i hope it doesnt end with threats

Xinhua also reports a bit more of Chavez’ speech:

Chavez called the clash with Exxon Mobil “the tip of an iceberg that is economic war.”.. Should the economic war break out, oil prices would reach 200 dollars a barrel, he said…“And more than one other nation is willing to take our side in this economic war. You will not frighten or dissuade us,” Chavez said, adding that Exxon Mobil was “a spearhead for imperialism.”...He said the company was part of a group that backed the invasion of Iraq and continued to support a genocide there.

Hugo has also been attacking on other fronts: Chavez Accuses U.S. of Drug, Arms Sales in Venezuela

Chavez, a longtime U.S. adversary who has used Venezuela’s oil wealth to promote his vision of “21st century socialism’‘ in Latin America, said today the U.S. was acting in concert with factions of the Colombian government.

“There is a plan that is very dangerous for us that is being designed in Colombia by the U.S. with support of some factions in Colombia, to pack this place with paramilitaries,’‘ he told viewers on “Alo, Presidente,’‘ his weekly television program broadcast from Caracas. “I am denouncing something that needs attention.

“But they won’t be armed with rifles, nor marching in formation. No, they will be working in the ghettos, selling cocaine, for less than market price, very cheap, a fifth column, to advance the ghetto thugs and arm them with weapons of war. It’s a plan of the North American empire.’‘

The Oil Drum has some useful analysis of the whole affair:

Chavez regularly threatens to cut off supplies to the US, but has not actually done so in the past, so that threat may be an empty gesture again. And it must be noted, as a first point of background, that the only way to cut off deliveries to the US is to cut off deliveries altogether, as any oil delivered elsewhere will be in the global market and no actual imbalance will have been created. So Chavez would need to be willing to take some pain (in the form of lower revenues) to hurt the US – and that would work only if supplies from elsewhere could not cover the difference. The question of what the worldwide spare capacity is today is a fraught one, but it’s likely that it’s quite small, so Chavez’s threat has teeth – especially as a lot of Venezuelan crude has technical specifications for which some US refineries are specifically adapted, and these would definitely be hurt more. Of course, the goal may simply be to get prices up, which delivery cuts would definitely achieve, but which the mere fact of threatening cuts also provides to a lesser extent.

Similarly, ExxonMobil’s action is not likely to prevent PDVSA from continuing its activities and its exports (and its debt service to foreign lenders); as many analysts have noted, it is but a legal manoeuver to put pressure on the Venezuelans and get them to pay more for the assets they nationalized.

Ya, he’d probably piss ‘em off more if he brushed their antics off as irrelevant. Or publicly laughed at them, instead of responding to them as if they were real threats.

The thing to keep in mind about the US Corporate eggs in Venezuelan face is that the scenarios are accompanied by supporting propaganda in Venezuelan private media. It’s designed to get the local Euro American communities to get both dangerous and destructive.

You think the people of the United States are kept in the dark about just about everything, my guess is that we would all die of shock if we got a look inside the mind of a victim of Venezuela’s private media.

We can’t begin to fund the empire that the current White House has brought us. The economic collapse is inevitable and Chavez knows how to speed it up. The worst part is that it will hit middle class Americans the hardest. The rich will survive this hit but there will be more and more until America can no longer pay to keep its empire running.
Hoa binh

The people of the United States, and the International Business Class, can rescue the world’s foundation economy from absolute collapse. It doesn’t have to go down the tubes. Certain people just have to be smart. They can do it. It can be done.

I can see people moving in that direction.

There’s no need to over-identify the potential productivity of the US American working and business classes with the US warrior caste. It’s just a tiny psychological adjustment.

It should not be left unsaid that the large corporations are not to be confused, please please please, with the US American business classes.

Small is beautiful sweetie pies. The gold is there.

Chavez likely realizes that if he were to cut off Venezuelan oil shipments that would be a watershed mark in his relations with the U.S. There would be no going back from that decision. The U.S. is not likely to cave in to such a threat… they would be much more likely to bomb Caracas, after spinning it up as a “blatantly unprovoked act of war.” The thing is… they’d have a lot of Chavez footage to use in such a propaganda campaign, too.

I can see where Chavez is coming from, though… and it does remain a powerful ace up his sleeve – though any any such acts of “economic warfare” would have to be just one part of a multi-pronged attack on the U.S. Venezuela couldn’t do it alone.

From today’s Amy Show

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa on the Lawsuit Against Chevron, Eradicating Foreign Debt and Why He Says ‘Ecuador is No Longer For Sale’

Exxon had the same amount of time than other oil companies to strike a deal; they just ignored Venezuela’s timetable.