WikiLeaks paper reveals US empire was becoming anxious about Venezuela adopting euro and directing exports to China

The WIKILEAKS Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD) holds the world's largest searchable collection of United States confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications. As of April 8, 2013 it holds 2 million records comprising approximately 1 billion words. The collection covers US involvements in, and diplomatic or intelligence reporting on, every country on earth. It is the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever published. The PlusD collection, built and curated by WikiLeaks, is updated from a variety of sources, including leaks, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and documents released by the US State Department systematic declassification review.

globinfo freexchange

A cable from March, 2008 was highlighting US concerns about the fact that the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, was about to adopt euro currency for some, or even all of its oil sales.

It appears that the cable source was the US embassy in Caracas and the then US Ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy.

From the summary we read:

PDVSA is demanding payment in euros for at least some oil sales. It is not clear what is the extent of the new policy. PDVSA is also considering asking purchasers to pre-pay for purchases. To the surprise of industry insiders, PDVSA will comply with President Chavez' order banning asphalt shipments to the United States. Asphalt production will be sold to the Chinese in the form of fuel oil. PDVSA continues to suffer refinery problems and is importing gasoline and components.

Recall that any attempt for liberation from the petro-dollar was one of the key reasons for which the US empire was conducting wars. That is, when oil-rich countries (Iraq, Libya and now Iran and Venezuela), were trying to adopt other currencies and find other markets in order to relief themselves from the brutal US economic war and sanctions.

It is also worth noting that Patrick Duddy was expelled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who claimed to have uncovered an American-led plot to overthrow him. He returned in July 2009 when the Obama Administration restored diplomatic relations with Venezuela.

Key points:

Reuters reported on March 14 that PDVSA was demanding payment in euros for some oil sales. Media reported later in the day that PDVSA officials had confirmed the story. However, a shipping executive and marketing executive told Petroleum Attache (Petatt) on March 14 that PDVSA may now be requiring payment in euros for all oil sales.

The shipping executive stated he was told by a PDVSA finance official that the only exception to the policy was for shipments originating in Curacao. He acknowledged he had received mixed messages from PDVSA officials as to the extent of the policy but added he had seen PDVSA documentation that clearly stated payment was to be made in euros. He added that PDVSA currently has a tender for light naphtha that requires payment in euros. The shipping executive said transactions were to be computed in dollars and then converted to euros at the current rate at the time of invoicing. The executives believe buyers are depositing the payments in a Swiss bank. They believe the bank is UBS.

According to the marketing and shipping executives, asphalt will now be exported to Curacao. Asphalt that previously went to the U.S. market will be sold to the Chinese in the form of fuel oil. The executives believe only 8,000 to 9,000 barrels of asphalt per day is being exported via Curacao. Curacao provides asphalt to the Caribbean. As a result, 80% of the asphalt base is being converted into fuel oil and being sold to China. The executives stated the Chinese have received a good price for the fuel oil since fuel oil prices have been declining recently. The executives believe that PDVSA is picking up the price of transport, which is substantial.

Full cable:

https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08CARACAS378_a.html

Comments

Day 1828: After five years, Julian Assange still in prison and under slow-motion execution by the Anglo-American imperialist criminals

failed evolution On 11 April 2019, the Ecuadorian government of traitor Lenin Moreno, invited the Metropolitan Police into the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and they arrested Julian Assange . Since then, Assange is kept in Belmarsh high security prison in London, without actual charges. The real reason world's number one political prisoner is still kept in this high security prison, is because he exposed horrendous war crimes carried out by the US imperialists and their allies. The ruthless Western imperialist regime wants to punish the No1 real journalist in the world and make him an example for any Whistleblower or real journalist who will attempt to expose its big crimes in the future. And the Anglo-American axis has now become officially a fascist coalition , framed by the rest of its Western pets. UK's Home Secretary Priti Patel, one of the most ruthless ever, decided to extradite Julian Assange to US. No surprise of course. The only question we had in mind is

The wounded US imperialist beast becomes more dangerous than ever as desperately seeks to start a WWIII

globinfo freexchange It seems that the declining Western superpower is losing ground and tries hardly to avoid the inevitable. The US imperialist beast, despite all the destruction that causes, is failing to fulfill its utter objectives. Which in short, are the dissolution of Russia and China, looting their vast resources, as well as the full expansion of the destructive neoliberal model throughout these areas and other countries allied with the Sino-Russian bloc. Most importantly, the wounded beast is loosing much of its strength due to the rapid de-dollarization that has started approximately ten years ago, as dollar had become the front line of the US imperialist sweeping force since the early 70s. As if nothing has changed, the beast insists on using the same tools to prevail in the global geopolitical field, ignoring the unprecedented changes and complexities under current circumstances. In a move (as it seems) of desperation, the United States House of Representative

Atlanta Police Violently Arrest Emory Students & Faculty to Clear Gaza Solidarity Encampment

Democracy Now! As a wave of student protests against Israel’s war on Gaza continues to spread from coast to coast, schools and law enforcement have responded with increasing brutality to campus encampments. One of the most violent police crackdowns took place at Emory University in Atlanta on Thursday, when local and state police swept onto the campus just hours after students had set up tents on the quad in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza as well as the planned police training center known as Cop City. Police used tear gas and stun guns to break up the encampment as they wrestled people to the ground, and are accused of using rubber bullets. Among those arrested were a few faculty members. Democracy Now! spoke with two of the arrested professors: Noëlle McAfee, chair of the philosophy department, and Emil’ Keme, professor of English and Indigenous studies. Also with Palestinian American organizer and medical student Umaymah Mohammad, who describes how Emory has repeat

