Chavez takes cue from Castro - Venezuela Says Colombia Exporters To Be Paid, But Not Yet

BOGOTA -(Dow Jones)- Venezuelan government officials said Thursday they plan to allow their importers to pay the $200 million to $300 million that Colombian exporters are owed for goods already sent to and received in Venezuela

But Venezuela Production and Trade Minister Ramon Rosales, speaking in Bogota at a meeting with Colombian exporters, added that it will be another two weeks before further details of the payment process will be avaialable.

Up to 800 Colombian exporters and other business leaders who deal with Venezuela are awaiting payments from Venezuela. The exporters are becoming impatient due to four-month-old currency restrictions in Venezuela that have tightened dollar flows, saddling importers there with dollar-debts they are unable to pay.

Also speaking at the meeting was Juan Emilio Posada, president of Colombia's largest airline, Alianza Summa. He said the carrier is owed $3.8 million in Venezuela and that this figure increases $1 million each month.

"What's the purpose of selling in a country that can't pay," Posada told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting. "The moment will soon arrive in which this type of business is unsustainable."

Venezuela's Rosales responded, saying a special plan will be set up so airlines such as Alianza Summa can be paid.

During the first two months of the year, Colombian exports to Venezuela totaled $69 million, down from $233 million in the first two months of 2002.

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

Fidel Castro - Cuba

*** In a desperate financial gamble, Castro recently raided the $250 million set aside to pay hard currency debt to European, Latin American, and Asian countries for essential imports. Instead, he used it to buy US farm products for cash. He was apparently calculating that he could persuade the US Congress to enact legislation freeing up additional exports to Cuba, and approving a flood of tourists to Cuba. The ploy hasn't worked. Nor, given the crackdown on dissenters, does the outlook look good for improving US-Cuban ties. President Bush is threatening new punitive measures. *** Castro's $250 Million "Charm offensive" hasn't worked: It's same old cruel regime.

Friends of Fidel***Louisiana rice and Illinois wheat producers should not assume that selling to Havana is synonymous with getting paid. U.S taxpayers should be wary. Mr. Castro desperately needs credits and subsidies, and Washington is being pressured to provide them. If the United States begins to subsidize trade with Cuba estimated at $100 million a year five years from now, U.S. taxpayers could be holding, or paying off, a $500 million tab. That´s real money.

Before extending Mr. Castro credit, grain growers should visit any street corner in Manhattan and observe a game played there. Called three-card monte, it consists of convincing the player that he knows exactly where the card carrying his money is. Until it disappears. In this game, the gambler takes his own chances. Where trade with Mr. Castro is concerned, the U.S. taxpayer will be left holding the losing card. ***

Thanks, Hugo! President of Venezuela deserves free-market award***Consider what has happened in Venezuela since Chávez took office in February 1999. He declared that representative democracy ''is not useful to any Latin American government,'' proclaimed that Cuba is a ''sea of happiness,'' and began to make fiery, nationally televised speeches -- totaling 1,011 hours so far, averaging four hours each -- blaming the ''oligarchy'' for Venezuela's mounting problems.***

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