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Election Opponent Accuses
Chavez of 'Giving Away' Oil
FOX
News Network,
Wednesday, February 01, 2006./
CARACAS, Venezuela - A candidate challenging
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez for the presidency
said his top campaign issue will be what
he calls a massive waste of billions of
dollars through generous oil deals for friendly
countries.
Chavez, leading strongly in the polls,
denied the accusations by candidate Julio
Borges on Tuesday night, calling his challenger
a "frijolito" - or "small
fry" - and expressing confidence in
an easy re-election victory in December.
Borges said earlier Tuesday that his party,
Justice First, calculates Chavez's government
has committed more than $16 billion to unprofitable
international oil deals or humanitarian
donations.
"We aren't giving gifts to anyone,"
Chavez insisted in a speech. He argued the
oil is sold at market prices, though with
special financing arrangements.
Borges' Web site alleges that Chavez has
"given away" more than $5 billion
to Cuba, ranging from an electricity project
to oil sales exchanged partially for the
services of thousands of Cuban doctors.
Borges lists $4.5 billion for Brazil, including
plans for an oil refinery. He includes more
than $200 million for the United States,
including sales of discounted home heating
oil to low-income Americans in the Northeast.
(Story continues below)
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"They're all programs in which Venezuela
gives money or gasoline or oil and receives
nothing proportional in exchange,"
Borges told The Associated Press, adding
that he will make the issue his "No.
1 point" in the campaign.
Chavez, who celebrates his seventh year
in office Thursday, said many of the oil
deals merely allow long-term, low-cost financing
for part of the bill. Some countries also
can pay partly in goods or services, such
as bananas, beans or the work of some 20,000
Cuban doctors now treating Venezuela's poor
without charge.
"How much do 20,000 doctors cost?
Add it up," Chavez urged his listeners.
"Look how foolish these people from
the opposition are."
Venezuela last years signed the "Petrocaribe"
agreement with 13 Caribbean countries, allowing
them to pay 60 percent of their bill up
front and pay off the rest as a 25-year
loan with a 1 percent interest rate.
Chavez, a vocal critic of President Bush,
says such oil deals are a step away from
U.S. dominance and toward greater regional
integration.
Venezuela is the world's fifth largest
oil exporter, with $48 billion in oil export
revenues last year.
"The ones who used to govern the country
are the ones who gave it away," Chavez
said, arguing past governments sold out
to U.S. interests and transnational oil
companies. "We're rescuing the country."
As he looks to the elections in December,
Chavez said he is urging his Cabinet to
plan for another six-year term in office.
"I'm going to leave here someday,
but when I leave I'm going to hand over
the government to a revolutionary, and surely
someone more revolutionary than I am,"
said Chavez, who envisions a long-term shift
toward socialism. "The revolution ...
has arrived to stay though all of this century,
and past the 22nd century."
Borges said Chavez is tossing money around
while neglecting poverty at home. Chavez
argued that government statistics show his
social programs have cut poverty at home
from 48 percent of the population in 1997
to 37 percent today.
Meanwhile, Chavez recently signed contracts
with newly elected leftist President Evo
Morales of Bolivia to sell his government
up to 200,000 barrels of Venezuelan diesel
a month, while accepting 75 percent of the
payment in agricultural products - largely
soybeans - and allowing the remaining 25
percent to be paid over 15 years at 2 percent
interest.
Chavez also said Venezuela will donate
$30 million to Morales' government to help
start up social programs.
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