[NYTr] Hugo Chavez Calls for Unity to Boost Regional Integration
 
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 11:34:01 -0600 (CST)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles

Hugo Chavez Calls for Unity to Boost Regional Integration

Cooperation, solidarity and integration define PETROCARIBE, said Cuban 
First Vice President Raul Castro

Cienfuegos, Cuba, Dec 22 (ACN)VenezuelaB4s President Hugo Chavez called 
for stronger unity to develop social programs in Latin American and 
Caribbean, where the countries are again fighting to be truly 
independent.

During the closing ceremony of the 4th Petrocaribe Summit, in the
south-central city of Cienfuegos, Chavez said that "We can not 
continue to launch individual projects; either we work together as only 
one, or we will not have a homeland!" Chavez warned about US plans to 
divide the countries of the region and prevent their unity. We will be 
able to make our dreams come true only if we stand together, he said 
while addressing participants at the summit, including Cuban First Vice 
President Raul Castro Ruz, hundreds of Cienfuego citizens and workers
at the local refinery, which was re-opened during the summit, acn
reported.

The refinery, which can process up to 65,000 barrels of oil daily in 
its first stage, is an example of how much can be done, said Chavez and 
added that new programs of the Venezuelan PDVSA oil enterprise focus on 
the expansion of similar facilities in his country and in Latin America 
and the Caribbean.

Chavez also denounced US conspiracy plans against Venezuela, Cuba and 
Bolivia. He recalled how a sector of the Bolivian people has been 
misinformed and misguided about the alleged Venezuelan transfer of 
weapons to Bolivia. He said that a Venezuelan plane loaded with 
medicines, water and machinery recently arrived in Bolivia to be
received with stones that forced the pilots to take off without
necessary fuel to fly and head for Brazil, where local authorities
confirmed the content of the cargo.

Before Chavez gave his statements, Cuban First Vice President Raul 
Castro addressed participants at the ceremony to say that Petrocaribe 
is the alternative to fight serious energy problems facing the nations 
of the region.

Cooperation, solidarity and integration define the initiative, said 
Raul and noted that the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas has 
proved that a better world can be built, while he stressed the 
contribution by Venezuela to the regional integration project, 
expressed in the re-opening of the Cuban refinery, which had been
inactive since April 1995.

At the beginning of the ceremony, the general manager of the 
Cuba-Venezuela joint venture PDVCUPET, Luis Alfredo Gomez said his 
company has other plans of social and economic interest in the works on 
the island along with the reactivation of the Cienfuegos refinery. 
Following the closing of the summit, participants inaugurated a local 
community with 100 PVC homes donated by Venezuela.

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