BUSINESSWEEK.com - September 30, 2005 - (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela has moved its central bank foreign reserves out of U.S. banks, liquidated its investments in U.S. Treasury securities and placed the funds in Europe, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday.

"We've had to move the international reserves from U.S. banks because of the threats," from the U.S., Chavez said during televised remarks from a South American summit in Brazil.

"The reserves we had (invested) in U.S. Treasury bonds, we've sold them and we moved them to Europe and other countries," he said.

Chavez, a sharp critic of what he calls "imperialist" U.S.-style capitalism, has often criticized foreign banks for the power they wield in international financial markets at the expense of poorer countries.

Chavez again proposed the creation of a South American central bank that would hold the foreign exchange reserves of all the central banks in the region.

"I'm ready right now with the Venezuelan central bank ... to move $5 billion (euro4.15 billion) (of Venezuelan reserves), to a South American bank," Chavez said.

Central bank officials could not be immediately reached for more details.

Chavez has also argued against central bank autonomy, saying excess foreign reserves should be spent on economic development projects.

Under his presidency, Venezuela's mostly pro-Chavez Congress changed central bank laws earlier this year so the government could tap reserves for spending, despite criticism that it would lead to devaluation of the local currency and higher inflation.

Every year the central bank must now compute an "optimum" amount of reserves and hand over the rest to a newly created national development fund.

Money held in the fund will be used for overseas purchases and to pay off outstanding debt.

Foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank stood at $30.434 billion (euro25.27 billion) as of Sept. 28, according to central bank data.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100505_world_stories.shtml#0

Venezuela Congress Votes to End Bank Transactions Tax (Update1)
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's National Assembly voted to end the country's 0.5 percent financial transactions tax today, a week after President Hugo Chavez called for its elimination.

The measure, which goes into effect when the government publishes it in the official gazette, will cut government revenue by 2.7 trillion bolivars ($1.3 billion) this year, Chavez said last week.

``The money that's not collected will stay with families and businesses to boost consumption and investment,'' congressman Rodrigo Cabezas, who heads the National Assembly's Finance Committee, said in a speech on the assembly floor. ``This is positive for the economy.''

Chavez implemented the tax in March 2002 to help narrow a budget deficit that year. A surge in oil tax revenue in recent years wiped out the deficit, giving Chavez room to eliminate the bank tax. Oil exports from Venezuela, the world's fifth-biggest crude exporter, rose to a record $48 billion last year.

Cabezas said that eliminating the bank tax would lower companies' costs, helping drive down the annual inflation rate by about 1 percentage point this year. The central bank expects inflation to slow to between 11 percent and 12 percent this year from 14.4 percent last year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=ahC.TcoprMcc&refer=latin_america

Dr Emma Brossard on Hugo Chavez: ‘

He does not know one thing about the oil industry’

 

VCRISIS 27.08.05 Although Venezuela claims to produce three million barrels of crude a day, she said that was not true, as Venezuela has had to buy crude to supply to Citco and 100,000 barrels a day is going to Cuba for “the doctors.”

“The TT/Venezuela natural gas deal was as much a pipedream as Petro Caribe,” she said.”The purpose of Petro Caribe is to buy votes in the UN and the OAS because Chavez is more interested in the OAS than the UN.”

She said that Venezuela, which has some of the best double-hulled oil tankers in the world, was now suffering shipping problems as the fleet was dwindling without being replaced, and it has had to lease tankers.

“I had not been writing anything about Venezuela for a long time, but when I see what is going on I have to start writing again,” she said.

“After Chavez, it’s going to take about 40 or 50 years—the whole infrastructure will take a lot of money—to clean Venezuela up.”

Dr Brossard said that corruption was “phenomenal” in Venezuela, as Chavez and his government spent millions on themselves and thousands of businesses have been closed down.

“The middle class, which is needed for a country to survive, has been wiped out,” she said, adding that it would take a very strong person who was willing to risk his neck to confront and overthrow Chavez, but doing that through the voting process would be impossible since Chavez controlled that too.

“The poorer classes are fully behind Chavez,” she said. “As someone once said: Chavez really loves the poor since he is making so many of them.”

http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200508271223

By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 20, 3:56 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Venezuela is planning a "buying spree" for military equipment that goes beyond the country's legitimate needs, the State Department said Friday.

In recent days, the United States has sought to block proposed sales of military planes and other equipment to Venezuela by Spain and Brazil.

The transactions are part of what "we would consider an outsized military buildup in Venezuela," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

He also noted that the government of President Hugo Chavez has decided to activate its reserves and to create a million-person militia.

On Thursday in Brasilia, Chavez called the U.S. objections to the Brazil deal absurd and said Brazil will try to persuade the United States to allow it. At stake are 20 planes costing $200 million. The deal was worked out with Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA, or Embraer.

The United States has the authority to block the sale because some of the planes' technology is American-made. Embraer President Mauricio Botelho said Friday the company is working on changes that could make the sale acceptable to Washington.

Botelho said the plane would be used to combat drugs and arms trafficking and not "for acts of war."

Last week, Chavez blasted a U.S. attempt to block Spain from selling Venezuela 12 military planes with American parts, calling it proof of Washington's "imperialism."

In response, McCormack said at the time the United States is concerned that the proposed sale "could contribute to destabilization in Latin America."

