Transcriptions
Official opening
Speech by Mr. Hugo Chavez Frias,
President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
II Summit of Sovereigns, Heads of State an Government of OPEC Member Countries
Caracas, Venezuela. Wednesday September 27, 2000
I will not be as brief as Mr. Bouteflika nor as long as when I have my radio and television addresses.
Your Excellency, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of the Democratic and Popular Algeria Republic; Your Excellency,
Abdurraham Wahid, President of the Republic of Indonesia; Your Excellency, Mr. Seyyed Mohammad Khatami President of the
Islamic Republic of Iran; Your Excellency, Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo President of the Republic of Nigeria; Your Royal
Highness, Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa Ben Hamed Al-Thani Emir of the State of Qatar; His Royal Highness, Abdullah Bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; His Royal Highness, Sheik Hamad Bin Mohammad Al Sharqui
Emir of the Emirate of Fujairah United Arab Emirates; Your Excellency, Mr. Taha Yassin Ramadan Vice-president of the
Republic of Iraq; Your Excellency, Mr. Mustafa Al-Karroubi Minister of the Revolutionary Council of the Socialist
People's Libyan Arab Yamahiria; Your Excellency, Mr. Saud Nasser Al-Sabah Minister of Petroleum of the State of Kuwait;
Mr. Rodríguez Araque, President of the OPEC; Your Excellency, Doctor Rilwanu Lukman, Secretary General of OPEC; Your
Excellency, Saied Abdullah Director General of the OPEC Fund; Presidents of the National Public Powers of the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela; Vice-president; Honorable Diplomatic Corp; Members of the varied outstanding delegations that
accompany us today in the inaugural session of this II Summit; Heads of State and Government of the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries; Representatives of mass media of Venezuela and of the world; Marisabel, ladies and
gentlemen:
In the name of Ala we give an invitation we will begin this important activity in the Muslim world. How wise that
permanent inspiration and genuine offer to fill the challenges of the past of life of men and of people. To understand
what should be our relations with the natural order of beings. I speak of unity of creation, people that indicate the
place of humanity and of the human being in creation. Which indicates the importance of the exercise of moderation and
reason and Khalifa, which establishes the grandeur of the world of the custodians of the poets and the welcome of
creation. Unity, passion, common sense, guidance, values, important values to guide human nature, values that are also
present in all the other spiritual conditions of mankind including ours inside and a beautiful doctrine of the redeeming
price: peace on life and brotherhood to fight for justice as the only possible path to peace, genuine peace in the
world.
At the beginning of this II Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Member of the OPEC very humbly allow me to
invoke all the supplying values of God, of Ala with the hope that it may guide my deliberations, that they strengthen
and lead and light our horizons.
You have come, you brothers from that great Arab Islamic world, a gigantic geopolitical area that open its arms from the
Atlantic cost of Western Africa to the furthest corner of the East, that MacKinley called the region of the five seas:
the Mediterranean Sea, the Black See, the Caspian, the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
You come here with the power of a millenary of a very deep civilization founded by Mahoma the Prophet, the fuel engine
of heritage that impresses religion through the world at the very beginning of our era and to be more exact yesterday,
you have arrived, you my brothers have arrived to this gigantic land, this beautiful country of Latin America and
Caribbean, where some contemporaneous geopolitical currents have called the extreme west and which encompasses an
immense vertical space from Rio Grande to the southern most corner of the Patagonia with the Atlantic and the Pacific
and bearing within it a beautiful, warm Caribbean Sea.
You have arrived brothers to the new world, to this Caribbean Venezuela, Andean Venezuela, Atlantic and Amazonic
Venezuela, which Simon Bolivar, the Liberator of America dreamt one day to be the height of the Universe and the
anfictionic ......of the greatest region of the world as he would have said, less because of its natural wealth than
because of its freedom and glory.
You have come my brothers, precisely to this land in times of revolution, in the hours of the resurrection of a brave
people that today once again lead the fate in its own hands with the standards applied at Bolivar waving in the four
winds, a people that open its hands to receive and deliver its heart to you to tell you in an infinite chorus that goes
beyond the winds, welcome sons of Ala, followers of Mahoma, "Ahlamwa Sahlam", "Marhaba, "Al Salam Aleykum".
Caracas, the birthplace of the Liberator, it was precisely here in Caracas where the Statutes of the Organization of Oil
Exporting Countries were approved, in January of 1961, I was barely born at that time. Having passed the resolutions of
the conference of representatives in Bagdad , on the shores of the Tigris, the 14 of September of 1960, in the beautiful
Bagdad in Mesopotamia. Forty years ago today and 13 days, with their moons and suns, with its days and nights as Gabriel
Garcia Marquez would say, the Gabo of the Americas, the Bolivarian of this land and of this world.
The building of OPEC took time, but it began almost with the XX Century, in the heat of an irrationally oil exploitation
which let to the sprinkling of economic models which were typically colonial. To give a clear idea of this terrible
historic reality my brothers at least in the case of Venezuela, let us just take some information, some papers from the
documents written by one of the founders of OPEC, the great Venezuelan Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, whom God have in
heaven.
