No es intencionalmente que la U.S. Navy apoya a Ch=E1vez, pero de que lo
hace, lo hace. Lean este art=EDculo para conocer los detalles.
-----------------------------------
How the U.S. Navy Inadvertently Sup****ts Hugo Ch=E1vez
by James M. Roberts
WebMemo #1855
When U.S. Navy and Marine personnel purchase gasoline at their local
Navy Base Exchange, they might be unknowingly sup****ting America's
enemies. This is happening because the Navy Exchange buys its gasoline
from a company owned by Venezuelan Dictator-President Hugo Ch=E1vez. A
designation by the Bush Administration of Venezuela as a terrorist-
sponsoring state would allow the Navy to end this awkward situation.
Hugo Ch=E1vez is on an arms-buying spree. He has already bought $3.4
billion worth of Russian weapons,[1] including "100,000 AK-103s and
AK-104 assault rifles, a munitions factory, 53 helicopters--including
a dozen Mi-17 military helicopters--and 24 SU-30MK fighter jets."[2]
Venezuela is negotiating a multi-billion dollar, multi-year contract
to purchase from Russia "five Project 636 Kilo-class diesel submarines
and four state-of-the-art Project 677 Amur submarines....and several
Tor-M1 air defense missile complexes."[3] A Ch=E1vez military adviser
boasts that the Russian sub=ADmarines will "make Venezuela's navy the
strongest in the region,"[4] potentially putting the U.S. Navy in
harm's way.
The Ch=E1vez-Terrorist Connection
In addition to this military buildup, new evidence is emerging that
do***ents Chavez's sinister intentions and actions in the region. The
government of Colombia, assisted by the U.S. government and Interpol,
is analyzing the contents of a laptop belonging to the second-in-
command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Raul
Reyes,[5] who was killed by the Colombian military in an attack two
kilometers inside Ecuador's border on March 1, 2008.[6]
The U.S. Secretary of State designated the FARC as a Foreign Terrorist
Organization in 1997.[7] In 2003, President George W. Bush designated
the FARC as a "significant foreign narcotics trafficker pursuant to
the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act due to its extensive
narcotics trafficking activities." The FARC has also been designated
as a terrorist organization by the European Union,[8] Canada,[9] and
the Latin American Parliament.[10]
Evidence from the three captured FARC laptops reveals that Ch=E1vez was
planning to send $300 million to the FARC[11] and was pressuring
European governments to drop FARC's terrorism designation. With
political legitimacy, FARC could then mount a political campaign
against Colombian President =C1lvaroUribe's party in the 2010 national
elections. There is also evidence from the laptops that Ch=E1vez
funneled money to his Chavista ally, Ecuadorian President Rafael
Correa, during Correa's 2006 election campaign.[12]
An Awkward Contract
Surprisingly, part of Chavez's oil-based financial windfall comes from
the U.S. Navy. Its Navy Exchange (NEX) Service Command has a contract,
running until 2010, which specifies that Citgo will supply gasoline to
all NEX service stations.
Formerly known as Cities Service, an American-owned refiner and
gasoline retailer, Citgo was sold in the 1990sand is now owned by PDV
America, Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary ofthe state-owned
oil company Petr=F3leos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA), which is in turn
wholly owned and controlled by the Hugo Ch=E1vez-led government of the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.[13] Citgo's refineries are the only
ones in the U.S. (and among the few in the world) built specifically
to refine Venezuela's heavy, dirty, and high-sulfur crude oil,[14] so
the Ch=E1vez regime is heavily reliant on them for income.
Given Ch=E1vez's aggressively anti-American actions, it is at the least
a great irony that the U.S. Navy is buying gasoline from him. A Navy
press spokesman says that "Citgo's competitively bid $60 million-a-
year contracts to supply the Navy Exchange with gas run through
2010....Citgo's relation****p with the exchange dates back to 1989."
The spokesman re****ted that any action to prohibit Citgo from bidding
on future contracts could be taken only by Navy headquarters in
Wa****ngton.[15] The Navy did demonstrate its sensitivity about the
issue in 2006, however, when it replaced Citgo signs with "NEX" signs
at all of its service stations after Ch=E1vez's speech in September of
that year before the U.N. General Assembly, where he called President
Bush "the Devil."[16]
A State Sponsor of Terrorism?
The Bush Administration is re****tedly investigating whether the
actions taken by the Ch=E1vez regime to sup****t and promote the FARC
could lead to Venezuela being placed on the U.S. government's list of
state sponsors of terrorism. [17] This action would result in the
imposition of four main sets of U.S. government sanctions:
(1) A ban on arms-related ex****ts and sales;
(2) Controls over ex****ts of dual-use items for goods or services that
could significantly enhance the terrorist-list country's military
capability or ability to sup****t terrorism;
(3) Prohibitions on economic assistance; and
(4) Imposition of miscellaneous financial and other restrictions,
including:
(a) Requiring the United States to oppose loans by the World Bank and
other international financial institutions;
(b) Lifting diplomatic immunity to allow families of terrorist victims
to file civil lawsuits in U.S. courts;
(c) Denying companies and individuals tax credits for income earned in
terrorist-listed countries;
(d) Denial of duty-free treatment of goods ex****ted to the United
States;
(e) Authority to prohibit any U.S. citizen from engaging in a
financial transaction with a terrorist-list government without a
Treasury Department license; and
(f) Prohibition of Defense Department contracts above $100,000 with
companies controlled by terrorist-list states. [18]
Designation by the U.S. of Venezuela as a terrorist-sponsoring state
would put into jeopardy the billions of dollars the Ch=E1vez regime
takes in annually from the sale of oil to the United States. It would
also give the Navy a way out of its awkward contract with Citgo.
