Chavez calls for new OPEC members

[Samildanach]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5035894.stm

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has lobbied members of the oil producers' cartel Opec to extend its membership. Mr Chavez called for Ecuador, which has large crude oil reserves, to return to the group after 14 years of absence. He also asked for Bolivia, which has brought its gas industry under state control, to be considered. Opec is due to vote on Thursday whether to change oil production levels, but is expected to brush off Mr Chavez's plan to lower them. Uncertainty over US sanctions against Iran, the war in Iraq and continued disruptions to supplies from Nigeria are keeping oil prices high, with crude futures closing at $71.40 a barrel on Wednesday. Ahead of the vote on production, Opec members said that while geo-political issues were the prime reason behind higher energy costs, it did not wish to worsen the situation by cutting output.

[Osborn F Enready]

Has anyone watched Chavez's speech at the OPEC meeting? C-Span covered it today (Friday) and it was taped Thursday, so I would imagine they will show it a couple more times.

Very powerful speech, and it shows that the world is waking up to U.S. Imperialist intentions.

The bad thing is many think socialism is the answer, and those same people use our last 100 years of government in the U.S. as an example of capitalism, which it surely has not been.

The last 100 years have been much more corporatist or fascist(interchangable words), then anything capitalism or a true free market would allow.

The mighty pendulum is being pushed back from one extreme, to the other, by the power brokers in an attempt to make it look like this ISN'T part of the plan......

LOL