Ecuador's Correa: Pay Us for Not Producing Oil

A case of carbon mitigation or carbon extortion?

China Confidential: Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa--who has threatened to default on his country's $10.3 billion foreign debt--wants wealthy nations to pay Ecuador $350 million a year in exchange for a promise to never exploit an estimated one billion barrels of oil that is believed to exist under its pristine Yasuni rain forest.

The $350 million is about half of what Ecuador says it could earn each year from extracting Yasuni oil.

In foregoing the potential revenue stream, the South American nation would become the first country in the world to deliberately leave significant oil reserves underground in order to help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

The proposed annual payments would be used for a variety of purposes, including renewable energy projects, providing healthcare and education to the country's impoverished masses (60 percent of the population is poor), and promoting ecotourism and sustainable development for the Amazonian region.

Ecuador says it would be sequestering the equivalent of 436 million tons of carbon dioxide.

The 2.4 million-acre (982,000-hectare) Yasuni National Park is home to at least two indigenous tribes that live in voluntary isolation--hunting with spears and blowguns--in one of the most biodiverse places on earth.

Environmentalists have praised Correa's initiative as a creative carbon offsetting scheme; but critics question if politically unstable Ecuador, which relies on oil for nearly half of its export revenues, can keep a promise of this magnitude to the international community.

Correa, who is Ecuador's eighth president in 10 years, is a close ally of Venezuelan leftist President Hugo Chavez. Like Chavez, he is a proponent of "21st century socialism" and part of an anti-American axis that also includes Evo Morales in Bolivia and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega.

Correa is expected to win a big political victory Sunday, when Ecuadoreans vote for increased state control of the economy and to dissolve a unicameral Congress that he calls "corupt and incompetent."

Post Script: China Confidential's correspondent in Caracas reports that Chavez is fascinated by Correa's proposal, seeing it as a test case for Venezuela, which could make staggering sums, theoretically, by abstaining from massive heavy oil development in the country's Orinoco River belt.

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Venezuela, Capital of Iranian Investors and Khatami's Wild Birds in Caracas

Caracas is becoming a capital for Iranian Investors..(In Persian)

SPANISH NEWSPAPER NOTES IRAN'S FLOURISHING PRESENCE IN VENEZUELA (In English)

...Iranian businessmen and officials are a growing presence in Caracas as they arrive to help implement 34 economic deals signed between Iran and Venezuela, the Catalan daily "La Vanguardia" observed on July 27. Iran has forged increasingly cordial ties with the leftist government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, especially under President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

The daily cited joint deals being implemented in Venezuela, including the Cerro Azul cement plant in the northeastern state of Monagas, which is due to begin working in late 2007 with a capacity to produce an annual million tons of cement; the construction of 7,000 housing units and a milk processing plant in Zulia, eastern Venezuela; and an automotive plant in Maracay, close to the northern Caribbean coast, which has begun to produce or assemble a planned annual 25,000 units of the Iranian "Samand" limousine. It also mentioned the Veniran tractor plant in Ciudad Bolivar, eastern Venezuela, which has started producing its planned 5,000 tractors a year.

The daily reported that most of its production has been given away to Bolivia, whose leftist government has close ties with Venezuela. "La Vanguardia" noted that direct Tehran-Caracas flights, which began on March 2, are fully booked until October 13, though it did not report the frequency of the flights. It added that Iranians visiting on business do not wait for appointments outside ministers' offices, as President Chavez has isssued orders for them to be received immediately.

Related:

Khatami buys land in Venezuela and Tehran burns, reportedly to raise "Wild Birds"

Report in Persian

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Chavez: foreign critics will be Kicked out of VE

President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela threatens his foreign critics:

Hugo Chavez has vowed to expel foreigners who publicly criticise him or his government.
"No foreigner can come here to attack us. Anyone who does must be removed from this country," he said during his weekly TV and radio programme.
Mr Chavez also ordered officials to monitor statements made by international figures in Venezuela.
His comments came shortly after a senior Mexican politician publicly criticised the Venezuelan government.

Has even Castro gone this far?.

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Iran, Venezuela to establish joint oil company

Tehran, July 2, IRNA - Visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Monday that Iran and Venezuela have agreed to establish a joint oil company.The Venezuelan president said in a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart on Monday in Assalouyeh of Khuzestan province that the two countries have also agreed to establish an international import and export company.

Iran, Venezuela ink 3 contracts

Assalouyeh, Khuzestan prov, July 2, IRNA -Iran and Venezuela here Monday signed three contracts at the end of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's visit to Iran.
Iran's Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh and his Venezuelan counterpart inked a contract on cooperation in the field of energy and hydrocarbons.
The petrochemical cooperation is the subject of another contract signed by managing managing directors of National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NIPC) and that of Venezuela in presence of the two presidents.
The two presidents also inked a joint communique.
Ahmadinejad and Chavez also took part in a joint press conference in South Pars Special Economic Zone elaborating on the achievements of the Venezuelan president's visit to Iran.

Iran to build 7,000 houses in Venezuela

TEHRAN, July 2 (Mehr News Agency) – Tehran and Caracas inked a document that necessitates the private sector to build 7,000 residential units in Venezuela, said the industries and mines minister here on Monday.
Attending the 4th Iran-Venezuela Joint Economic Commission meeting, Alireza Tahmasbi and Venezuelan Minister of Basic Industries and Mining Jose Khan signed 11 documents.
Tehran and Caracas had already signed 181 documents and agreements, added Tahmasbi.
He added that the documents had been inked for oil, petrochemical, energy, housing, banking, heavy industries, mines and geology, economic, political, cultural, agricultural, fishery, transportation, and health sectors.
Khan said his visit to Tehran would strengthen strategic talks and strike a balance in economic, political, social and cultural ties between the two countries.

