Investigative Reporter Greg Palast: U.S. Energy Dept. Concludes
Venezuela Could Have Biggest Oil Reserves in OPEC
In an interview with BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez said he would ask the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries to set the long-term price of oil at $50 a barrel.
Palast reports that analysis by the US Department of Energy shows that
Venezuela - not Saudi Arabia - could have the biggest oil reserves in
the OPEC. [includes rush transcript] In Venezuela, the country is
commemorating the fourth anniversary of a failed coup to overthrow
democratically elected president Hugo Chavez.
On April 11, 2002 Chavez was removed from power by a coalition of
military officials and business leaders but returned to office two days
later.
At a ceremony in Caracas Tuesday, Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente
Rangel unveiled a memorial to remember the victims of violence during
the days of the coup.
He reiterated accusations that the U.S. Embassy was deeply involved in
the attempted overthrow. Rangel said the coup was "carried out by the
U.S. Embassy and by imperialism in Venezuela."
Washington has denied any involvement. But over the years, millions of
dollars in U.S. government money has been given to Venezuelan
opposition groups under the auspices of the National Endowment for
Democracy - a private agency funded entirely by the U.S. government.
In a renewed sign of bad relations, Chavez is threatening to expel U.S.
Ambassador William Brownfield. Chavez accused him of meddling in
Venezuela's internal affairs and of trying to provoke a protest on
Sunday when he traveled to a poor neighborhood with a large armed
security detail. Chavez supporters pelted the ambassador's car with
tomatoes and eggs during the visit.
Meanwhile, Chavez is due to host an OPEC summit on June 1st in Caracas.
Venezuela is the only Latin American member of the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries. BBC Investigative reporter Greg Palast
traveled to Venezuela recently where he interviewed President Chavez.
He filed this report
* Chavez's Venezuela: Bush Over a Barrel
Website: GregPalast.com
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
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AMY GOODMAN: BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast traveled to
Venezuela recently, where he interviewed President Chavez. He files
this report.
GREG PALAST: This is the variety show host, revolutionary and
president of Venezuela, the inimitable Hugo Chavez, presenting his live
six-hour-long weekly television spectacular. Every Sunday he flies his
desk to a new location to perform for his thousands of screaming fans
and voters, and now this man, Chavez, is sitting on more oil than the
king of Saudi Arabia.
To George Bush, he's a demagogue awash in oil money. To this
audience he's a hero, savior
and wannabe Frank Sinatra. Welcome to the
latest edition of South American Idol. The streets of Caracas are
filled with cruising yank tanks. Why not? Petrol is cheaper than water,
3 pence a liter. You could fill up one of these beasts for about a
pound.
Last time I was here in Venezuela the president, Hugo Chavez, was
in a bit of trouble. He had had just been kidnapped by the head of the
Chamber of Commerce. The attempted coup, which was welcomed by the Bush
administration, failed. Chavistas brought their man back in triumph, but
the oil stopped flowing, leaving Venezuela's economy in ruins and
Chavez's long-term survival in doubt.
But then, a cowboy rode out of the north and saved Hugo Chavez. In
2003, George Bush invaded Iraq, and when mission accomplished became
mission impossible, oil prices tripled. The explosion in the price of
oil dumped $50 billion into Hugo Chavez's lap, most of that from the
United States.
Let's go see what the money from the gringos and their SUVs
bought. In barrios like this, there's a happy bounce. Chavez has
finally tackled the health and education problems suffered by
Venezuela's poor. He's imported 15,000 Cuban doctors and teachers, too.
Before Chavez spread the oil wealth, 55% of the population lived in
poverty. Now poverty is down by a third, and a million-and-a-half
people have been taught to read. In this building, we found a new Cuban
clinic, and I ran into a resident who had picked up English while
working in Trinidad.
ARTURO QUIRAN: We are the only country on this planet that has so
many changes in a social aspect, medical attention, free -- we could
now get free operations, x-rays, medicines, education also. People who
never knew how to read and write now know how to sign their own papers
and everything.
GREG PALAST: Arturo Quiran invited me upstairs for a cold one.
Chavez, he says, has changed the way oil money is handled.
ARTURO QUIRAN: Ten, fifteen years ago, Carlos Andrés Pérez, there
was a lot of oil money here in Venezuela. The oil boom, we call it,
okay, here in Venezuela. There was a lot of money entering the country,
but we didn't see it.
GREG PALAST: Chavez has his opponents. Julio Borges is the leading
opposition candidate in presidential elections to be held in December.
He accepts that Chavez's populist policies have transformed Venezuela.
Borges says his fellow oppositionists, who won't take part in
elections, just don't get it.
Chavez has said the old parties are defunct, are corrupt, are no
good. Do you agree or disagree with him?
JULIO BORGES: Yeah, I think that the answer for Venezuela doesn't
lie in the past. We are building a new generation, a new leadership, a
renovation for the politics in Venezuela, and we believe that we have
to move forward to the future. And we're not looking for the past.
GREG PALAST: Rather than attack Chavez's popular spending at home,
Borges takes aim at Chavez's spending abroad.
The Chavez government has given out billions of dollars of your
oil money to other Latin American governments to help them. Is that a
good idea?
