August 11, 2005
Chávez differentiates 'politics' from 'commercial relations'

(El Universal) - "After declaring his government is not looking to create a 'permanent confrontational scenario in all areas' with Washington, President Hugo Chávez denied that these repeated confrontations would affect business relations between Venezuela and the US. On the contrary, he said 'one thing is politics and another one is commercial relations between two countries'.

Venezuelan President said this at the Presidential residence in Montevideo during a press conference together with his Uruguayan counterpart, Tabaré Velásquez, after signing a series of bilateral agreements in the energetic sector (...)

He finished his intervention saying 'Latin Americans have to learn to look in every direction, without loosing sight of the North (...). We are also interested in entering the US market' (...)".