June 22, 2006
Venezuela denies Chávez using oil for political gain in Latin America

(AP Worldstream) - "Venezuela's foreign minister denied that President Hugo Chávez is using petroleum to gain influence in Latin America, and said recent criticisms from Washington officials were hypocritical since the United States is the top buyer of Venezuelan oil.

'People have who have the mentality of merchants think it's very easy to buy consciences, and very easy for consciences to be sold,' Foreign Minister Alí Rodríguez said in a communique Wednesday.

Rodríguez later told Union Radio that Venezuela ships 1.5 million barrels of oil a day to the United States, but 'it doesn't occur to anybody to say we are buying off the U.S. president.'

Rodríguez's comments came after Thomas Shannon, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said that Chávez was using Venezuela's oil to 'buy influence' in the region.

Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter. While the United States imports more Venezuelan crude than any other country, Chávez has sought to diversify Venezuela's oil trade by offering preferential oil deals to countries across Latin America and the Caribbean.

The socialist president has said Venezuela is willing to keep selling large quantities of oil to the U.S. market, but oil deals for the region's poorer countries should be a priority (...)".