To be honest I haven't been paying a lot of attention to the intricacies of Venezuelan political news as of late. Instead I have been engrossed in the upcoming US primaries. Most readers I'm sure know that tomorrow is a big day for both republicans and democrats. I think it is safe to say that on the republican side Senator John McCain will be the republican nominee. The big question is who will be the nominee for the democrats, previously I predicted Clinton would be the front runner against McCain, well I would like to change my prediction and say that Obama will win.
The Obama campaign has been on a tear lately raking in some very high profile endorsements including John Kerry, Patrick Leahy, and more recently Ted Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, and even Maria Shriver (yes, Arnolds wife and also a Kennedy clan member). For those interested I found this link on the NY Times website showing some of the various endorsements all the candidates have received to date
The most recent news I have seen is that Clinton and Obama are in a statistical tie (Obama 49%, Clinton 46% +/- 4.5%). The interesting fact is that with time Obama's numbers trend higher, and since the democratic primary is more drawn out than the republican one this will likely play in Obama's favor.
As for this blogger, I will be casting my presidential primary vote tomorrow, and in case anyone is interested I will be voting for my senator, Barack Obama.
Venezuelan News
Most of the news I have read has been more of the same with Chavez still preoccupied with the FARC and insulting Uribe. Meanwhile, food shortages continue to get worse and of course Chavez's solution is to seize goods and threaten producers. In this link you can see a video of the chaos brought by milk shortages, one can only assume that if this continues the chaos will turn violent leading to riots.
As if the financial future of Venezuela were not more in question by the run up of debt by PDVSA from 2.9 billion in 2006 to 16 billion in 2007, we get this article from Reuters
CARACAS, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA is seeking a $1 billion up-front payment for several large shipments of fuel oil, El Universal newspaper reported on Saturday, in what may be a new sign of cash flow problems.
Under the deal, Venezuela is selling the fuel relatively cheaply but wants payment next week, the newspaper said.
PDVSA wants to find buyers for eight very large crude carrier cargoes of fuel oil by Feb. 6 and expects payment the following day.
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