Venezuela to buy up to $500 mln Argentina debt

[Say_What]

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MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, March 3 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that his government will buy up to $500 million in Argentine sovereign bonds to help the nation as it finalizes its restructuring of $102.6 billion in debt in default.

"We have decided to buy Argentine bonds to help Argentina just a little bit and we could spend up to $500 million," Chavez said in Uruguay, where he had met with his Argentine and Brazilian counterparts Nestor Kirchner and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva earlier in the day.

http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=bondsNews&storyID=7789735

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Venezuela's Chavez Says U.S. Plans His Assassination (Update1)

March 2 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, stepping up allegations the U.S. is plotting his assassination, said the plans include making his demise appear to be a suicide.

``They're preparing the ground for a suicide, which won't work with me,'' Chavez said during a news conference today in Uruguay on Venezuela's state television station. ``If I'm killed, the U.S. can forget about getting even one drop of oil.''

Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, is among the four biggest suppliers to the U.S., providing 15 percent of its petroleum.

Chavez's remarks, made in Uruguay's capital Montevideo where he attended the inauguration of President Tabare Vazquez yesterday, come as Venezuela seeks to lessen its dependence on the U.S. oil markets. Chavez has signed oil deals with China, Paraguay and Uruguay since last year, and will travel to India later this week to peddle the country's oil.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=aiVQn04V2LRQ&refer=latin_america

[ChicanoPwr]

1. South America is moving fast.

Looks like Columbia is surrounded
------------------------------------
Shift to the left in Uruguay sets off alarm bell in the US
By Richard Lapper, Latin America Editor
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/56c26282-89f7-11d9-aa18-00000e2511c8.html

The inauguration today of Uruguay's new president, Tabar Vázquez,
looks on the surface at least like a jamboree for the leftwing
interests that are growing in influence across Latin America.

Mr Vázquez, elected with a majority of just over 50 per cent last
October, has already invited a number of former guerrilla fighters and
hardline trade unionists into his cabinet.

Today he will welcome to Montevideo a string of leftwing leaders,
ranging from Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's radical nationalist president,
and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil to Felipe Pérez Roque, the
Cuban foreign minister, and Evo Morales, the Bolivian coca growers'
leader who is a particular bête noire for the US.

[Say_What]

3. Thankfully so... Uribe is about the only US lapdog left and it looks

like he is meeting with Lula and Chavez this month to evaluate areas of common interest between the three nations. Fortunately, they were willing to settle their differences despite much meddling from their ugly northern neighbor. NACLA has an article about it this month that points out that trade between the two countries has become increasingly interdependent.

...“The three of us are going to meet during the upcoming month of March... to revise three-way agreements in energy, petroleum, and coal,” he stated. The Venezuelan President said that Lula “would be delighted” if Colombia committed itself, alongside Venezuela and Brazil, to the creation of the business “Carbosurámerica” (South American Coal).

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1508

[David__77]

2. Argentina is the keystone of continental unity.

Argentina taking the step of firmly casting aside US subversion and IMF and World Bank menacing would presage a new, continent-wide anti-exploitation unity.

[Say_What]

4. ARGENTINA’S CATHOLIC BACKLASH

From the latest NACLA report released today. Also a photo of an example of Ferrari's art work and the demonstrators.

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I went home to Argentina last December for the holidays, and upon my return to New York, most people I know greeted me with, “Things have gotten better there, right?”—a fair question, but one to which a typically cynical Argentine would respond: “Of course things are better, they couldn’t have gotten any worse!” But while I was in the country a story caught my eye that convinced me that things, at least in one aspect, might be changing for the better. It was not a story about the supposed upswing in the economy, but rather about a controversial art exhibit.

The Catholic Church was on the offensive over a 50-year retrospective of the art of León Ferrari, one of Argentina’s most important living artists. When the show opened, a top Catholic official called it “blasphemy.” In a matter of weeks, the exhibit was shut down by a judicial order at the behest of an association of five priests, but was reopened two weeks later.

When the exhibit closed, hundreds of protestors outside the cultural center chanted “Atención, atención, regresó la Inquisición!” (“Attention, attention, they brought back the Inquisition!”). It’s no secret that the Church has long had tremendous social and political clout in Argentina, but the exhibit’s closure was not symptomatic of the strength of the Church (as the protest chant suggests) but rather its weakness.

Argentines are increasingly willing to take God out of politics, and this growing secularization has led the more radically conservative to lash out and vent their frustrations in the political arena or by taking to the streets. Ferrari’s body of work strongly condemns Christianity’s role in some of the world’s most barbarous acts, including the Spanish Conquest, the Nazi atrocities and Argentina’s military dictatorship. “The Church {in Argentina} has launched a concerted campaign against my exhibit,” wrote Ferrari during the controversy, “yet it has not condemned the violence committed by some of its parishioners, which is an attitude that encourages them to repeat their deeds.”

http://www.nacla.org/art_display.php?art=2539

[ChicanoPwr]

5. Argentina is in New “axis of evil” list

I am pretty sure King George is going to make sure Argentina is next on his hit list with his favorite Catholic think tank cheering him on.

LulaWatch: Focusing on Latin America’s new “axis of evil”
http://www.tfp.org/lulawatch/v2_feb13/1.html

A “Mediator” Favoring Hugo Chavez
Acting as a mediator, Lula interfered in Venezuela in a clear bid to support his ideological ally, Hugo Chavez.

-snip-

According to the Folha de S. Paulo, this "appears as a sign, though veiled, of support for Chavez, inasmuch as this group of developing countries is not relevant enough to justify a trip by the president.” Commenting on the statements by the Brazilian foreign minister, the newspaper says: “To Venezuela, the support was clear: ‘We had, have, and will continue to have a solid relationship with Venezuela and the Venezuelan government’" (Clóvis Rossi, “Chavez diz que vence plebiscito,” 1/13/2004).

-snip-

Ties with the Democrats
The Brazilian press reported with great fanfare on the statements of Democratic hopeful Howard Dean praising Pres. Lula da Silva.
Dean called for a “special relationship” with Latin America and specifically mentioned President Lula da Silva. Dean said “the U.S. has been inimical” with Lula whereas “we should work with him.”

-snip-

The statements by Howard Dean are certainly the result of conversations between PT members together with Lula government members, particularly Marco Aurélio Garcia, and American Democrats which was clearly seen during the recent meetings of the Socialist International.