Venezuela Prepares Measures to Cope With Oil Price

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela Prepares Measures to Cope With Oil Price
By Steven Bodzin

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela, the biggest oil exporter in the Western Hemisphere, will deal with falling oil income without cutting social spending, President Hugo Chavez said.

“We haven’t been touched this year” by “the worst crisis in the history of the world,” he said today on state television. That will change in 2009 as oil customers keep suffering, he said. He called for increased production of non-oil exports such as gold, cocoa and coffee as well as an increase in tourism.

Venezuela is facing a steep drop in income because 92 percent of the country’s export revenue comes from oil. Crude oil has declined 74 percent in New York to $37.11 a barrel since setting a record $147.27 a barrel July 11. The country’s heavy crude sells at a discount to the benchmark New York price.

Chavez said late yesterday he instructed all of his Cabinet members to work on ways to save money and had appointed a media committee to make announcements about economic plans.

“We guarantee the social investment and current spending,” Chavez said in a phone call to state television. “We’re preparing a series of measures and initiatives to keep the crisis from whipping us.”

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=ahYvpVQZRzYI&refer=news

http://redstandard.org.nyud.net:8090/reasoninrevolt/chavez_beetle.jpg

[Peace Patriot]

1. It must be great to have a president whose first concern is social programs and the poor,

and not the 'golden parachutes' of Wall Street financiers and bankers. Even Obama agreed to first bailout the rich, and then, if there's any money left at all, create some jobs somewhere. As for all the social programs now being cut by every state--a fascist dream come true--good luck, peons.

Due to EXCELLENT MANAGEMENT, Venezuela now has $140 billion in international cash reserves, which the Chavez government saved up, while implementing the most awesome social program in Latin America. This cushion against the Bushwhacks' Financial 9/11 was also produced by the Chavez government taking the wise step of renegotiating their oil contracts with the multinationals several years ago, to change the 90/10 split of Venezuela's oil profits favoring the multinationals--which previous, rightwing governments had permitted--to a fairer 60/40 split favoring Venezuela and its social programs.

Venezuela should therefore be fine for a year or two at present gas prices. If the price goes back up to $70 or so a barrel--which it probably will--they won't have to touch their cash reserves. And if there is an extended period of current low barrel prices, they have a lot of flexibility as to financing the use of their reserves as a cushion.

Compare and contrast to our situation, with $10 TRILLION deficit (projected over the decade, and I think that is conservative, given the Bushwhacks' secret budgets), and a crisis induced by Bushwhack (and collusive Democrats') de-regulation of the finance and banking industries. We are up shit creek.

Venezuela will land on its feet, and its closest allies will likely also benefit from Venezuela's solvency (Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Nicaragua, Cuba and others). And South America as a whole will most certainly benefit from Venezuela's far-thinking leadership in promoting regional cooperation with social justice goals, resulting in the creation, this year, of UNASUR, the new South American "Common Market." They are already headed toward a common currency (to get off the U.S. dollar). And they have already acted--strongly, and with unanimity--to fend off U.S./Bushwhack interference (sponsorship of a violent fascist coup) in Bolivia. U.S. global corporate predators may be frothing at the mouth to regain control of South America's resources, government revenues and cheap labor, but their ability to use South America for plunder and rapine has been headed off. This is why they and their corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies hate Chavez so much. He is the pioneer, and a key leader, in South America's new independence and sovereignty.

And the key to that leadership (U.S. voters take note!) is transparent vote counting.

We may have a "kinder, gentler" corporate agent in the White House now, but the fact that we could not have elected him without the corpo/fascists, who have 'TRADE SECRET' control of our voting machines, agreeing to it, means that he is more beholden to them than to us. And that will not change until we get rid of 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines, and do the hard, citizen work of restoring our democratic institutions, as Venezuelans and other South Americans have done. Venezuela's $140 billion surplus is the direct result of transparent vote counting. Without transparent vote counting, that money would be in Exxon Mobile's and Chevron-Texaco's pockets, and in the pockets of Venezuela's fascist oil elite.

Transparent vote counting = good government.
'TRADE SECRET' vote counting = bad, BAD government.

It's real simple, in this respect. Even with transparent vote counting, we have to work hard, as citizens, to achieve good government, as the Venezuelans have done. But without it, we have no chance. And that's where we, very unfortunately, are at, right now. We, the people, have no power to hold our leaders accountable. Diebold & brethren hold all the cards.