"We will continue selling oil to the U.S."
Section - National
Press Writer
Sunday, May 29, 2011 00:30

Minister Rafael Ramirez
Caracas .- The Minister of Energy and Petroleum Rafael Ramirez said that Venezuela will continue to send 1.2 million barrels daily sold to the United States after that country announced sanctions against the state oil company PDVSA.

"We are serious and we will continue sending" that much, "but the question is: Are we going to do damage with their measures to guarantee the shipment of oil? It's something that we determine "the Venezuelans and not the Americans," Ramirez said in a televised speech.

The State Department announced the U.S. last Tuesday, these international sanctions against seven companies, including PDVSA, to support Iran's energy sector, but Ramirez confirmed that this does not affect the 1.2 million barrels daily to buy Venezuela Washington .

Ramírez's words confirm the view expressed on the eve Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and who considered that the suspension of oil shipments is a measure to "extreme moments."

"We threw hard, threw us on the issue of funding, we pulled into their contracts for technological support, only that President Hugo Chávez has years instructing us, and we have done, not to depend" on the United States, "Ramirez said stressing the importance of sanctions.

Washington decided on Tuesday to disqualify PDVSA to sign contracts with the U.S. administration and funding of that country in its import and export operations, which has not existed for five years.

These measures do not hurt us, not because imperialism not want to hurt us, but because we have worked to not hurt us, we have worked to not depend on them (...) is not that they wanted to stick Light " he said.

The minister recalled that until the arrival of Chávez to the presidency in 1999, PDVSA and the entire country's oil industry was dependent on U.S. companies, which has gradually decreased due to the current national policy of diversification.

Were it not so, the penalty would have crippled the oil industry, he said.

"For any other country would be very strong, just that we long ago left the tutelage that had the U.S. oil industry and that many people know," he said.

The Americans "do not like that we are sovereign, so we say to hell with what you want to imperialism," he added.

"Who is going to dictate the pattern? "The Americans, our executioners? No, never will! "He said.

After repeating the official condemnation of Venezuela to U.S. sanctions and the "imperial desire to dictate laws to the whole world," Ramirez said that being a state company, PDVSA "must enjoy judicial immunity."

"There can be subject to sanction any foreign power," he said.

Popular demonstrations of Chavez supporters that are repeated in several Venezuelan cities since last Wednesday culminate next Sunday with a "high concentration" in downtown Caracas, Ramirez confirmed the call to participate in it "all Venezuelans."

Today march in Caracas

Government supporters marched through Caracas today to protest the sanctions imposed by the United States to PDVSA. The march is part of the demonstrations of recent days since the U.S. State Department announced the sanctions, which the Venezuelan government described as "aggression against the sovereignty, and is organized by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the President Hugo Chavez, arriving in the central Plaza O `Leary, a few blocks from the presidential palace of Miraflores.