Zulia state Governor Manuel Rosales says the national government’s U.S. policy is hypocritical

Caracas Daily Journal (Vincent Bevis): Zulia mayor and opposition leader Manuel Rosales chose to qualify as "hypocrisy" on Chávez' part some economic facts which might surprise observers: despite the constant war of words between Chávez and Washington, trade volume between the two countries has not diminished. In fact, it has risen steadily in the last 9 years.
After meeting with U.S. ambassador Patrick Duddy, Rosales criticized what he calls a "double discourse" coming from Miraflores.

"He talks about the empire and we buy almost everything from the empire, we sell oil to the empire and we have commercial relations of the highest magnitude with the empire."

There were no comments as to whether the U.S. might also be engaged in such hypocrisy, since Bush's words for Chávez are often quite harsh. U.S. intelligence agencies called Chávez a negative influence on the region earlier this week.

But a look at the numbers reveals the extent to which each country increasingly relies on the other economically. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Venezuela's trade surplus vis-à-vis the U.S. went from $3.5 million in 1999 to $24.3 million in 2006. Most of this, of course, is due to the extreme surge in the price of oil. But U.S. exports to Venezuela also rose significantly, from $9.75 million in 1999 to $15 million in 2006. Most of this is food, which is increasingly important in times of alimentary scarcity.

"Dutch disease" tends to affect countries exporting states when the price of that export rises dramatically, as national wealth increases without corresponding increases in productivity, making importing goods such as food cheaper than making them at home.

Chávez, like almost all Venezuelan presidents, has made diversification of the economy a goal, but the recent rise in the price of oil has made this difficult. Despite Chávez constant railing against the government of Bush, he has also expressed his commitment to, even love for, the American people.