ALBA: the Light of Latin American People
February 2, 2008
Venezuela has proved oil reserves that reach 80,582 million barrels and they are expected to increase to 236,000 million barrels of heavy-crude and extra-heavy-crude with the certification of the reserves of the Orinoco Oil Belt. The President Hugo Chávez has said many times that the Venezuelan oil is aimed at fulfilling the necessities of the Latin American and Caribbean Countries.
The Bolivarian Government has started the creation and consolidation of energy cooperation agreements such as Petroamerica, a mechanism that gathers Petrocaribe, Petrosur and Petroandina Gas. With the creation of these agreements, the Venezuelan government establishes energy cooperation agreements with all the integration blocks of the region.
Petroamerica = ALBA
Petroamerica is an integration proposal that was born inside the Bolivarian Alternative for the People of our Americas. It is based on solidarity and complementarity principles of the countries and in fair and democratic use of energetic resources. Its goal is to guarantee access to these resources, thus reducing economic and asymmetries to eradicate poverty.
Petroamerica has the following cooperation fields:
Crude and products supply.
Interchange of goods, services, infrastructure development, financing.
Design, construction, and joint operation of refineries, storage facilities and terminals.
Joint commercialization of crude, products, asphalt, and lubricants.
Transportation and logistics.
Joint exploration and exploitation of oil and gas.
Processing and commercialization of gas.
Petrochemical.
Technology / training.
Biodiesel.
Public policies.
ALBA Brought Light Back to the People
Cuba and Nicaragua knew very well about power blackout. In these countries, the electrical power supply that keeps the industries’ motors turned on, the operating rooms, and the light bulbs in the streets were so deficient that blackouts lasted several hours.
Nelson Artola, President of the Nicaraguan Emergency Social Investment Found, explained the ALBA’s importance for Central American countries: “With the ALBA we have overcome blackouts of almost 18 hours. The energy inefficiency supply has been totally overcome.”
Nowadays, Nicaragua and Venezuela are investing in geothermic, hydric, and wind energy for the ALBA members and the rest of Central American countries that are suffering the lack of energy.
Artola considers the ALBA is the real alternative. “Not only for us as Nicaraguans, but also for all the Latin American nations, because it is the fair cause of the poor people. We have achieved several economic and social development projects that allow us to have a bilateral relation with Venezuela. The energy issue, for instance, is an aspect that has notably progressed between our nations. It has allowed us to have oil supplies to assist the energy emergency that used to blackout our country and stop the national economy,” he affirmed.
The War is for Oil
Oil moves the engines of the industrialized countries. The United States of America is the world’s biggest oil consumer, and they import it from Venezuela, among other countries. This country knows better that any other country that oil is a non-renewable natural resource that is exhausted everyday. The energetic crisis is coming, this is why some oil specialists affirm that the US needs to control world’s gas and oil reserves, otherwise, its capitalist economy will succumb.
Venezuela is working to certificate the oil reserves of the Orinoco Oil Belt, which officially will turn the country with the world’s biggest oil reserves, exceeding Saudi Arabia, which has 265.000 million barrels. According to several researches, the world’s oils reserve will exhaust in 2043. But that date can come soon if the consumption continues increasing the same way it has been increasing during the last years.
Latin American people are aware of that situation, this is why they protect natural resources every day. Fernando Bossi, Secretary of the People’s Bolivarian Congress, explains that “we all know the energy is a main issue not only for Latin America but for the whole world. The control of natural resources is a strategic concern for survival and sovereignty of the nations. Our potential is enormous.”
Mr. Bossi considers the energy policy is a unity and liberation policy. He thinks the participation of the social movements and the energy field workers is vital to defend those resources. He remembered the importance the Venezuelan people and workers had to recover the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) during April 2002 oil strike.
An essay entitled América Latina: Territorio de Construcción de la Hegemonía (Latin America: Territory of Construction of the Hegemony), written by Raúl Orneles, adds important information that explains the recent policy of the US administration to conquer the energetic resources of the continent. This author considers it is a priority for the US “national security” to control of energy resources. To achieve its goals, this country uses mechanisms such as the installations of military bases, combat of armed movements that adverse its interests, economic cooperation policies, humanitarian activities, and protection of the environment.
This policy has its own principles in the foreign dependence the US has regarding oil supply, which is consumed in enormous quantities because is the fuel of the industrial machines.
Juan Edgardo González in his book entitled El petróleo, recurso natural estratégico no removable (Oil, non-renewable energy natural resource), suggests wars developed in the present time have the purpose of controlling oil.
According to González, paradoxically the war is done by the non-oil economic potencies, but its economies are extremely dependent of this resource. In the last times, wars have been carried out in name of liberty and democracy, such as the specific case of Iraq.
The United Sates, considered as the architect of the war to liberate the people, needs to guarantee crude supply in the future, when the world enters in an energy crisis and the oil prices increase in a suspect way.
(By Dexy García / Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information (MinCI), Venezuela)