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Saturday, August 13, 2005
Venezuela two-fer
I don't pretend to understand all the intricacies of Venezuela politics. All I know for certain is that Hugo Chavez loves giving Bush the middle finger:
Caracas has withdrawn the diplomatic immunity of US anti-drugs officials working in Venezuela.
It follows a move by the US State Department to revoke the visas of six Venezuelan officials in Washington.
Both countries are locked in a row after President Hugo Chavez accused the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of spying on his government.
Plus, Chavez is willing to take on big oil, while Bush showers oil producers with utterly gratuitous tax credits:
Venezuelan tax authorities have closed a Royal Dutch Shell office for 48 hours and asked for an injunction on some of the oil firm's assets in a tax dispute.
The row centres on a $131m (£74m) bill for back taxes covering 2001-2004, presented to the oil giant in July.
Venezuela's tax authority said it had put a hold on Shell goods worth $131m and shut its office in Lake Maracaibo.
Again, I don't know the merits of Chavez's demand for $131 million in back taxes, but it's not hard to believe that an oil company would go out of its way to avoid paying its fair share of taxes.
