VENEZUELA: Venezuela's Chavez slams Bush ethanol fuel plan

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has taken issue with the ethanol fuel plans of George Bush. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday (April 10) slammed U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to substitute fuel ethanol for gasoline, joining a growing debate on the continent over use of the biofuel. Cuban leader Fidel Castro recently called the Bush ethanol project a "genocidal" plan that would spawn world hunger, though Brazil's left-leaning government has agreed with the Bush administration to help boost the global use of ethanol. The United States produces ethanol from corn and Brazil makes the fuel from sugar cane. The two countries intend to promote their products in developing countries. "That proposal by the U.S. president is against nature because natural laws can't be violated. Well, they can be but they shouldn't be because they alter the ecological equilibrium, the vital equilibrium. Aside from all the things that have no equilibrium that already exist-products of capitalist, imperialist policies-this is like to finish the world off finally," said Chavez during a speech in which he was accompanied by top Cuban officials. "That proposal could set off I don't know how many popular revolts and violence in the world, the proposal to substitute combustible fossils for agro-combustibles." Like Castro, Chavez insists planting corn and sugar to produce fuel will waste land and water resources that could otherwise be used to grow food. Ethanol has become an attractive fuel alternative due to the soaring price of crude oil, and even Venezuela -- which supplies around 9 percent of U.S. oil imports -- has promoted ethanol as a substitute for lead additives in gasoline. The criticisms by Chavez, a self-styled revolutionary and sworn enemy of Washington, appeared to put him at odds with Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who has said ethanol can revolutionize the global energy business. Brazil has the world's most advanced biofuels market after it started powering cars with ethanol three decades ago. In recent months, a global craze for renewable alternatives to gasoline has attracted big investors. Chavez insisted he was not confronting Lula, and instead accused the U.S. "empire" of seeking to stir up conflict between the nations. "And now, there is an entire strategy to try to put us in a fight with Brazil about this topic," he told the crowd. "We're not going to fight with Brazil about this topic. We're not going to fight with Lula about this topic. We shall never fight with Lula. We shall never fight with Brazil. We're very clear on that. Our enemy is the North American empire." The firebrand Chavez, whose influence has grown due to his nation's expanding oil wealth, often vies with the market-friendly Lula for influence over the continent's increasingly left-leaning governments. Latin American leaders, including Lula and Bolivian President Evo Morales, are planning to meet next week in Venezuela to discuss energy integration plans, most of which have been promoted by Venezuela.

ITN Source | April 11, 2007

Tags:. .resources. .integration. .conflict. .latin. .enemy