Colombia, Venezuela May Build Pipeline to Supply Oil to China

[bemildred]

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Colombia and Venezuela will set aside border conflicts today as their two presidents consider strengthening economic ties, including construction of an oil pipeline that would help Venezuela diversify export markets.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, will discuss a plan to connect Maracaibo in Venezuela to the province of Choco, about 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) to the west on Colombia's Pacific coast, said Julio Cesar Vera, a Colombian Mines Ministry official.

The proposal would make it possible for Venezuela to shift exports away from the U.S., the buyer of more than 60 percent of the nation's crude, by offering a route other than the Panama Canal, which can't accommodate the biggest tankers, said Vera, who is in charge of oil policy at the ministry in Bogota. Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

``This would allow Venezuela to connect with Asia without using the Panama Canal,'' Vera said. ``Asian investors, mainly China, have expressed interest in it.''

Bloomberg

[Emboldened Chimp]

1. Ruh-roh!

Invasion of Venezuela coming right up!

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

2. Ding Ding!

Wasn't part of the reason we invaded Afghanistan was the pipeline to China?

[CHIMO]

6. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man:

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain how Torrijos died?

JOHN PERKINS: Omar Torrijos, the President of Panama. Omar Torrijos had signed the Canal Treaty with Carter much -- and, you know, it passed our congress by only one vote. It was a highly contended issue. And Torrijos then also went ahead and negotiated with the Japanese to build a sea-level canal. The Japanese wanted to finance and construct a sea-level canal in Panama. Torrijos talked to them about this which very much upset Bechtel Corporation, whose president was George Schultz and senior council was Casper Weinberger. When Carter was thrown out (and that’s an interesting story–how that actually happened), when he lost the election, and Reagan came in and Schultz came in as Secretary of State from Bechtel, and Weinberger came from Bechtel to be Secretary of Defense, they were extremely angry at Torrijos -- tried to get him to renegotiate the Canal Treaty and not to talk to the Japanese. He adamantly refused. He was a very principled man. He had his problem, but he was a very principled man. He was an amazing man, Torrijos. And so, he died in a fiery airplane crash, which was connected to a tape recorder with explosives in it, which -- I was there. I had been working with him. I knew that we economic hit men had failed. I knew the jackals were closing in on him, and the next thing, his plane exploded with a tape recorder with a bomb in it. There's no question in my mind that it was C.I.A. sanctioned, and most -- many Latin American investigators have come to the same conclusion. Of course, we never heard about that in our country.


http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251

[pinerow]

3. Yep...that and the "bush Pre-emptive strike" pretty much

says it all...Caracas here we come...!

[oscar111]

4. freepers will hit the ceiling with fear

They already think china runs the p. canal.

[natrat]

5. man it is so warped for me

i am like "go China"--enemy of my enemy my friend

[DavidDvorkin]

7. Wow! That's quite a pipeline!

Oops. Never mind. I see what you mean.