets for the export of Venezuelan oil.
President Chavez stressed the importance of the proposed Colombian oil port. “We will continue selling oil and its derivatives to the United States, to Caribbean countries and South America, but there is a market that is very far from us because of a lack of interconnection, that is the Asian market. Imagine a Venezuelan supertanker sailing through the Caribbean and through the Atlantic, crossing the horn of Africa in order to find a route to far away China. China is very far that way but through Colombia, it’s not. Through Colombia it would be straight shot,” Chavez said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Chavez said yesterday that he met with Chinese investors who want to buy Venezuelan oil for China’s expanding market. “Recently we were visited by Chinese business leaders who want to invest, through an agreement between Colombia and Venezuela, in multiple pipelines from western Venezuela to the Pacific from which we would have direct access to the vast world that is the Asian market,” Chavez said.
"China is growing and it is a giant that has awaken. It has risen and its growth has taken off, Japan as well. These are countries that need energy for the future,” Chavez said.
Colombia's Uribe enthusiastic
Colombian president Alvaro Uribe expressed his enthusiasm for the new deal between the two countries pointing to further integration of both countries into Plan Panama Puebla in the near future. “Now that the plan to construct a gas pipeline between Venezuela and Colombia has been finalized, we have to look towards the future. We are making progress towards a larger project, towards the extension of that gas pipeline to the sister republic of Panama. It is the extension of Venezuela and Colombia to Plan Panama Puebla,” Uribe said.
Uribe invited Chavez to a meeting with Panama's new President Martin Torrijos to discuss Venezuela and Colombia's adherance to the Puebla Panama Plan which seeks economic integration between Central American countries. Uribe's statements and his visit overall dismissed claims of sour relations between Venezuela and Colombia. Opponents of Chavez, and U.S. government officials have accused him of providing aid to Colombian guerrillas and of being soft of narcotraffiking.
The Guajira-Maracaibo gas pipeline will be built by Ecopetrol and ChevronTexaco on Colombia´s side and by Venezuela´s state oil company PDVSA on Venezuela´s side.
South American energy sector integration is an important part of Venezuela’s international policy. In November of 2003, Chavez announced an initiative, PetroSur, at the Congress of Andean Parliaments, which would combine Venezuela's oil assets with those of Ecuador, Brazil and Trinidad, integrating the continent's oil resources.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1312
Colombia decides not to buy tanks from Spain
16 Jul 2004 16:08:13 GMT
BOGOTA, Colombia, July 16 (Reuters) - Colombia has canceled an order to buy battle tanks from Spain due to concern in neighboring Venezuela and the change of Spanish government, a Colombian official said on Friday.
Colombia's deal to buy 46 second-hand AMX-30 tanks and 20 artillery pieces for $6 million, agreed earlier this year when Jose Maria Aznar was still Spain's prime minister, had annoyed the Venezuelan government, which fretted the French-made tanks could be stationed on its border.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's decision not to go ahead with the purchase was also due to the reluctance of the new socialist Spanish government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to follow through with the deal, the official said.
"Because of international politics, President Uribe decided to suspend the contract," he said, asking not to be named.
Military analysts had criticized the planned purchase, saying the tanks were obsolete and unsuited to fighting Marxist rebels in Colombia's 40-year-old conflict.
Colombia's relations with Venezuela have been strained since leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took office in 1999. Colombian officials suspect Chavez of sympathizing with their Marxist insurgents and Chavez has attacked Colombia's ruling class and criticized its alliance with the United States.
Uribe, a right-winger who has launched an offensive against the rebels, met Chavez in Venezuela earlier this week, signing a deal to build a natural gas pipeline.
Zapatero, who won an election in March, is far less sympathetic to Uribe's military strategy than the conservative Aznar.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16216041.htm
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