Perez Alfonzo wrote in his memoirs that the first oil shipments left Venezuela by the San Lorenzo terminal on Lake
Maracaibo in 1917 and b 1928 Venezuela had become the first world net oil exporter. Well, my brothers, the fiscal
participation of the country in those 12 years, got barely to 8 million dollars, having produced a total of 266 million
barrels and the posted price at that time was 245 million dollars worth.
Today, 40 years later we must re-launch OPEC with the same spirit. Now in the midst of a world struggling to overcome
underdevelopment, inequality and poverty. We heard the inspiring words and the example a few minutes ago of the
President of Algeria, our brother, Adbelaziz Bouteflika in his wonderful address and I have to say to my brother that
Venezuela, This Bolivarian Republic, feels honoured and our people feel honoured to take the flame from your hands, to
take that flame to which you referred, that you bring from so far away, from the shores of the Mediterranean. The flame
promoted by the warmth of our people of that area and the warmth of the people of Algeria and of all the peoples, Arabic
peoples, Islamic peoples. Allow me, brothers, to invoke "Tauhid" and the unity of the past with the present and "Kalifa"
as the custodian of our foundation heritage, to re-state, here in Caracas, 40 years later and 13 days, the objectives
that led to the creation of our Organization.
I invite you to consider the Statutes of OPEC in its Articles I and II.
Article I reads: "The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC from here will be nominated the Organisation
created as an Inter-government Organisation of a permanent capacity consistent with the resolutions of the Conference of
Representatives of the Governments of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, which met in Baghdad from the 10th
to the 14th September of 1960 shall carry out its functions according to the provisions established as follows", and
these provisions are set out in Article II which reads: (it has three parts):
The 1st, sub-paragraph (a) "The main objective of the Organisation shall be the co-ordination and the unification of the
petroleum policies of member countries and the determination of the best means to safe guard the interest of both
individuals and collective".
Today, in the II Summit, of course, we take up once again, we re-state and strengthen and re-launch this very principle
objective of our Organisation, but as President Bouteflika also mentioned, it is also necessary that we adapt our
Organisation to these new times that we are living in. To this world context were we are all living in, in this era of
globalisation that is an opportunity, but which also entails terrible threat for our peoples, for our states and for our
nations. To co-ordinate, to unify, to re-launch, from Caracas that main objective of our Organisation.
The 2nd Point, sub-paragraph (b) reads "The Organisation should arbitrate means to assure the stability of the prices in
international oil markets with the objective of eliminating fluctuations which are harmful and unnecessary. How
visionary those men who drafted those Statutes. This is what we are doing today, articulating all the possible means to
seek the stability of prices because it is true that although we are not behind an unlimited rise of our oil prices, it
is no less true that we are getting ready to close the gaps and to prevent the price of oil from plummeting to zero as
we saw happen before our eyes. just a year and a half ago we saw this happen. The stability in a fair price for our oil
for which we are re-stating the unity of principles of the Organisation, the unity of objectives and the political will
at the highest level as today we expressed to America and to the whole world.
Lastly, the 3rd point reads, and it is also very important that we emphasise it "At all times due attention should be
paid to the interest of the producing nations and to the needs to ensure a continuous income for producing countries, of
an oil supply which is efficient, regular and economical." Allow me to underline these three words, oil supply which is
efficient, regular and economical for the consumer nations and a profitability which is fair for the capitals of those
who invest in the oil industry. There we find the three components that today we have to review in depth, producers, the
intermediaries and the consumers. As clear as crystal we see indicated in these statutes our objectives and we are
complying with them.
As we celebrate our 40th Anniversary, in spite of the many prevails and difficulties and the complaints against us in
several times of the recent history; in spite of the inconsistencies, of the internal difficulties. In spite of all the
ills that we might have suffered, we can say to the world that OPEC in these 40 years, the first 40 years, has
discharged its objectives and today we are clicking up, we are re-launching to continue discharging more efficiently
with our objectives and to update them; to join the new path and write the new history of this new century. This is
exactly what we are doing here, specially during the last 20th months, a stage that we could call the resurrection of
OPEC.
After a lengthy period of difficulties that constrained co-ordination, and prevented co-ordination of our policies and
the safeguard of our interest, I want to underline the very fact that we were all silent, just for one minute, without
anyone saying anything, without one word being said here, and we just looked at each other, and we saw who is here
representing these 11 countries. If we recall, in the last 25 years it was impossible to hold a meeting like this one.
In 40 years of OPEC, this is the second time that the Heads of State and Government can meet. Only that fact alone
speaks loudly for the present and the future of our peoples. That fact alone calls for very warm applause that can reach
Asia, Africa and Latin America, and can reach the ears and the conscience of our peoples.
