Brazil Sends Gasoline at Venezuelan's Request

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <yoshie@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

*****   New York Times  27 December 2002

Brazil Sends Gasoline at Venezuelan's Request

By LARRY ROHTER

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 26 ? In a show of support for
Venezuela's embattled president, Hugo Chávez, the Brazilian
government has sent an emergency shipment of 520,000
barrels of gasoline to help relieve shortages caused by a
nationwide general strike now in its fourth week,
government officials here said today....

A spokeswoman for the Brazilian state oil company,
Petrobrás, confirmed that the shipment, made at Mr.
Chávez's request, was on its way to Venezuela. She said it
was expected to arrive on Friday or Saturday.

Commercial and political ties between the two countries
have strengthened considerably since Mr. Chávez took office
in February 1999, proclaiming his intent to lead a peaceful
social revolution. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of
Brazil approved the gasoline shipment, and there are
indications that his successor-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva, of the left-wing Workers Party, was also involved in
the decision.

Mr. da Silva takes office on Wednesday and has a
longstanding personal and ideological affinity with Mr.
Chávez, who is also reported to have asked Brazil to supply
crews to operate Venezuelan oil tankers.

"He thinks like I do," Mr. da Silva said earlier this year,
adding that while the Venezuelan leader can be "excessively
impetuous" at times, he is "a killer ball-handler" who
deserves praise for his daring.

Mr. Chávez in turn has said "Lula is a great man" whose
rise to power he has wished for "day and night." After Mr.
da Silva won a landslide victory here in October, Mr.
Chávez said he hoped Brazil would join Venezuela and Cuba
in establishing an "axis of good" in the hemisphere.

Earlier this month, Mr. da Silva sent one of his chief
foreign policy advisers, Marco Aurelio García, to Caracas
to assess the crisis. In interviews with Brazilian
newspapers after his return, Mr. García said the new
Brazilian government wanted to "contribute to Venezuelan
stability" and accused Mr. Chávez's opponents of seeking to
provoke "a situation of uncontrollable violence" that would
cripple the world economy.

"Imagine the No. 5 oil producer with a civil war and Iraq
with a war that is not at all civil," Mr. García said in
the Rio daily O Globo on Tuesday. "That would bring
disastrous consequences."...

<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/27/international/americas/27BRAZ.html>
  *****

*****   Brazil to swap gasoline to fuel-starved Venezuela

By an OGJ correspondent

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 26 -- In a swap for future crude oil
deliveries from Venezuela, Petroleos Brasileiro SA
(Petrobras) has agreed to provide 520,000 l of gasoline to
Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) now to relieve the fuel
shortage caused by a general strike that has virtually shut
down Venezuela's national oil company.  That shipment
should arrive in Venezuela "by the end of this week,"
Petrobras Pres. Francisco Gros told OGJ Online....

Acting on a personal appeal from Chavez, Brazil's President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso requested Monday that Petrobras
provide the gasoline to Venezuela. Brazil is a net importer
of crude....

Marco Aurélio Garcia, international representative of
Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,
recently returned from a 4-day visit to Venezuela where he
reportedly promised Chavez that Lula would send two
tankers: one loaded with gasoline and the other empty.
Chavez also asked for technicians to unload crude in
neighboring countries.

<http://ogj.pennnet.com/articles/web_article_display.cfm?ARTICLE_CATEGORY=GenIn&ARTICLE_ID=164490>
  *****

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