http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/intervention-is-just-a-grab-for-oil-say-libyas-allies/story-e6frfkui-1226024861708
<http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/intervention-is-just-a-grab-for-oil-say-libyas-allies/story-e6frfkui-1226024861708> Intervention is just a grab for oil, say Libya's allies - From correspondents in Caracas - From:AFP - March 20, 2011 11:05AM *LATIN American governments friendly to Muammar Gaddafi say countries involved in today's military strikes in Libya really covet its oil wealth.* * * "They want to seize Libya's oil," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Gaddafi's main ally in Latin America, said on state television. Chavez said the military action was "irresponsible" and nothing but "interference in the internal affairs" of a country. "And behind this is the hand of the US and its European allies," he said. Chavez, who has compared Gaddafi to Latin American liberation hero Simon Bolivar, lamented that the international community did not accept his proposal to create a multinational mission to find a peaceful resolution in Libya, where Gaddafi has been fending off the strongest challenge yet to his four-decade rule. Rebels battling Gaddafi's forces had rejected Chavez's proposal. Aging Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro questioned the usefulness of the UN Security Council, which authorised the strikes against Libya. The group, which he derided as the "guardian angel of our species", has given us a "colossal invention: certificates of good behaviour", Castro, 84, wrote in a newspaper article. "Who is Obama, NATO and (UN Secretary General) Ban Ki-moon going to fool with those certificates of good behaviour?" he asked. Castro said the Security Council ignored problems in countries that were friendly to the US. In La Paz, Bolivian President Evo Morales echoed Chavez. "Ultimately they are interested in controlling Libyan oil," he said, speaking at a meeting of leftist Latin American ministers. "That's how the powers are," he said, citing alleged western interference in Iran — and now "they invent problems with Muammar Gaddafi". Morales strongly rejected foreign intervention in Libya, but also said he was against human rights violations in the country. Bolivia established diplomatic ties with Tripoli in 2008, and Morales has met several times with Gaddafi, first as a former union leader and later as president. Leftist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega expressed support for "brother" Gaddafi in late February, saying the uprising the Arab leader faces is part of a plot to take control of Libya's oil. Rumours had swirled in recent weeks that Gaddafi would seek asylum in either Nicaragua or Venezuela. Ortega's ties to Gaddafi go back to the 1980s, when the Nicaraguan leader was a Sandinista revolutionary and he received support from Libya. In 2009 Ortega was awarded the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, a prize given by Gaddafi himself. Castro and Chavez are also past recipients. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
