July 6, 2007 (LPAC)--Shell Oil Company faces millions of dollars in fines and possible jail time for its executives in Argentina, for its failure to supply sufficient fuel to the market, as required by law, Economics Minister Felisa Miceli announced on July 2. The country has been facing artificially-created shortages, particularly of diesel fuel, just as the planting season begins.
Miceli's announcement followed President Nestor Kirchner's warning to the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) summit in Paraguay on June 29, that the oil companies were "wearing out" the patience of the region, with their refusal to meet its energy needs. South America is finally growing again, after years of deliberate disinvestment, and that requires increased power. We may have to act resolutely together, including investing ourselves in regional projects, to insure that "the global development necessities of the peoples of our region" prevail over the "whims" of individual interests, Kirchner told the Presidents of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay, who attended the summit.
Two days later, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa warned citizens that gas shortages were being deliberately created in their country, to destabilize his government. These are familiar tactics which the oligarchy throws against patriotic governments, as was done in Chile in the 1970's, Correa told Radio Tarqui in Quito, referencing the oil companies role in the destabilization used to bring dictator Gen. Agusto Pinochet to power.
The targeting of Shell Oil and the reference to the Pinochet precedent are precise hits at the BAE-centered financial complex which is desperate to crush South America's adoption of Franklin Roosevelt-style policies of sovereign, economic growth. Both --Shell Oil and dictator Pinochet-- now stand exposed as central players for more than two decades in the BAE would-be global government.
Regional cooperation to defeat such tactics are in the works. Today, the Brazilian government announced it would be increasing its sales of electricity to Argentina, at a price barely above cost, and on July 4, following a meeting with President Kirchner, Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera reported that they had agreed that their state oil companies will jointly develop Bolivia's giant gas fields, if the oil cartel fails to make needed investments on time.
