"TAP não sobrevive se se mantiver pública", garante Pinto Luz

[Ming]

Esta está gira (pelo menos eu acho-lhe piada ):

09 Jun 2004 11:33 GMT

=Venezuela Oil Income Fuels Chavez Campaign Against Recall

(This article was originally published Tuesday)


By Peter Millard

Of Dow Jones Newswires

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez appears to have a plan to beat an upcoming presidential recall referendum: spend record oil revenues on state-handouts for his core supporters.

"Oil is not only for a minority, so that a minority can get rich," Chavez told a large crowd of supports in rural Trujillo state Tuesday.

"It needs to be redistributed," said Chavez, who was surrounded by 979 pregnant cows that will be doled out to small farmers.

Chavez, a fiery populist and fierce critic of "neoliberal" market-friendly policies, maintains his government has broken with Venezuela's corrupt past and serves the interests of the nation's poor.

Critics accuse him of wrecking the economy through mismanagement, recessive policies and combative politics, all of which worsen poverty levels and foster corruption.

The cows, which will be sold to small-time farmers under a soft loan program with a one-year grace period, will cost the state $4 million. But this is just the opening salvo of Chavez's recall campaign.

State-oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, or PdVSA (PVZ.YY), recently laid the groundwork for a $2 billion short-term spending fund, and $750 million in oil dollars have landed in the account since mid-May. The money will go into "development" programs, specifically in agriculture and infrastructure.

The cash comes at a key moment for Chavez.

Opposition parties hope to hold a recall vote against him in early August, which could be followed by general elections if he's voted out and the results of the poll are released before August 19. If they're delivered after that date, Chavez's vice-president would serve out the remainder of his term.

Chavez is not shy about his spending ambitions. He promised another 99,000 imported cows to the farmers and assembled supporters before the end of the year, along with scholarships for a host of back-to-school programs for high- school dropouts.

The spending spree carries its costs. One central bank director warned that if the government spends the account too fast, it will flood the financial system and accelerate consumer price growth. Analysts have expressed concern about deteriorating fiscal discipline amid the ongoing campaign.

"The government is currently spending a waterfall of dollars in an irresponsible way that does not even go through the budget," Robert Bottome, the editor of the Veneconomia economic and political publication, recently wrote.

Chavez, facing a battle for political survival, is likely to turn a deaf ear to such concerns, especially at a time when government coffers are filling up.

Oil accounts for more than half of government income, and oil prices are now near record highs. As it takes one to three months for PdVSA to bill its customers, the company - and the government - is guaranteed robust revenues for at least the next few months.

Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier of crude oil and gasoline to the U.S.

By Peter Millard, Dow Jones Newswires;58212-5641339;

peter.millard@dowjones.com;