Oil!

A recent story that has garnered national media attention has been the recent threats by Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, to cut off oil shipments to the U.S. Chavez has been steadily increasing the harshness of his comments in regard to American/ Venezuelan relations (specifically President Bush.) In a recent speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Chavez referred to Bush as the devil, and in the past week while giving his warnings about his plans to halt oil exports, he called President Bush "Mr. Danger." Chavez is doing this because he sees the intrusion of the U.S. "empire" and other foreign nations in the nationalization of Venezeula's oil industry as a breach of his country's national sovereignty. I personally do not think that Chavez's actions are helping his nation, but it is not unreasonable for him to be angry with the uneccesary involvement of other nations in Venezuela's affairs. However, I believe he loses credibility when he calls people names and uses rhetoric that makes him look like an insane power-hungry dictator (indeed he very well may be such a person.) I am only arguing that the way in which Chavez speaks does not help to portray his country as a stable area. Read the article to get an idea of how the international community has reacted to Chavez's recent threats. This is certainly an interesting type of exchange that will have an effect not only on Latin America but also the world markets.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080210/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_us_exxon;_ylt=AgSfdxzgdBV.IbcfonxLPty3IxIF