Are We Losing Latin America?
Tomorrow President Bush begins a trip to Latin America at crucial time in relations between North and South America. The region could become a critical sector in the war on terror. Led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, some of the countries have taken a turn toward extreme anti-American bias. Bolivian, and Nicaragua have followed suit with Venezuela in forming an axis of action against American interests in the world.
Venezuela and Iran have joined forces to "liberate" other countries from American "imperialism". Their leaders have said, "Let's save the human race; let's finish off the U.S. empire." Their intentions seem pretty clear.
Why is this critical to you? Because Venezuela supplies 14% of U.S. oil imports. Any effort to increase the worldwide price of oil, which Hugo Chavez actively encourages, directly effects our pocketbook. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson has a good background piece in today's Washington Times. Here is an excerpt:
The strongman rules an oil-rich nation that exports 1.1 million barrels of oil to the United States per day, which amounts to 14 percent of our total oil imports. Mr. Chavez has already colluded with other OPEC nations to raise oil prices, and if he's successful in nationalizing multibillion-dollar crude projects in the Orinoco Belt, there's a risk that prices could jump again.
This could have a severe impact on the pocketbooks of American families and small businesses. According to some economists, every time oil prices rise by 10 percent, on average 150,000 Americans lose their jobs.
Relations with this region are critical to American security. We would not want to see a base for terrorism open in anywhere in this hemisphere. I have talked about this subject in previous posts. And Cecil Maranville has an article in WNP as well.