The United States has made that view clear to the Spanish, Venezuelan and other governments in Latin America," McCormack said.

The proposed Spanish transaction involves armed maritime patrol seacraft and some airplanes.

http://forums.military.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/409192893/m/3880071640001

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060120/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_venezuela_1

 

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Cindy Sheehan, who gained international fame when she camped outside President Bush's ranch in an anti-war protest, plans to pitch her tent again, Venezuela's president said Sunday as he urged activists worldwide to help bring down "the U.S. empire."

Hugo Chavez, an arm around Sheehan's shoulders, told a group of activists that she had told him "she is going to put up her tent again in front of Mr. Danger's ranch" in April.

In some of his strongest recent comments aimed at Washington, Chavez condemned the Bush administration and said his audience should work toward ending U.S. dominance.

"Enough already with the imperialist aggression!" Chavez said, listing countries from Panama to Iraq where the U.S. military has intervened. "Down with the U.S. empire! It must be said, in the entire world: Down with the empire!"

Chavez said Sheehan had invited him to join her April protest at Bush's Texas ranch.

"Maybe I'll put up my tent also," Chavez said, to applause from an audience invited to his weekly broadcast on the final day of the World Social Forum, an annual gathering of anti-war and anti-globalization activists.

Sheehan, whose 24-year-old soldier son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004, thanked Chavez for "supporting life and peace." She said earlier that she was impressed by his sincerity when they met privately on Saturday.

"He said, 'Why don't I run for president?'" she said. "I just laughed."

Sheehan, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., said Saturday that she is strongly considering challenging Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein because the lawmaker will not support calls to immediately bring the troops home.

Sheehan, 48, said running in the Democratic primary in June would help "bring attention to all the peace candidates in the country."

Sheehan, who was visiting Venezuela for the six-day forum, said she will decide whether to run after talking with her three adult children in California.

Sheehan accused Feinstein of being out of touch with Californians on the war in Iraq.

Feinstein's campaign manager, Kam Kuwata, said the senator did not support Bush and felt she had been misled by his administration. But with troops committed, Feinstein believes immediate withdrawal is unworkable, he said.

"Senator Feinstein's position is, 'Let's work toward quickly turning over the defense of Iraq to Iraqis so that we can bring the troops home as soon as possible,'" Kuwata said in an interview Saturday.

On Sunday, when Chavez passed the microphone to Sheehan on his show, she blamed Bush for the killings of innocents in Iraq.

Noting that the singer and activist Harry Belafonte recently called Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world" on Chavez's show, Sheehan said: "I agree with him."

Chavez said his government would help protest the war in Iraq by supporting a drive to gather petitions and delivering them to the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. Chavez, who before the war in Iraq had friendly relations with Saddam Hussein, has been a frequent and strident critic of the war.

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http://www.columbian.com/news/APStories/AP01292006news130161.cfm

Published: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 - Bylined to: Roy S. Carson - Venezuelan move to replace US$ with the €uro upsetting Washington more than Saddam's €uro conversion last November

VHeadline.com editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: A move by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias to replace the US$ with the €uro is seen as upsetting Washington more than when Iraq's Saddam Hussein started using the €uro for oil transactions last November ... precipitating the US-led action to invade Iraq. Beltway bullies are now said to be angered by Venezuela's decision to barter oil with thirteen other Latin American countries, dealing moves to dollarize South America currencies. Intelligence reports say that while the US was able to pull the wool over the international community and ally with Britain's Blair to bulldoze action against former Iran War ally Hussein, the situation with Venezuela is proving more difficult.

While there has been political pretext to cold-shoulder Chavez Frias and his government for supposed links with Cuba's Castro and Libya's Khadaffi, the United States is loathe to do more than to give subversive support to anti-Chavez elements in Venezuela fighting against the Venezuelan President's domestic war against political and economic corruption which have permeated the South American country for the last half-century.

International finance experts see how the US dollar has been devaluing against the €uro, as important players on the international scene convert to the European currency for more stable transactions ... Russia, China, North Korea and Malaysia have begun holding €uros as important hedgings in their foreign exchange reserves as faith in American greenbacks floats down the river.

CIA and other intel organizations, including Britain's MI5, now fear that the next step is that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is about to switch to €uros ... the immediate effect would be a massive devaluation, perhaps sparking of domino-effect devaluations worldwide in US$-related foreign reserves and foreign debt calculations.

With a massive budget deficit, the United States is running scared of latest intel that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is on the brink of converting to the €uros and the opinion held by many OPEC ministers is that the conversion is an inevitability ... the only question left is WHEN?

Arab sources claim that €uro conversion across the Middle and Far East is a rational step to counteract the United States' capacity to "wage further illegal wars (a.k.a. State-sponsored terrorism)" around the world and that any prolonged occupation of Iraq by US/British forces ... and any move towards withdrawal of Iraq from the OPEC cartel ... will only precipitate "remedial action" by like-minded Arab nations to protect their own best interests over Washington's.

A significant step in this direction is that Iran is contemplating switching to the €uro and, as a result, is the latest object of United States undiplomatic interference ... an intel sources says "they are stimulating opposition forces, making covert threats ... the next step is destabilization and quasi-liberation warfare under the pretext of promoting US-style democracy but essentially aimed at maintaining the US dollar as a global transaction currency - http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=8613