Wednesday

Venezuela Update

Things are getting so busy in Venezuela I figured to just lump it all in one post.
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Venezuela to back oil cuts

CARACASVenezuela would probably support a cut in oil production if fellow members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) favoured a move to reduce world supplies of oil, Venezuela’s oil minister said at the weekend. Rafael Ramirez said Venezuela, along with other Opec members, would have to consider the proposal to decrease oil output at a meeting next month.

Venezuela: Foreign oil companies owe $4 billion in taxes and royalties

(MENAFN) Venezuela claimed that international oil companies operating in the country owe about $4 billion in back taxes and unpaid royalties, Bloomberg. The South American country's Energy and Oil Minister said international companies operating 32 oil fields for state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, owe about $3 billion in income taxes. Four extra-heavy oil joint ventures owe an additional $1 billion in royalties. The minister is set to go to the National Assembly to present proof of alleged wrongdoing by foreign companies operating in the country. Among those companies operating in the country are Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Texaco Corp., ConocoPhillips, France's Total SA and Spain's Repsol YPF.

Venezuela Economy Grows 7.9 Percent in 1Q

Venezuela's economy grew 7.9 percent in the first quarter of 2005, helped by an increase in consumption and government spending, the Central Bank said Tuesday. The rate is considerably lower than the growth levels registered during the same period in 2004, which many considered a rebound from a two-year economic contraction.

Venezuela politics: Relations with US sink lower

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT

Relations between Venezuela and the US, already quite hostile, may be hitting a new low. Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, has threatened to sever diplomatic ties with Washington if it does not hand over a fugitive from Venezuelan law. This dispute, along with the heightened rhetoric in both Washington and Caracas, not only puts at risk the US’s relationship with one of its major oil suppliers. It could also create new friction with other countries in Latin America that oppose the Bush administration’s efforts to isolate the controversial Venezuelan president. The new row involves a Cuban exile, Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted in both Venezuela and Cuba for alleged involvement in a bombing of a Cubana airline plane in 1976 (in which 73 people died) as well as other subsequent acts of terrorism against the Fidel Castro government. Mr Posada was tried twice in the 1980s in Caracas, where he lived and was a member of the Venezuelan intelligence service, but escaped from prison in 1985. Years later he was convicted and then pardoned in Panama, and in March resurfaced in Miami. He was arrested there and is being held on charges of illegal entry into the US.