Venezuela’s Chavez Says Attack by U.S. Would Cause $500 Oil

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose country is the biggest oil exporter in the Americas, said crude oil would rise to “$400 or $500 a barrel” in the case of a U.S. attack.

The reactivation of the U.S. Fourth Fleet in the Caribbean on July 1 and a possible U.S. base on the Guajira Peninsula, which Venezuela shares with Colombia, are both threats to his country, Chavez said at his country’s military academy in a speech broadcast on state radio and television.

Colombia has no plan to give the U.S. a base on the Guajira, EFE reported today, citing Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos. He was responding to a Chavez speech earlier in the day about the peninsula, the Spanish-language newswire said.

Bloomberg