James M. Roberts is Research Fellow for Economic Freedom and Growth in
the Center for International Trade and Economics at The Heritage
Foundation.
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[1]RIA Novosti, "Venezuela to Buy Russian Submarines, Air Defense
Systems--Source," June 18, 2007, at
http://en.rian.ru/world/20070618/6736379=
4.html
(March 12, 2008).
[2]Pablo Bachelet, "U.S. Alerted to Cuba Migration, Ch=E1vez Weapons,"
Miami Herald, February 27, 2008, at
www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/s=
tory/435985.html
(March 12, 2008).
[3]RIA Novosti, "Venezuela to buy Russian Submarines, Air Defense
Systems--Source."
[4]James M. Roberts, "If the Real Sim=F3n Bol=EDvar Met Hugo Ch=E1vez,
He'd
See Red," Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 2062, August 20, 2007,
at www.heritage.org/Research/LatinAmerica/bg2062.cfm
[5]Frank Bajak, "Letters: Ecuador Leader Got Rebel Funds," The
Wa****ngton Post, March 10, 2008, at
www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/10/AR2008031000090.htm=
l
(March 12, 2008).
[6]Ray Walser, "Hugo Ch=E1vez, the FARC, and Threats of War," Heritage
Foundation WebMemo No. 1834, March 4, 2008, at
www.heritage.org/Research/LatinAmerica/wm1834.cfm.
[7]U.S. Department of State, Office of the Coordinator for
Counterterrorism, Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), Fact
Sheet,October 11, 2005, at www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191.htm (March
12, 2008).
[8]=93Decision Del Consejo,=94 Diario Oficial de la Uni=F3n Europea, L
272/15, October 17, 2005, at
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/es/oj/2005/l_272/l_27220051018es001=
50017.pdf
(March 14, 2008).
[9]=93Farc, ELN y AUC, en lista canadiense de grupos terroristas,=94
Anuncia Ministro del Interior canadiense, press release, April 3,
2003, at www.presidencia.gov.co/cne/2003/abril/03/03032003.htm (March
14, 2008).
[10]Beatriz Paredes Rangel and Jorge Pizarro Soto, =93Declaraci=F3n sobre
la situaci=F3n de Colombia,=94 Parlamento Latinoamericans, February 28,
2002, at www.parlatino.org/news_cont.php?id=3D85&lg=3Des (March 14, 2008).
[11]Frank Bajak, "Colombian Leader's Raid Gamble Pays Off," The
Wa****ngton Post, March 11, 2008, at
www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/11/AR2008031102151_2.h=
tml?sub=3DAR
(March 12. 2008).
[12]Bajak, "Letters: Ecuador Leader Got Rebel Funds."
[13]Citgo.com, Company History, at
www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO/CompanyHistory.j=
sp
(March 12, 2008).
[14]Alex Kennedy, =93Venezuela=92s Chavez Considers Sale of U.S.
Refineries,=94 Bloomberg News, February 2, 2005, at
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=3D10000086&sid=3DaP3vwKnY0rNU&refer=3Dlatin_=
america
(March 14, 2008).
[15]Kevin McKenzie, "New Navy Brand; Bases Pull Off Citgo Logo for
Their Own Label," The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN), May 11, 2007,
Page MTB 1.
[16]=93Chavez: Bush 'Devil'; U.S. 'On the Way Down',=94 CNN, September 21,
2006, at www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/09/20/chavez.un/index.html
(March 14, 2008).
[17]Sharon Behn and Carmen Gentile, "U.S. Examines Laptops Seized in
Ecuador Raid," The Wa****ngton Times, March 12, 2008, p. 2, at
www.wa****ngtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=3D/20080312/FOREIGN/875493=
344
(March 12, 2008).
[18]U.S. Department of State, Office of the Coordinator for
Counterterrorism, Country Re****ts on Terrorism, Chapter 6: State
Sponsors of Terror Overview, April 28, 2006, at
www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2=
005/64337.htm
(March 12, 2008
http://www.heritage.org/Research/nationalSecurity/wm1855.cfm
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Hasta donde s=E9, la US Navy es como diez veces mas grande de lo que se
necesita para ser amos del Planeta. Hay que ser paranoico para creer
que un peque=F1o e indefenso pa=EDs del Tercer Mundo que apenas est=E1
saliendo del subdesarrollo pueda causarles un da=F1o mortal. Y a=FAn si
pudiera, todav=EDa queda la Fuerza A=E9rea, el ej=E9rcito y las bombas
at=F3micas para defender los USA de una invasi=F3n venezolana. Pero uno
nunca sabe, en este mundo suceden las cosas mas raras e improbables.
Recuerden la historia B=EDblica de Sans=F3n y Goliath.
T.Schmidt
P.S. En Wa****ngton deben estar usando papel higi=E9nico con mucha
frecuencia, cada vez que leen noticias sobre Venezuela la diarrea es
general.
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