[Peace-discuss] Beating the drums of war for Venezuela.

[Phil Stinard]

Hi,

This is a piece I did today for vheadline.com about the Spanish language 
newspaper, El Nuevo Herald, associated with the Miami Herald.  In it, I 
express my frustrations about how the US press keeps recycling the same old 
story about Hugo Chavez threatening to cut off oil to the US.  This story 
has been going around since March 1, and they keep bringing it up every time 
Venezuela drops off the radar screen.  It's another example of the US press 
beating the drums of war.  The original article is at:  
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=18320

--Phil

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El Nuevo Herald dishes up old quotes from Chavez Frias and calls it NEWS!

VHeadline.com correspondent Philip Stinard reports that today’s edition of 
the Miami-based El Nuevo Herald carries an article with the title 
(translated) “Denunciation that Chavez is preparing to cut off crude oil to 
the US.” The article begins: “The government of Venezuela has prepared a 
secret plan to sell China more than a million barrels of oil daily, in the 
eventuality that they decide to cut the energy supply to the United States 
in the event of an open confrontation between both countries, revealed 
experts to El Nuevo Herald.”

The article then goes on to quote one Constantine Menges, an “expert” from 
the Washington-based Hudson Institute, who bases his assertions on 
“privileged information.” It’s rather interesting that a private “think 
tank” is willing to wage a propaganda war against Hugo Chavez by re-wording 
and twisting old, publicly available information, and then say that they 
can’t reveal the information because it’s “privileged.”

Perhaps I can help Mr. Menges out. Here are portions from a March 9, Chavez 
interview with the Italian newspaper Diario Liberazione.

    Nocioni: Let me read to you once of your recent quotes: “Not one more 
drop of oil for the United States if they continue their interference.” Do 
you think that Venezuela should use oil as a weapon? In the past, you didn’t 
think that way.

    President Chavez Frias: It’s one thing to say that I don’t want to use 
it; it’s another thing when they obligate me to use it. In Bush’s case, he 
should give up the insanity of intervening directly in Venezuela. He would 
be starting a conflict here, and it would be absurd to continue selling oil 
[to the US]. The United States is not the only country in the world. 
Petroleum doesn’t spoil. Petroleum is sold.

    Nocioni: To whom?

    President Chavez Frias: To Asia, to Europe. The Chinese petroleum 
industry has asked for an increase in their quota with Venezuela. We can’t, 
because we make up part of the OPEC quota. We sell 1,500,000 barrels of oil 
per day to the United States. It wouldn’t cost us much to sell it elsewhere. 
Brazil imports oil. They have to buy it from the Middle East. Why? Because 
for many years, the strategy of the Venezuelan petroleum industry has been 
tied only to U. S. interests. Contract obligations break in times of 
conflict.

Everything is here in this one small interview segment; the supposed 
“threat” to cut off the Venezuelan oil supply to the US, and China’s 
involvement in the issue.

There are three points to be made here:

    1. Chavez does not want to stop selling oil to the US (for obvious 
economic reasons), and will only do so if he has to, i. e. in the event of a 
US-backed invasion, not an unreasonable position for any sovereign 
government to take.

    2. Chavez openly reveals that China has asked for more oil, and the 
Venezuelan government has refused because of its obligations to maintain 
OPEC quotas. If Chavez has a secret agreement with China, why would he draw 
attention to it by bringing up the subject of China himself?

    3. Contract obligations break in times of conflict. Therefore, if the 
supply of Venezuelan oil does get cut off to the US, it is no longer the 
business of the US who it sells oil to.

It seems like there is a ready supply of “journalists” willing to feed the 
recent increase in US saber-rattling, and this is just one example. CNN did 
something similar last week when they reported an AP story that Chavez was 
going to cut off the US oil supply and used the Italian interview quoted 
above as a source.

My advice to aspiring US journalists: Find some real news to write about, 
like the US military assassinations of civilians in Iraq, or the US support 
of Colombian death squads in the falsely named “War on Drugs,” rather than 
rehashing the same old boring news story about Hugo Chavez in a transparent 
attempt to beat the drums of war.

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