Chavez - using oil money to extricate Argentina from the dracula of debt

[JDPriestly]

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3234,36-943992@51-944070,0.html

Chavez is buying the debt of South American countries.


Depuis 2005, le Venezuela a racheté 4,3 milliards de dollars de la dette de l'Argentine (la presse de Caracas parle de 5 milliards). Cela a permis au gouvernement argentin d'honorer ses créances, sans recourir à des emprunts à des taux d'intérêt trop élevés. Le président vénézuélien envisage d'alléger aussi la dette de l'Equateur et de la Bolivie.

Since 2005, Venezuela has bought 4.3 million dollars of the debt of Argentian (the Venezuelan press has claimed 5 million) permitting the Argentinian government to pay its creditors without recourse to very high interest loans. The Venezuelan president also plans to relieve the debts of Ecuador and Bolivia.

Chavez's critics are concerned about the manner in which Chavez, whom they describe as "drunk with power" is using Venezuela's oil money.

Coauteur d'un Livre rouge sur la Banque centrale du Venezuela, présenté à Caracas jeudi 9 août, Orlando Ochoa fustige "l'enrichissement spéculatif, non productif et corrupteur de fonctionnaires, entrepreneurs et banquiers" favorisé par le gouvernement Chavez. D'après cet économiste de l'Université catholique, les largesses gouvernementales ont provoqué "la pire corruption financière de l'histoire du Venezuela".

I will attempt to translate this very roughly:

In Caracas on August 9, Orlando Ochoa, an economist at the Catholic University and coauthor of a book on the central bank of Venezuela, accused the Chavez government of sponsoring the unproductive, corrupting, speculative enrichment of the bureacrats, entrepreneurs and bankers. and said that the government's generosit has caused the worst financial corruption in the history of Venezuela.

"Ces transactions se font de manière transparente, sans privilèges, elles ne concernent pas une ou deux banques", assure-t-il. Cinq banques ont été sélectionnées initialement, puis cinq autres, a-t-il précisé.

Again, roughly translated:

Rodrigo Cabezas, Chavez's minister of finance, denies Ochoa's accusations, and assures that these transactions are being made in a transparent manner, without favoritism or privilege and don't involve just one or two bankds. Initially, five banks were selected, and subsequently five others were chosen, he explained.

[Donnachaidh]

1. drunk with power because he's healing the damage from the World Bank

It's okay to have them go in and play politics to set these countries up for huge loans and huge debt. The bankers don't want these loans paid off - they want to create a new class of serfs.

Go Hugo!