| Chavez oil fails to stem Nicaragua crisis |
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Sixteen months after Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez drew bipartisan hurrahs in Nicaragua with his promise to solve the country's "oil problem," the cheers have turned to jeers as Nicaragua's fuel crisis has become more crippling than ever. Mr. Chavez last year promised to supply Nicaragua - which is now ruled by his ideological comrade President Daniel Ortega - with 10 million barrels of oil, sold at market price through a secretive Nicaraguan-Venezuelan oil company known as ALBANISA. The Venezuelan leader has also provided funding for Nicaragua to buy several new oil-burning power plants to increase production by 20 percent by 2009. |
