Fiji added to Chavez’ oil bonanza list

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has every right to feel flush these days, swimming as he is in oil revenue. But is prone to go a bit overboard with promises of spreading the cash around in his nonstop bid to win friends and influence people.

Often that tendency rears its head with a near compulsion to promise multi billion dollar refineries to those he is trying to impress.

This week it was the Pacific island nation of Fiji that Chavez’ government designated as its next beneficiary, saying it wanted to help build a refinery to ease that country’s high cost of fuel imports, according to the Xinhua news agency.

But Fiji should, as the Mexicans say, wait sitting down.

There are six, eight , maybe a dozen countries ahead of it in line for a promised Venezuelan-financed refinery. Brazil, Jamaica, Panama, India are just a few. None of these foreign plants are under construction although the Brazilian project set for the northeastern state of Pernambuco, a joint venture with Brazil’s Petrobras, is said to be in the feasibility study stage.

Posted by Chris Kraul, Bogota Bureau Chief