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PROTESTS IN VENEZUELA SPREAD

Popular protests against Chavez over Radio Caracas TV continue all over Venezuela. People from all political tendencies keep on taking to the streets of the country. And Chavez is losing popularity day by day. Source

In addition, Venezuela is seeking to significantly increase its purchase of Russian-made AK-47 Kalashnikov rifles. The South American nation wants to buy at least an additional 50,000 AK47s over and above the previously reported order of 100,000.The government of Venezuela's leftwing president, Hugo Chavez, has alarmed the United States by signing military deals with Moscow valued at approximately $3.4 billion. In addition to the legendary assault rifles, the arms transfers include Sukhoi fighter jets and attack and transport helicopters.

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NY Terror Plot Connects to Venezuela and Iran

Jungle Mom: "How Kadir was nabbed, via FoxNews.com:Kadir's wife, Isha, said that her husband was nabbed while boarding a flight to Venezuela, where he planned to pick up a travel visa to attend an Islamic religious conference in Iran. He had flown from Guyana to Trinidad on Thursday.
But Kadir's daughter said that her father had no knowledge or association to the plot that aimed to kill thousands of people and trigger an economic catastrophe by blowing up a jet fuel artery that runs through populous residential neighborhoods.
Kadir has no problems with America, would never do anything wrong and would never associate with a group like Al Qaeda, his daughter said."This is a total surprise," she said."

Just another reminder that the threat of terrorism on North American soil has never gone away and is as great as ever, notwithstanding official denials that anything's "imminent" and so on...
There is a $5 million reward for information on Shukrijumah, who officials consider extremely dangerous because of the years he spent living in the Miami area and his known ties to al Qaeda.

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More on Tyranny of the mob in Venezuela

From Jungle Mom: Today was one of those days in which the lack of scruples of the Chavez revolution and their total control of institutions is used to limit freedom and liberties and not much happens. Being Friday, the events today simply will dissipate the student movement, which was simply trumped up by the Government and its institutions and fell for the Government's strategy.The students had decided yesterday, more than 24 hours before the fact, that they would march from El Paraiso to the National Assembly to demand an apology from the Assembly leaders. In good faith they asked for the permits, organized themselves and were ready to go, only to find that the permits were not approved, because the students did not know the detailed procedures and the Mayor of Libertador District, oh shucks, could not grant them the permit if all the i's and t's were dotted. Thus, their basic rights were denied by the same bureaucrats that allow pro-Chavez marches on the spur of the moment, such as the one on Tuesday that was allowed to march all the way to the Presdiential Palace under the escort of the metropolitan police and the National Guard.Early one, it already looked unlikely that the marchers will get to the National Assembly.

Chavista thugs in motorcycles showed at a Plaza La India in El Paraiso ready to threaten under the claim that first of all, Plaza La India was their territory and second of all they would not allow a march to destabilize their revolution. Of course, these thugs had no permit either, nor did the thousands of red-shirted Chavze supporters scattered around downtown Caracas ready to protect their revolution.Read more at The Devil's Excrement

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VENEZUELAN STUDENT ALERT: PLEASE REPOST THIS IN YOUR BLOGS

From Spanish Pundit:

This is an alert. Please, if you value freedom, repost this alert: Venezuelan Government has kidnapped the students inside the University. No one can enter or exit -from this link-:

A police barrier of the Military Police is forbidding the students of Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB) as they wanted to demosntrate in front of the National Parliament. The Military Police has said that the students should wait till a MPs Commission who will receive a document. In this moments there are more gruops of students who are getting to the area in support of the rest.
The students have announced they will demostrate today at 11 in the La India Sq. to march till the Parliament. Major Bernal has announed them they do not have any permission to do that, but they have answered they will concentrate themselves just the same in the pavements without having the traffic interrupted. Globovisión has informed jsut now that Chávez’s supporters have just now began to get to the place and they have even set up some tents, from where they want to call on others to defend the revolution. But the students have begun to march whatever the menaces and protests and the advices from the Major about being forbidden.

UDPATE: the students have desisted and had not march to the Parliament. From the link above. They have accepted the mediation of the Catholic Church in the conflict. The students of UCAB were released but had to pass through the police, after being informed they could not march without autorization from the Caracas’ Major. But the students insisted they were going to march to the Catholic Brishops’ Conference.

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Prayers needed for Jungle Mom

As you probably know, Jungle mom and her family live in Venezuela. Her family is caught in between riots, hostility toward Americans, shootings, and utter chaos. This is her latest update:

My husband and son, along with Naomy have arrived safely on the first leg of their travels. They did have to work their way through one demonstration, but it was not violent. Please keep them in prayers as my husband will be traveling across the country tomorrow as well as Saturday and Monday.Right now, things can change from place to place very quickly and one is never sure where the next hot spot may be. I covet your prayers for all of us, but especially those traveling.There are more marches and demonstrations planned for tomorrow as well.

Please visit her website for the most up-to-date news in Venezuela. May God bless all of you and keep you under his mighty wings.

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Quote of the Day!

Hugo Faría on Hugo Chávez:

"Anyone who sees a 12 ½-cent coin as a remedy for this country's problems isn't thinking too clearly. "

Link via Pejman and Isaac.

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