Economic war will take oil to $200, Chávez warns

CARACAS, February 10.— If Exxon Mobil succeeds in freezing $12 billion in funds belonging to Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela), the country will suspend its oil shipments to the United States, President Hugo Chávez warned on Sunday.

Chávez also noted that his country is facing an economic conspiracy, which includes lawsuits filed in third nations by Exxon Mobil, a U.S company that he referred to as "bandits of the world, global mafias."

Chávez warned that if this economic war on Venezuela continues, the price of oil could reach $200 a barrel, and he denounced a plot to weaken his government in order to win regional elections in November, with the deliberate provocation of supply shortages, crime and taking advantage of authorities’ shortcomings.

These plans include attempts to divide left-wing forces and the nation’s armed forces, and Chávez called for unity, efficiency and a higher level of consciousness on the part of his supporters in order to confront the United States.

Meanwhile, the Mexican newspaper La Jornada published an article commenting that the transnational oil corporation Exxon was acting like the old slave-owner taking cruel revenge against the liberated slave, highlighting that the oil company is participating in a multi-faceted U.S. war to take over the largest oil reserves on the planet, located in Venezuela.

At the same time, Nicia Maldonado, Venezuelan minister for the indigenous peoples, denounced the attacks orchestrated by the U.S. corporation on PDVSA, with the help of the media.

For that reason, she said, the communities will be alert to the "onslaughts of the imperialist forces" against the "life, against the existence of human beings."