On Thursday morning, a gas platform sank in the Caribbean sea, off the coast of Venezuela. All 95 workers on it were evacuated safely.

The energy minister, Rafael Ramirez, said a problem with the flotation system in the semi-submergible platform had caused it to keel over. However, the tube connecting the rig to the gas field had been disconnected and safety valves were activated, so there was no gas leak.

Alarms had gone off three hours before, so the crew had time to evacuate. The captain stayed behind with three workers until it was clear that the rig was collapsing. They then abandoned the rig. Ramirez affirmed that there was no environmental damage, saying: “The rig sunk completely. I flew over it this morning and there is nothing to see.”

The platform belongs to an Indian company, Aban Offshore Ltd, but was operated by Venezuela’s state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA). It was inaugurated only last week by Mr Ramirez.

The platform was part of Venezuela’s efforts to develop its offshore gas reserves. It has been a struggle to attract foreign investment despite the gas deposits being some of the largest in the world.

Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, used Twitter to announce the news, saying, “I am afraid to inform you that gas platform Aban Pearl sank a few moments ago. The good news is that the 95 workers are safe… They were evacuated and at the moment two navy patrols are moving in the area.”

Ramirez told state television that, “Before starting operations, this platform was repaired, inspected and certified.” The underwater structures that supported the platform will now be inspected to see what went wrong.

The energy minister also said that he did not think the incident would affect their plans. He expects the first gas production in 2012.

On Tuesday Hugo Chávez celebrated the eleventh anniversary of his presidency of Venezuela. In his speech, which lasted over two hours, Chávez also swore in the new vice president, Elias Jaua, replacing Colonel Ramón Carrizales, who resigned on 25th January.

At the ceremony in Caracas Chávez stated that he hoped to remain in power for a further 11 years, “I like this number 11…..I am 55 years old, 11 years as president. The next 11 years promise to take care of me a little more and within 11 years I will be 66 years old, and if you want it, by Gods will, 22 years as president.” However, he also commented that he would not seek a further 11 years as he would then be 77 years old and 33 years in power woud be too much.

Chávez will finish his second term in office in 2012. An amendment to the constitution in February 2009 now enables him to run for a further term. Opponents have claimed that Chávez is seeking to perpetuate himself in office, but he states that his motivations are to enable the Bolivarian revolution, that he initiated in 1999, to reach maturity, “Our government is still a child, the revolution is still a girl.”

During his speech, which was broadcast on national radio and television, Chávez spoke about his next challenge, the legislative elections in September: “We will win the National Assembly with overwhelming majority. We will defeat the rebels and the fascists in the streets.”

The ceremony was held after a week of friction with former allies, political opponents and massive student protests across the country. Student leaders in Venezuela are demanding an investigation into last week’s clashes between students and police that resulted in the death of a pro-Chávez student.

On Monday a group of former allies of Chávez called for his resignation. Among the group were ministers of his first government in 1999 and soldiers who had accompanied him in the failed coup attempt against President Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992.

At a press conference on Sunday Luis Alfonso Dávila, former Congress Speaker, former Minister of the Interior and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, read a statement from the group voicing their demands. Dávila said: “Everything you said before you took office has turned you into an illegitimate president. People suffer from personal insecurity, undermined freedoms, legal and social insecurity; poverty is deepening; public utilities such as water, electricity and garbage collection are a mess. Lack of productivity has led to food shortages, the country’s infrastructure has deteriorated due to the lack of maintenance; the Venezuelan economy is experiencing one of its more serious crises despite oil prices…..corruption has reached obscene levels.”

This Thursday will mark the 18 year anniversary of the 1992 coup attempt that catapulted Chávez to the top of the Venezuelan political scene. While the government will hold a “Day of National Dignity”, the opposition will use the anniversary to claim the “undemocratic” character of the president.

In an interview with the Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Noam Chomsky, the political analyst from the United States, criticised the use of Colombian military bases by the US.

“The US justifies its presence in Colombia with the reasoning that it is fighting the war on drugs, but this justification isn’t serious”, said the analyst. He added that “beneath the drugs pretext exists another reason”.

Chomsky was received in the Miraflores palace in Caracas where Chávez  gave him “a warm welcome”.

“It was time that he visited us, and time that the Venezuelan village see him and listen to him directly”, said the President to the professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as he bade him into the palace.

Chomsky thanked Chávez for the welcome and said that “it is moving to see how Venezuela is creating another world, and to meet the man who has inspired this change”.

“To talk about peace and to criticise those against it is easy. What is difficult is creating a new and different world”, said the academic, who is well known for his left-wing politics.

After meeting the President, Chomsky commented in a conference in the Teresa Carreño theatre in Carracas that “Venezuela on its can’t provide the answer to the military bases” and encouraged the Latin American nations to work on “a declaration strongly opposing the militarisation of the continent and the US presence in Colombia’s military bases”.

