Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:17pm BST
By Marc Frank
HAVANA, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Revolutionary allies Cuba and Venezuela
signed a raft of economic accords on Monday aimed at furthering
cooperation, including plans for nickel and oil development and a
billion-dollar petrochemical complex in Cuba.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and acting Cuban President Raul Castro
presided over the signings, the latest in a series of such events as the
two countries cement their political and economic ties in fierce
opposition to the U.S. presence in the region.
Ailing President Fidel Castro and Chavez in 2004 founded the Bolivian
Alternative for the Americas, under which Monday's accords were signed,
as an alternative to U.S.-led free trade initiatives.
So far just Bolivia and Nicaragua have joined the pact.
The two countries have already formed 19 joint ventures in many
different sectors, especially energy where they are upgrading a Cuban
super-tanker port, operating oil tankers and putting into operation a
long dormant oil refinery in central Cienfuegos province abandoned when
the Soviet Union collapsed.
The new plans signed on Monday call for building a plant to turn
liquefied natural gas back into gas and study the potential to build a
fertilizer plant and other petrochemical plants around the refinery.
The countries also plan to upgrade Cuban low-quality crude oil, and
explore for oil in four offshore blocks in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters
and two blocks along the north coast in western Cuba.
A joint venture to mine nickel waste and turn it into ferro-nickel and
letters of intent for the construction and fishing industries were also
signed.
Chavez signed a presidential decree authorizing formation of a joint
venture to build and administer an underwater fiber optics cable between
the two countries meant to bypass the U.S. embargo.
FIDEL CASTRO
Monday was the last day of a three-day visit by Chavez that included
repeated calls to form a confederation of states, a long meeting with
Fidel Castro and a live phone conversation with the Cuban leader during
Chavez's regular weekly television program broadcast on Sunday from Cuba.
"Cuba and Venezuela could easily form a confederation of states ... This
is no delirium," Chavez said at the signing on Monday.
The phone chat with Castro was the first time Cubans have heard their
president speak live since he handed over power in July 2006 to undergo
the first of at least three major operations for an undisclosed
intestinal problem. He has not appeared in public since.
A 17-minute video of the meeting with Chavez showed an alert if still
gaunt Castro with a stronger voice than in previous videos.
"I am delighted that Fidel Castro has had an opportunity to have a
chance to discuss things with his good friend President Chavez. It is
too bad that in almost half a century of misrule in Cuba, he has never
had the same kind of conversation with his own people," said U.S. State
Department spokesman Tom Casey when asked about Castro's call to
Chavez's TV show.
Bilateral trade between Venezuela and Cuba was $2.5 billion in 2006,
mainly Venezuelan oil and related exports to Cuba and not including
Venezuelan payments for massive Cuban medical and educational assistance
valued in the billions of dollars by both parties.
Since 2004 Cuba has reported double digit economic growth and a doubling
of imports after years of crisis, helped further by soft Chinese credits
and high prices for its nickel exports and despite a strengthening of
longstanding U.S. economic sanctions.
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