JULIO BORGES: No. We have denounced it, that this money has been
transformed and should be transformed in jobs, security, social
security in Venezuela. We have a slogan, very clear: Primero Venezuela!
First Venezuela! We have many necessities in Venezuela, and President
Chavez is not the owner of oil. The oil is for Venezuela and the
Venezuelans.
GREG PALAST: Hugo Chavez has called all the bankers of Latin
America together. And when Chavez speaks, they listen. The financiers
were treated to a history of Venezuela's central bank, in song, and the
continents central bankers were happy to hum along. Chavez has handed
out billions to their treasuries. He's spending way more than George
Bush in Latin America, and here's the man who actually writes the
checks, Chavezs central banker, a very popular guy. In fact, Chavez
wants to completely eliminate the International Monetary Fund and
replace it with an International Humanitarian Fund. I caught up with
Mr. Checkbook.
Can I get one more check, too? You're giving out checks to all
these countries. Can I get a check? Thank you.
Ecuador got a quarter billion. Brazil got four billion. Argentina
got four billion. No wonder these guys showed up.
Getting to see him wasn't a piece of cake. I drove around Caracas
waiting for a call from the palace. Then, weirdly, I found myself a
surprise guest on his weekly variety show. Chavez got to make fun of my
tourista Spanish. I tried again at the presidential palace. I just had
to ask Chavez what his oil was going to cost us.
HUGO CHAVEZ: Were trying to find an equilibrium. The price of oil
could remain at the low level of $50. That's a fair price. Its not a
high price.
GREG PALAST: There's a good reason why Chavez is insisting on $50
a barrel. This is what the world's currently declared oil reserves look
like, with most of the oil in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia,
but at $50 a barrel it becomes economic to exploit the world's vast
undeclared reserves of heavy oil, and the picture changes radically.
According to an internal study we got our hands on from inside the U.S.
Department of Energy, the next oil kingdoms, if the price of oil stays
high, will be Canada -- Canada -- and Venezuela. Next month, Chavez
hosts the meeting of OPEC and will ask them to formally recognize that
Venezuela now has more oil than the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
HUGO CHAVEZ: Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world.
In the future, Venezuela won't have any more oil. It is true, but
that's in the 22nd century. Venezuela has oil for 200 years.
GREG PALAST: Chavez has won half a dozen elections since 1998, has
no secret prisons and hasn't invaded anyone. Nevertheless, Chavez finds
himself the target of claims by Washington and Downing Street that he
is a dictatorial international outlaw. It is true that recently his
government brought criminal charges against political opponents for
taking foreign donations.
If the Chavistas reaction to George Bush's involvement in their
politics seems a bit paranoid, they actually have much to fear
according to these documents obtained by a U.S. investigator. Eva
Golinger uncovered the evidence that shows that the C.I.A. knew about
the 2002 coup in advance.
EVA GOLINGER: They had put up an article about my new radio
program that I have here on a radio station, and people went on there
and said basically -- you know, were making all kinds of threats, and
someone said, You should be gassed like the Jews were.
GREG PALAST: She complained to the federal prosecutor
investigating the coup and the death threats. During the investigation,
he was assassinated. The Chavistas are concerned about darker, more
threatening scenarios: another coup, assassination, invasion. Their
fears were intensified by comments from the likes of Pat Robertson, the
influential U.S. evangelist.
PAT ROBERTSON: We have the ability to take him out, and I think
the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another
$200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's
a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job, and
then get it over with.
GREG PALAST: Chavez says he's armed and ready for any threat. He
showed me the sword of Simon Bolivar, the man who liberated South
America from Spanish imperialism. He's even preparing for an American
invasion, but does he really think this will happen?
HUGO CHAVEZ: I pray God this will not happen, because U.S.
soldiers will bite the dust here, will die here, and we will die, as
well. Venezuelans will die, as well. However, they will never succeed
in dominating us. A hundred year war will start here if they ever dare.
The U.S. people should know that if this happens, there will be no oil
for anyone.
GREG PALAST: George Bush may dismiss him as a demagogue and
show-off, but for Bush, the show may be over once Chavez is crowned
king of oil.
HUGO CHAVEZ: Thank you very much. Good luck.
AMY GOODMAN: That report filed by BBC investigative reporter Greg
Palast, who joins us in the studio now. His upcoming book is called
Armed Madhouse. It will be published in June. Welcome to Democracy Now!
GREG PALAST: Glad to be here.
AMY GOODMAN: Greg, we only have a minute. You say that Venezuela has
more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia?
GREG PALAST: Not only do I say it, obviously Hugo Chavez says it, and
he's looking for official approval on June 1 from OPEC. But
astonishingly, an internal U.S. Department of Energy report says that
Chavez is modest, that he has something like five times the oil
reserves of Saudi Arabia, because he has 90% of the world's extra-heavy
crude, which we know exactly where it is, and now it's going to be
melted into petroleum and ultimately gas for your SUV. So Chavez is the
new Abdullah of the Americas, and this is what's behind the whole U.S.
policy of confrontation and provocation with Venezuela, is that we've
had a foreign policy up until now which is completely dominated by
being close to the Saudis, and now we don't like to challenge the
Saudis, so we're taking on Chavez.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we have to leave it there. Greg Palast, thanks for
joining us.
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