Hugo Chavez Signs Energy Deal

President Hugo Chavez of oil-and-gas-rich Venezuela has announced the signing of a treaty in which his country is to guarantee the energy needs of various Latin American countries.

The i´s have been dotted and the t´s crossed with Argentina, while similar deals are in the works with Uruguay, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia.

As for Argentinians, soldiering through a severe winter amid fuel shortages, the deal couldn´t have come soon enough or fast enough.

No announcement of a new energy deal would be complete without an attack on America and the great bugaboo gringo from the north known as Mr Bush Jr.

According to Chavez, the US has an insatiable and quite improper appetite for energy. To illustrate his point metaphorically, he compared the US, with its 5% of the world´s population consuming 20% of the world´s resources, as being akin to Count Dracula sucking less than his fair share of the world´s blood reserves.