Green Options » Hugo Chávez

Amid Simmering Legalization Debate, Peru Begins Export of Beer Made With Coca Leaves

Levi Novey — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:45:26 +0000

A Peruvian company that makes beer from coca leaves now has plans to export its product to countries like China, Venezuela, and South Africa.

The company making the beer is a supporter of the National Confederation of Coca Farmers, a group that advocates for more organized production of coca plants. The beer is named Apu, and is already sold in southeastern cities of Peru like Cusco, the well-known gateway city to legendary Machu Picchu.

But wait… don’t draw any conclusions yet. According to the source of this information, the online news source Living in Peru, spokespeople for the group say “The goal is to demonstrate that coca leaves are not cocaine…the plant should be industrialized to avoid the production of cocaine.”

Venezuela and China Sign a New Oil Deal

Meg Hamill — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:33:02 +0000

This is a guest post by Meg Hamill, a freelance writer who also works at the environmental non-profit, LandPaths, in Sonoma County California.

Venezuela is currently one of world’s largest oil producers. In an ongoing effort to reduce their dependency on oil exports to the United States, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has signed a deal with China that could easily triple the amount of oil exported to that country by 2012. That would bring their oil exports to China up to one million barrels a day. Recognizing the thirst for oil in a gigantic, developing country such as China, Chavez told the media: “While the world enters an energy crisis, we are investing.”

Currently the Unites States still buys about half of the total oil exported from Venezuela.

Chavez is now off to Russia, on his 3rd visit to the country in two months. It is thought that Chavez is seeking to strengthen energy alliances in Russia as well.

And Chavez’ evolving relationship with Russia doesn’t stop there. The BBC states that in the past few years, Venezueala has signed arms deals with Russia that equal 4 billion dollars. In fact just last week, Russia sent a navy squadron to Venezuala for “joint manuevers.” The Associated Press called the move: “an unprecedented deployment of Russian military power to the Western Hemisphere since the Cold War and an obvious snub to Washington.”

Photo Credit: Wikepedia Commons under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Brazil

By Distributing Free CFL Light Bulbs, Hugo Chávez Slyly Gains More Political Power and Saves Venezuela Electrical Power

Levi Novey — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:22:52 +0000

Several weeks ago, Venezuela President Hugo Chávez provided free energy-saving light bulbs to some low-income residents of Houston, Texas. This magnanimous act probably gained him a few American fans. In late March of this year, he also announced his plan to fund “an energy revolution” in Venezuela.

The revolution has an emphasis on using Venezuelan produced products like PVC pipes to construct homes. Another major component of the revolution includes an initiative to make Venezuela more self-sufficient in food production, thus quelling the need to import food. Projects to provide additional electrical power through alternative energies like wind and solar technologies are also commencing.

The most notable and measurable success to date for the so-called energy revolution, however, has been Venezuela’s effort to change out standard light bulbs across the country for CFLS (energy-saving compact flourescent light bulbs) exactly like those Chávez donated to Texans. So far, 72.3 million light bulbs have been changed. But the story is perhaps not as simple as it would seem (as is almost any story about Chávez and his schemes).

Highlights from the EU-LAC Summit

Levi Novey — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:08:13 +0000

This past weekend, a major summit was held in Lima, Peru between leaders of European Union countries and also Latin American and Caribbean countries. Numerous agenda items were on the table, but the overall focuses of the meetings were upon the global food crisis, climate change, poverty, and potential trade agreements. Of course, what would an international summit be without some

good, old-fashioned name-calling to put everyone on edge before hand
a President attending a “rival summit” and taking time to go play some football! (Soccer for Americans.)
and an uninspiring finish where seemingly little got accomplished, but yet we can hold onto hope because there are plans to keep the conversation going.
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