Chavez: Venezuela does not plan on halting oil exports to the United States

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that Venezuela is not preparing to cut off oil shipments to the United States and would only do so if Washington attacks the South American country. "We don't have plans to stop sending oil to the United States," said the socialist leader said during a visit to heavy-oil projects in Venezuela's petroleum-rich Orinoco River basin that were nationalized last year. But if the United States "attacks Venezuela or tries to harm us, we will have to make the decision not to send a single drop of our oil to the United States," he added. US officials have denied planning to attack Venezuela.