The President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez Frias
said recently that world oil prices would surge to $200 dollars a barrel if the United States attacks his country. President Chavez added, "We are preparing for the resistance!"

In a CNN interview Chavez said "if they attack us with their battleships, with waves of intelligence officers, bombs, marines and all of that, well, you can forget about oil."

Chavez, has charged the United States with drafting a plan to attack Venezuela but he says that any such invasion would leave Venezuela and the Americans without oil.

"The barrel could reach $200 from one day to the other ...the US government can forget about the 1.5 million barrels of oil that we send every day and which contributes enough to its development."

"We are preparing for the resistance ... terrorists who live in the United States are planning my death," he added.

Despite the antagonism between Caracas and Washington, Chavez on Sunday said his country will continue to send one and a half million barrels of gasoline to the United States to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, mostly
Afro-Americans. "Citgo" gasoline stations in
the USA owned by Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. are selling gasoline and heating fuel at one half the prices being charged by Chevron and similar companies that are gouging the American people.