He accused the US of “exacerbating tensions in Latin American countries”, according to the agency EFE.

“Before they helped with coups or military intervention: now the capacity is less, but it hasn’t disappeared”, warned Chomsky.

Before travelling to Venezuela, Chomsky had sympathised with the President on various occasions. He summed up his feelings saying that “I think that there are big problems in the country, like the high crime rates, the enormous levels of corruption, elements of caudillismo – the traditional Latin American plague [...] But I also think that there are good signs that it could have a positive influence”, said Chomsky in an answer to the readers of the BBC.

Photo courtesy of White House/Pete Souza

Heads of state at the Summit of Americas

Leaders of 34 democratic countries of the Americas gathered in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago over the weekend of 17th April 2009 for the Summit of the Americas. This was only the fifth summit on history and the previous one was held in Mar del Plata, Argentina 2005.

The top issue at the summit was the current economic crisis, which also encompassed issues of access to increased credit and lending for some of the poorer countries of the Americas. Other issues included promoting human prosperity, energy security and environmental sustainability. The issue of Cuba also unofficially dominated the agenda. Many leaders were outraged that the communist country and it’s president Raúl Castro had been excluded from the talks.

The ‘Cuba’ problem

Although not officially on the summit agenda, leaders from several Latin American countries were quick to make their objections to US policy on Cuba known. Last month, President Obama eased the embargo on travel between the two countries, making it easier for Cuban-Americans to visit their families and send money home. These restrictions have been in place since Fidel Castro led the island’s revolution in 1960.

US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton admitted prior to the summit that the former US policy on Cuba “had been unsuccessful”. She also welcomed an offer from the Cuban president to hold talks between the two nations. Mr Castro said he was willing to talk about “everything” with the US, including political prisoners, human rights and freedom of the press, which Obama had previously said could not be ignored.

Talking at the end of the summit, Obama praised the examples of Cuba and Venezuela, who recently reinstated theirs US ambassador, saying that it was “not words, but deeds” that would help solve international issues and aid collaboration efforts. “I know there is a longer journey that must be travelled to overcome decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take toward a new day,” he said.

Photo by Evan Abramson

Presidents Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales

Venezuelan defiance

One of the countries most vocally opposed to the exclusion of Cuba was Venezuela. Before the conference in Trinidad and Tobago began, President Hugo Chávez appeared to chastise the US for its approach to Cuba. In a pre-summit statement, he said “there is more democracy in Cuba than in the United States”.

After the gathering, however, relations between Chávez and Obama seemed much more amicable. The Venezuelan president presented his US counterpart with an English language copy of ‘The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent’, which chronicles exploitation in the region. After this gesture was televised, the book by Eduardo Galeano shot to number two on the bestseller list by online bookshop amazon.com.

Their meeting was brief. According to a Venezuelan presidential press release, Chávez said to Obama “I greeted Bush with this hand eight years ago; I want to be your friend.”

Chávez called their meeting “a good moment” and later restored the US ambassador to Venezuela as a gesture of goodwill. He said “I think President Obama is an intelligent man, compared to the previous US president.”

Speaking of the future of relations between the US and Venezuela, Chávez announced “we have a different focus obviously, but we are willing, we have the political will to work together.”

Venezuela was not the only country seeking to improve relations. According to Obama, many other heads of state wanted better, more constructive ties with the US. The president was regarded by the media and locals in Trinidad and Tobago as the ’star’ of the event. Unofficial merchandise featuring his picture was sold at temporary stalls all over the town of Port of Spain and people queued for hours to catch a glimpse of him.

Trouble for US golden boy?

It was not all plain sailing for Obama. On the final day of the summit, Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, asked the US leader to publicly deplore the alleged attempted assassination which took place last week in the Bolivian town of Santa Cruz.

Speaking the day after, Obama said “I just want to make absolutely clear that I am opposed and condemn any efforts at violent overthrows of democratically elected governments, wherever it happens in the hemisphere.”

Bolivian officials stated on Sunday that they do not believe the US was involved in the alleged attempt on their president’s life. However, they added that the president has so far not taken any measures to improve the relations between Bolivia and the US.

Relations have been unstable between the two countries since September 2008, when Morales accused the US ambassador to Bolivia of inciting increasingly violent protests against him. Subsequently, the US envoy was expelled from Bolivia and the Bolivian ambassador withdrawn from US territory.

The future

In his closing speech, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick Manning praised the heads of state from all 34 countries for their collaboration efforts. He also gave a special thanks to Obama for his “new approach” to the international economic situation.

Generally, the summit ended on an upbeat note. Although there was no unanimous consensus on the issues on the agenda, leaders from Venezuela, Brazil and the US all agreed that better international ties were on the cards for the future.