Yanis Varoufakis Banned from Germany as Berlin Police Raid & Shut Down Palestinian Conference

Democracy Now! As Germany intensifies its crackdown on pro-Palestinian voices, Democracy Now! spoke with Greek economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis, one of the planned speakers at a conference in Berlin last weekend that was forcibly shut down by police. The Palestine Congress was scheduled to be held for three days, but police stormed the venue as the first panelist spoke. Germany's Interior Ministry had also banned some conference speakers from even entering the country, including Varoufakis, the Palestinian British surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah and the Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta. " This is not about protecting Jewish lives and Jews from antisemitism. It's all about protecting the right of Israel to commit any war crime of its choice, " says Varoufakis. Varoufakis speaks also about freeing Julian Assange and his new book Technofeudalism . Related: Germany again on a dark path towards fascism

Πως θα καταλάβετε ότι το καθεστώς Μητσοτάκη είναι ότι χειρότερο έχει κυβερνήσει τη χώρα στη μεταπολίτευση

Από τον μέγα ηγέτη Μωυσή ως τον αντίπαλο λαό, μια θητεία Μητσοτάκη δρόμος globinfo freexchange Αν ακόμα δεν έχετε πάρει χαμπάρι με τι άθλια διακυβέρνηση έχουμε να κάνουμε. Αν δεν σας έπεισε η καταστροφική διαχείριση της πανδημίας, οι υποκλοπές, τα Τέμπη, το ρεκόρ καμένων δασών, η ακρίβεια, τα υπερκέρδη των καρτέλ, η διάλυση του συστήματος υγείας και τόσα άλλα. Τότε μάλλον ανήκετε στην κατηγορία των ανθρώπων που είναι εξαιρετικά επιρρεπείς στην επικοινωνιακή καταιγίδα του καθεστώτος Μητσοτάκη, με την οποία επιχειρεί να κρύψει τον όλεθρο που σπέρνει στο διάβα του. Όμως αν είναι όντως έτσι, ίσως να σας πείσει η δραματική αλλαγή του επικοινωνιακού αφηγήματος του μιντιακού προπαγανδιστικού μηχανισμού, που απεικονίζει το μέγεθος της αποτυχίας της διακυβέρνησης Μητσοτάκη. Θυμηθείτε ότι με την έναρξη της πρώτης θητείας Μητσοτάκη, ο μηχανισμός προπαγάνδας παρουσίαζε τον ίδιο τον Μητσοτάκη ως τον μέγα ηγέτη που βγάζει την Ελλάδα από το περιθώριο, χρησιμοποιώντας πολλές φορές και υπερβολ

Pro-Palestinian Campus Encampments Spread Nationwide Amid Mass Arrests at Columbia, NYU & Yale

Democracy Now! Palestinian solidarity protests and encampments are appearing on college campuses from Massachusetts to California to protest Israel's attacks on Gaza and to call for divestment from Israeli apartheid. This week, police have raided encampments and arrested students at Yale and New York University. Palestinian American scholar and New York University professor Helga Tawil-Souri describes forming a faculty buffer to protect students, negotiating with police, and the ensuing crackdown that led to over 100 arrests Monday night. Uptown in New York City, the encampment at Columbia University is entering its seventh day despite mass arrests of protesters last week. "In my opinion, the NYPD were called in under false pretenses by the president of the university," says Joseph Slaughter, professor at Columbia University. "The university is being run as a sort of ad-hocracy at this point, the senior administration making up policies and procedures and pro

"Student Intifada": Stanford, University of Michigan, Indiana University, & more

The Real News Network Seven months into Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, a student-led grassroots movement is spreading across the US and beyond, hearkening back to the student protests of the ‘60s that played a pivotal role in ending the US war in Vietnam. In what is being called the “student intifada,” with over 100 encampments going up at different college and university campuses, students, faculty, grad students, and other campus community members are exercising civil disobedience, occupying space on campuses, defying brutal repression from administrators and police, combatting skewed and wildly lopsided narratives in corporate media, and pressuring their universities to “disclose and divest” their investments in companies and financial institutions connected to Israel. TRNN speaks with encampment organizers/participants from the University of Michigan, the Indiana University, and Stanford University, and gets updates from encampments from New York to California.

LEAKED: How Israel Calculates the Non-Value of Civilian Life in Gaza

Glenn Greenwald

Seymour Hersh - CIA Covers Up Nord Stream Bombing & Corruption Continues in Ukraine

davidekyo

Indiana University Brings In SNIPERS & Then LIES About It

Katie Halper Katie Halper talks to Aidan Khamis and Bryce Greene, who was arrested at Indiana University where snipers have been brought in. Bryce Greene is a student, writer, organizer and media critic based in Indianapolis. He is a contributor to Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. He was arrested and banned from Indiana University's campus for participating in the Gaza solidarity encampment at Indiana University. Aidan Khamis is an organizer for Palestine Solidarity Committee IU and IU divestment coalition.

the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

Search This Blog