Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
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Chavez threatens to turn oil off

Thursday, November 9, 2006

by: Carmen J. Gentile

MIAMI, USA (UPI): Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has once again threatened the United States with cutting off oil supplies if provoked by the Bush administration.

Although this is not the first time Chavez had issued such a threat, this time the populist Venezuelan leader said "not another drop" of Venezuelan oil would reach US shores if he felt Washington was trying to interfere in the upcoming Venezuelan elections.

"If they [the United States] try to destabilise PDVSA (Venezuela's state-owned oil firm), if the empire and its lackeys in Venezuela attempt another coup, ignore the election results or cause election or oil-related controversy, we won't send another drop of oil to the United States," he said last week.

Venezuela supplies about 12 percent of the oil imported by the United States, which is Venezuelan's largest customer. Venezuela is the No. 4 US supplier.

Meanwhile, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez was recently caught on videotape threatening a handful of PDVSA employees with termination for opposing Chavez, a move opponents of Chavez called state-sponsored political intimidation.

The remarks come one month ahead of Venezuela's elections in which Chavez is polling way ahead of his opponent Manuel Rosales with less than a month left before the December 3 vote.

Rosales has managed to stir Venezuela's active opposition into action, prompting a downtown Caracas rally last week in which federal troops were deployed to prevent clashes between Chavez supporters and opposition supporters.

Rosales has managed to revive the opposition and gain ground, but he still has a way to go, according to a recent report by the Latin Source analysis group.

"Time and campaign rules -- especially the restriction to two minutes a day on TV --are huge constraints on Rosales," the report noted, adding that Chavez has been able to campaign freely on national airwaves in weekly address and during extended speeches.

Threats of cutting oil supplies to the United States appear to be more a campaign tactic than a legitimate threat. As much as Chavez would like to inflict serious financial pain on Washington, the cost of cutting off American oil supplies would be tantamount to political suicide.

Previous threats by other Venezuelan officials to cut off oil supplies were later rejected Venezuela's envoy to Washington.

In July, Ramirez threatened to cut US oil supplies if the United States were to assume a "stance of aggression." Chavez often asserts that the Bush administration is planning to invade Venezuela for it abundant oil reserves, the largest in Latin America.

Chavez maintains that the White House was behind the failed April 2002 coup attempt that saw him removed from office for 48 hours. Though Bush officials deny the allegation, they did - at the time of the coup - express their support for Chavez's ousting and have offered financial support to political opposition groups in the country.

Since then, Chavez has been busy both bolstering Venezuela's national defenses with the purchases of arms and military aircraft from Russia and others, and more recently, trying to forge new oil relations with other nations such as China, Russia, Iran and Vietnam.

Despite Chavez's efforts, Venezuela remains too deeply indebted to US energy needs to cut off supplies without causing a major economic catastrophe at home.

Hoping to quell rumors that a cut was in the works, Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States Bernardo Alvarez said that "cut-off" comments made by Ramirez were merely an example of what could happen if Washington were to take an "aggressive" stance against the Chavez government.

"Absent extraordinary circumstances, Venezuela intends to remain a generous supplier to take care of the US's energy needs," said Alvarez at the time.

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