Venezuela's President Visits France

As part of one of his usual propagandistic tours, President Chavez has reached France for a meeting with Premier Sarkozy. In his address to the United Nations last week, the French leader, who is at the moment also acting as Head of EU, had prospected an opening of the G8 to other countries such as Russia and China.

This might have tickled the fancy of the Caudillo, given that those are among the countries he has been visiting in the same tour (after the ritual stopover to check on dear friend and colleague in ‘democracy’, Fidel Castro) to create business opportunity for Venezuela. Here is a breakdown of Chavez’s juicy latest deals:

• 1 million oil barrels per day promised to Beijing before 2012;
• 1 billion dollar credit from Moscow;
• nuclear know how from Russia;
• assistance from Gazprom (Russian energy giant) in the search for hydrocarbons off-shore.

The Offer To Sarkozy

Yet, the ace in the Venezuelan President’s sleeve is his request to Nicolas Sarkozy. In exchange for a substantial contract that would tender out to France the construction of extensive railways in Venezuela, Chavez is asking for the extradition of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, aka Carlos the Jackal, a dangerous terrorist now serving a life sentence in Clairvaux Prison, Northern France.

This request comes almost simultaneously with the revelation that the Venezuelan Government are to dedicate a Caracas square and even a statue to the memory of FARC leader, terrorist Manuel Marulanda Velez, aka Tirofijo.

It is no secret that Chavez is pro-terrorist. He refused to declare FARC as an illegal and terrorist organisation and went as far as inviting other countries to recognise the guerrilla movement as a legitimate “belligerent force”. Taking such stance, the President justified himself by saying that international recognition would cause FARC to stop its kidnappings and other unlawful activities.

In reality, Chavez has had direct dealings with these guerrilla movements. When accused of exchanging correspondence with Carlos the Jackal, instead of distancing himself, the President proudly proceeded to read the letters in question on TV.

It is yet to be seen if France will give in to such an unreasonable, to say the least, demand. It does not take much imagination to guess that, if extradited, Carlos the Jackal would serve his well-deserved sentence in very different, and a lot more pleasant, conditions than those offered by the French penitentiary where he is housed at the moment.

Sure is that if Sarkozy accepts the deal, he will have to pay in terms of credibility a lot more than he is going to gain economically.

Chavez visits France

Railway tender offered in exchange for terrorist

Chavez takes exchange to a new level

Chavez promises oil to Beijing

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