Chavez, o benevolente

For the past year or so the [venezuelan] government has started spending much of the wealth generated from oil sales on projects abroad.

Experts believe that President Chavez has spent some $5bn on energy ventures outside Venezuela - including new or jointly operated oil refineries in Cuba, Uruguay and Brazil.

(...)

"It was an absurd situation where for the past 100 years of oil production here in Venezuela, we didn't ship a single barrel of petroleum to the Caribbean, Brazil, Argentina or Uruguay," Venezuela's Oil Minister, Rafael Ramirez, told BBC News in an exclusive interview.

"But now with the government of President Chavez, we have set up a system of shipping cheap oil to other Latin American countries, in return for agricultural and industrial products or even medical services."

Venezuela is indeed providing subsidised oil to several countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Cuba and Uruguay.

Local media say Cuba receives around 100,000 barrels of cheap Venezuelan oil a day and in return is loaning some 20,000 Cuban medics who provide free health care to Venezuela's shanty towns.

Other handouts from Venezuela's oil riches include a brand new hospital in Uruguay and the country made offers of millions of dollars of aid for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the US, as well as cheap heating oil for poor families in Boston and New York.

(in BBC News)

Parece que o subjugado povo venezuelano já não necessita das referidas receitas petrolíferas...