Venezuela's Chavez says foreign powers should keep hands off Iraqi oil
<a href=www.sfgate.com>SFGate.com-AP
HAROLD OLMOS, Associated Press Writer Friday, April 25, 2003
(04-25) 16:29 PDT RECIFE, Brazil (AP) --
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that foreign powers shouldn't meddle with Iraq's oil and that any interference would be a return to colonialism.
"Iraqi oil should be handled by the Iraqi people," Chavez said after arriving in this northeastern Brazilian city. "Otherwise it would be going back 200 years, and I don't want to think that the new century is beginning with colonialism."
Chavez and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva discussed several joint business projects, including construction of a $2 billion oil refinery.
No agreement was formalized to build the refinery, but Chavez told reporters he wants to sign an agreement as soon as possible.
Although five Brazilian states are vying for the project, Chavez said he prefers Pernambuco state.
Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, was the home of Jose Inacio de Abreu e Lima, a 19th-century Brazilian independence soldier who fought against Spain along with Venezuela's liberator, Simon Bolivar -- who is Chavez's hero.
Chavez's visit to Brazil was the third since Silva took office on Jan. 1, but this was the first specifically to discuss business, not politics.
For years, Brazil was little more than a customer for Venezuelan oil. But the populist Chavez has pushed for closer ties with Silva, Brazil's first leftist president in 40 years.
Early this year, as Chavez faced an opposition strike demanding his resignation, Brazil played a key role creating a Group of Friends of Venezuela. The group -- which includes the United States, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and Chile -- works with the Organization of the American States to help the oil-rich nation resolve its domestic strife.
Weeks before the group was formed, Brazil sold Venezuela over half a million barrels of gasoline, just at the peak of a two-month oil strike that crippled Venezuela's economy. The strike eventually ended without reaching its goal of ousting Chavez.
The refinery is a long-standing economic development idea to meet the needs of Brazil's north and northeast, a vast poverty-stricken region with a population of 40 million -- nearly a fourth of Brazil's 170 million people and almost double Venezuela's 24 million.
It would also improve refining capacity for Venezuela and Brazil, Chavez said. Brazil exports crude oil, but must import gasoline because it lacks refining capacity.
"We want to refine oil in or as close to Venezuela as possible -- in the Caribbean, in the Andes or here in Brazil," he said. "We can refine all this oil here and sell gasoline not only in South America but also in the Caribbean and Africa."
The Brazilian government has not yet decided where to build the plant, which eventually would process up to 200,000 barrels of crude daily. At least five northeastern and northern states are interested.
At their meeting, Chavez and Silva discussed the situation in post-war Iraq. Silva, who opposed the war, said he is "committed to contributing for the United Nations to have again a key role in a lasting solution of this matter."