President Cristina de Kirchner advocates agreements with Venezuela

[Judi Lynn]

Caracas, Tuesday March 11 , 2008

President Cristina de Kirchner advocates agreements with Venezuela

Argentinean President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner rejected as "mediocre" the people who question her agreements with her Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez providing for enlarged swaps of energy for food.

Her comments came during a ceremony to launch the "Total Energy Plan," where she also announced that Argentina would increase gas imports from Bolivia during winter.

Fernández advocated the agreements she initialed last week with Chávez, claiming they represented "highly positive trade pacts for Argentina and Venezuela, a country that needs food-related items. They are to supply energy and we are going to supply food."

Argentina, which faces a latent energy crisis, is to help Venezuela improve supply of milk, beef, among other foodstuff, in order to stop a long-lived shortage of basic food staples such as wheat, rice, chicken, oil and sugar. Chávez's government blames scarcity on food hoarding and speculation.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/03/11/en_eco_art_president-cristina-d_11A1425199.shtml
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