At a time when record oil prices are becoming an ever-increasing burden, the leader of the world's fifth-largest oil producer is offering flexible financing not only to his close ally Cuba, but to most other Caribbean and Latin American nations. Chavez also promises more jobs and revenue in the region with plans to build a $2.5 billion oil refinery in northeastern Brazil and purchase Argentine oil tankers.
Just last week, when protesters crippled oil production in Ecuador, South America's second largest supplier to the United States, Chavez jumped to the rescue. Responding to requests from Ecuadorian officials, Chavez agreed to cover Ecuador's oil commitments, helping to calm the global market and to reduce the strike's fiscal impact on the struggling nation.
It's just so typical of us, that this is biggest bad guy we can find in South America. It's so old school, so Reagan-esque of us, that we think we gotta send down a cadre of spooks to coup him just because he talks smack to the U.S. and makes the wealthy class in Venezuela nervous.
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