Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reacted with predictable fury at “imperialist” sanctions by Washington over Venezuela’s ties with Iran — but does not look ready to jeopardize his huge oil trade with the US.
Venezuelan officials from Chavez down lined up to condemn the measures against state oil company PDVSA, which were announced by the US government as punishment for two shipments to Iran of an oil blending component worth US$50 million.
“This is an aggression against Venezuela and against OPEC,” Venezeulan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said, likening the sanctions with US pressure on Iran over its nuclear policy and the battle to topple Libya leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Out of the public eye for once due to a knee injury, Chavez popped up on Twitter to condemn the “new gringo aggression” and “imperialist government.”
Beyond such rhetoric, however, pragmatism probably will again prevail on both sides, analysts say.
US President Barack Obama’s government wanted to send a strong message to Venezuela, while avoiding further upset to oil markets or a cutoff in supplies from one of its top five suppliers.
So the sanctions, while showing disapproval of Chavez’s ties with Tehran, were relatively soft in practice. They bar PDVSA — but not its US-based CITGO subsidiary — from US contracts and financing. Oil sales are not affected.
“This was just a rap on the knuckles,” analyst Angel Garcia Banchs said. “In practice, the company is not affected.”
There is no way, analysts say, that Venezuela is about to cut off commercial ties with the nation that buys about 45 percent of its crude and helps keep the economy afloat.
“Chavez will have a lot to lose if the Obama administration imposes further sanctions, either in terms of oil exports or debt issuance,” the Eurasia Group said.
‘EYE FOR AN EYE’: Two of the men were shot by a male relative of the victims, whose families turned down the opportunity to offer them amnesty, the Supreme Court said Four men were yesterday publicly executed in Afghanistan, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power. The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the center
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
The US will help bolster the Philippines’ arsenal and step up joint military exercises, Manila’s defense chief said, as tensions between Washington and China escalate. The longtime US ally is expecting a sustained US$500 million in annual defense funding from Washington through 2029 to boost its military capabilities and deter China’s “aggression” in the region, Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro said in an interview in Manila on Thursday. “It is a no-brainer for anybody, because of the aggressive behavior of China,” Teodoro said on close military ties with the US under President Donald Trump. “The efforts for deterrence, for joint resilience
RSS