Latin America: Week in Review, Venezuela
Venezuelans March In Caracas To Protest U.S. Sanctions On State Oil Company PDVSA
May 30, 2011 By Staff
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez greets his supporters, April 13, 2002. Photo by chavezcandanga.
Today in Latin America
Top Story — Thousands of Venezuelans marched in the capital of Caracas Sunday to protest U.S. sanctions imposed on the South American country’s state oil company, PDVSA.
President Hugo Chávez’s United Socialist Party of Venzuela (PSUV, in Spanish) organized the march.
“What a march! This is popular power!” Chávez said in a tweet.
The march was attended by representatives of the cabinet and Rafael Ramírez, the Minister of Energy and Petroleum.
“Today, we’re going have a march to show profound rejection of imperialism’s intentions to attack our country,” Ramírez said, cited by Spanish newswire EFE.
Ramírez said Friday that Venezuela would continue to send the 1.2 million barrels of oil per day that his country currently exports to the United States.
The leftwing governments of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Raúl Castro in Cuba both released statements in support of PDVSA and criticizing the U.S. sanctions.
Sunday’s march marked the second major protest in Venezuela since the Obama administration slapped PDVSA with sanctions last week for allegedly violating the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996. Ramírez denies that Venezuela has exported gas to Iran in the period covered by the 1996 act.
The sanctions prohibit PDVSA from competing for U.S. government contracts, acquiring U.S. export licenses or receiving financing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Venezuela is still allowed to export crude to the United States, however, and the sanctions do not apply to PDVSA subsidiaries.
Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch
- About 140,000 Uruguayans left their country in the aftermath of the 2001 financial crisis. Now, tiny Uruguay’s booming economy is luring them back. Mariana Bueno reports from Montevideo.
- An estimated 300,000 migrants cross Mexico’s southern border every year on their way to the United States. A network of shelters has developed across Mexico to aid the migrants in their travels.Photographer John Sevigny visited one of these shelters in the northern city of Saltillo and shared these images with us.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- The president of the Inter-American Development Bank said that a Latin American deserves to be the head of the IMF and gave backing to Mexico’s bid.
- Mexican President Felipe Calderón signed a bill that extends anti-discrimination protections to people with disabilities.
- Mexican police killed 11 suspected members of the La Familia drug cartel during a shoot-out at a ranch in the western state of Jalisco.
Caribbean
- Cuban head of state Raúl Castro turns 80 this Friday. No public celebrations are planned.
- Haitians living in tent camps on public land are being evicted in advance of the hurricane season.
- A new museum honoring the 50,000 people who died during the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic opened Sunday.
Central America
- Ousted former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returned from exile Saturday, after Venezuela and Colombia helped negotiate his return.
- Five people, including four minors, were wounded when gunmen opened fire on them in a street in San Martín, El Salvador.
- Environmental and health experts warn that Costa Rica’s boom in pineapple farms may be unhealthy for the environment and could pose risks to drinking water sources.
Andes
- The Colombian government said that paramilitaries, guerrillas and drug dealers have stolen almost seven million hectares of land in the country’s civil conflict over the past 25 years.
- The two candidates facing off in Peru’s presidential race next week are virtually tied, according to a new poll published on Sunday.
- Venezuela and China plan to develop an observation satellite to be built in Asia and launched from South America in 2012.
- Demonstrators in Peru and Bolivia have intensified their tactics after three weeks of non-violent protests, in an attempt to stop a transnational mining company from extracting silver posits from Peru.
Southern Cone
- Police in Brazil are investigating the death of a farmer whose body was found near where a land activist and his wife were recently killed in the Amazon.
- Philip Morris is suing Uruguay in a world tribunal over a smoking ban that it sees damaging its business prospects.
Image: chavezcandanga @ Flickr.
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