Using Oil to Spread Revolution?

From: THE ECONOMIST , July 28th

This is on the moderate side as far as the confusion on Venezuela (and Cuba) go. Still utter deception.

It begins talking about Telsur (a channel I wish i had instead of Current TV) and the counter Bill by Rep. Connie Mack, calling for rival propaganda broadcasts.

>>>"Telesur comes on the heels of other initiatives in which Mr Chávez is using some of his country's windfall oil revenues to procure friends and influence abroad, especially in Latin America. Thus, Venezuela has bought $538m of Argentine debt. It is talking about doing the same for Ecuador's new populist government. Venezuela has also promised to build houses in Cuba and to finance co-operatives in Argentina."

>>>"Most of the schemes involve oil. They began with a pact to expand subsidised shipments to Fidel Castro's Cuba, in return for the services of 17,000 Cuban doctors."

Not true. Venezuela had subsidized Carribbean and Central American countries before Chavez, which they admit in the next paragraph slyly.

>>>"Some of these initiatives, such as Petrocaribe, expand on the polices of previous Venezuelan governments..."

and they go on to rattle off his relationship with Iran, China (called "close ties") and how this is a ploy to influence trade policy and votes on the UN.... like the US is not the king of such gamesmanship, called criminal coercion in the courts.

>>"In parallel, Mr Chávez seeks support among Latin Americans by posing as the leader of a continental revolution. At its cheekiest, this has led him to take advantage of the difficulties of Brazil's President Lula da Silva, a more moderate left-winger, to sponsor a samba school, whose theme will be Viva la Revolución, at next year's Rio carnival."

For the non-British, "cheekiest" is a word that allows one to slyly allege Chavez is taking advantage of a neighboring President Lula facing (unfair) allegations in Brazil when in fact, Chavez has been the only one there publically defending Lula.

<<<"All the same, Mr Chávez's successes are fragile ones. For one thing, it is hard to see what tangible benefits Venezuelans derive from this diplomacy.">>> Ask the million that have learned to read or the millions more than have been able to get health care and food when they needed it.

<<>> Ie. money is being spent on the poor instead of investing in Miami real-estate. the allegations about lack of reports coming out of PDSVA were a result of the wide-scale looting and treasonous sabotaging of record-keeping systems by the real corrupt managers.

<<>> Like every diplomatic corps are not loyal branches of their government's position.

<<>> The costs are nothing for Venezuela and the" long-term" benefits may not fit on your Economist charts, but we'll check the human development numbers in a few years... they were rising before the employer-led strike and depression in 2002 and are rising strong again now, according to the UNDP.