Election Opponent Accuses Chavez of 'Giving Away' Oil

Election Opponent Accuses Chavez of 'Giving Away' Oil

FOX News Network, Wednesday, February 01, 2006./

CARACAS, Venezuela - A candidate challenging Venezuelan leader Hugo
Chavez for the presidency said his top campaign issue will be what he
calls a massive waste of billions of dollars through generous oil deals
for friendly countries.

Chavez, leading strongly in the polls, denied the accusations by
candidate Julio Borges on Tuesday night, calling his challenger a
"frijolito" - or "small fry" - and expressing confidence in an easy
re-election victory in December.

Borges said earlier Tuesday that his party, Justice First, calculates
Chavez's government has committed more than $16 billion to unprofitable
international oil deals or humanitarian donations.

"We aren't giving gifts to anyone," Chavez insisted in a speech. He
argued the oil is sold at market prices, though with special financing
arrangements.

Borges' Web site alleges that Chavez has "given away" more than $5
billion to Cuba, ranging from an electricity project to oil sales
exchanged partially for the services of thousands of Cuban doctors.

Borges lists $4.5 billion for Brazil, including plans for an oil
refinery. He includes more than $200 million for the United States,
including sales of discounted home heating oil to low-income Americans
in the Northeast.

"They're all programs in which Venezuela gives money or gasoline or oil
and receives nothing proportional in exchange," Borges told The
Associated Press, adding that he will make the issue his "No. 1 point"
in the campaign.

Chavez, who celebrates his seventh year in office Thursday, said many of
the oil deals merely allow long-term, low-cost financing for part of the
bill. Some countries also can pay partly in goods or services, such as
bananas, beans or the work of some 20,000 Cuban doctors now treating
Venezuela's poor without charge.

"How much do 20,000 doctors cost? Add it up," Chavez urged his
listeners. "Look how foolish these people from the opposition are."

Venezuela last years signed the "Petrocaribe" agreement with 13
Caribbean countries, allowing them to pay 60 percent of their bill up
front and pay off the rest as a 25-year loan with a 1 percent interest
rate.

Chavez, a vocal critic of President Bush, says such oil deals are a step
away from U.S. dominance and toward greater regional integration.

Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter, with $48 billion in
oil export revenues last year.

"The ones who used to govern the country are the ones who gave it away,"
Chavez said, arguing past governments sold out to U.S. interests and
transnational oil companies. "We're rescuing the country."

As he looks to the elections in December, Chavez said he is urging his
Cabinet to plan for another six-year term in office.

"I'm going to leave here someday, but when I leave I'm going to hand
over the government to a revolutionary, and surely someone more
revolutionary than I am," said Chavez, who envisions a long-term shift
toward socialism. "The revolution ... has arrived to stay though all of
this century, and past the 22nd century."

Borges said Chavez is tossing money around while neglecting poverty at
home. Chavez argued that government statistics show his social programs
have cut poverty at home from 48 percent of the population in 1997 to 37
percent today.

Meanwhile, Chavez recently signed contracts with newly elected leftist
President Evo Morales of Bolivia to sell his government up to 200,000
barrels of Venezuelan diesel a month, while accepting 75 percent of the
payment in agricultural products - largely soybeans - and allowing the
remaining 25 percent to be paid over 15 years at 2 percent interest.

Chavez also said Venezuela will donate $30 million to Morales'
government to help start up social programs.

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