We have to pay special recognition to these men in front of you, because notice that a month and quite a few days ago we
organised a tour from the shores of the Caribbean to Africa, to the Middle East, to the region of the Five Seas, to
Djakarta, beyond the Indian Ocean and we know the distances, we know the time and the difficulties. And yesterday they
arrived in an orderly fashion, one after the other. I truly enjoyed together with my people welcoming you with open
arms, but I think they also deserve special recognition. It is the sublime expression of the highest political will of
unity. This is the great message we can express to the world. The great example that you have before you.
How much can we do from here on for the real unification of Asia, from Indonesia, that great Asian country, brother of
OPEC?. How much can we do? Because we have the historical channel of communication that joins us, that historical
unitary instrument, from here, from all our countries, we have to do far more to promote and to work for the
reunification of Asian peoples. How much more can we do to impulse and promote the solid reunification of the peoples of
the Middle East? Of the people, the Arabic peoples? How much can we do from here through OPEC for the reunification and
the promotion of Africa?. How much can you do from your part of the world with the Millenium impulse, together with us
in the process of the reunification of the people. We can do a great deal and I am very optimistic when I say that a
great deal is what we will do in the years before us, in the decades before us. The XXI Century will be very different
from the one we left behind, a century of famine and misery and death. The XXI Century should be the century of life, of
unity of peace, of fraternity. Of the union of civilisations, as President Khatami said in Tehran and in the U.S. A
meeting of civilisations, millenary civilisations. May God help us, but lets do our part, and , as we say in Venezuela,
we play the part and we are ready to fight for it.
Also, our Statutes speak of the need to pay special attention to all suppliers, concessions, efficient, regular and
economical terms that I already referred to, to consumer nations.
In the light of recent events, these last few months related to the supply of our oil, we can also be satisfied with our
Organisation because we are precisely attending to these needs. Caracas today is the centre of attention of the world.
The eyes of the world are upon us. Everyone is attentive to what we do, what we discuss and what we decide. We hope that
we will be up to the expectations of all the brothers in the world. To this end it is necessary that we make a few
considerations.
What does an efficient supply really mean? I invoque from the Islam "Tahid", unity to see the whole picture, to evaluate
the efficiency fully, not in a biased way. I would like to give you an example. Blood supply, a blood transfusion, a
blood donation, for instance will be efficient if it benefits those involved, but it won't be efficient, or it will no
longer be efficient, if it might imperil the life of the donor. It would take him to his grave in spite of the fact that
the recipient might leave the hospital in a very healthy condition. However, if that donation lead to the death of the
donor that's not efficient. Efficiency has to be seen in its overall picture. The "tauhid", Islamic wisdom.
OPEC, on our part, we have been truly efficient in these 40 years, but only partially, only in parts. Efficient supply
we said, involves a degree of security for those who supply that oil. In Venezuela, for instance, there was no
comprehensive efficiency in this supply activity. It suffices to measure the degree of pollution in Lake Maracaibo, or
the subsidence that we see on the coast of Lake Maracaibo, in the State of Zulia. Some folkloric personalities from that
part of the world say that the by products of not only gasoline, fuel oil, gas oil and others that have polluted the
waters of Lake Maracaibo are one of the by-products of oil. They are right, philosophically speaking of course, the
result of the oil exploitation of almost one century and the Western Coast which is sinking before our eyes from so much
oil we have produced where so many thousands of people live, complete towns have been sinking and sinking and there we
are carrying out scientific studies. We will have to invest millions of dollars just to rescue that region.
Therefore we think that supply has not been, in the case of Venezuela, efficient, fully efficient and that is why, and
Bouteflika also mentioned it, we have to retake these concepts and give it a more comprehensive vision and to re-launch
our commitments. We have to continue to supply our oil to the world, but that world, as we said in the example, the
world of consumers we have to show them that it is fundamental for the sustainability of life to maintain the ecological
balance, for instance. We cannot continue polluting the water of our lakes, of our rivers, of our seas. We cannot
continue destroying nature in a savage manner and, what do we leave to our grandchildren?
To our great grandchildren?. Lets think about them for just one minute. Think about them for one second. Someone said,
some investigator mentioned recently that if the consumer model and exploiter model that today prevails in the world
were to spread equally to all the inhabitants of the planet, we would still need ten planets like the planet earth to
live. It is terrible unequal, life on this planet, and the unbalance that has been generated as the result of
exploitation. Not only of oil, of all our commodities; all our natural resources. Industrialisation, often irrational
has imperilled the life of the planet into the future. This is absolutely true . Therefore, here we have just one
example to take the expression of Dr. Bouteflika, about the need to update to take up the objective and the concepts and
paragons that led to the existence and have given life to OPEC.
Now, lets consider the other concepts. Because there is another part of efficiency, another side to efficiency which
deals more with us, in the first place. It is the inward efficiency and together we can do far more than we have done. I
am referring, and I will borrow a phrase from Dr. Arturo Uslar Pietri, a great Venezuelan. 16 years ago Dr. Uslar said,
I think he was Minister to the Government of General Isaias Medina Angarita when he said these words: "we have to plant
oil, we have to sow the seeds of oil". Venezuela has been unable to do that in 60 years, far more oil exploitation to
use the oil resource. Not to destroy the other industrial, economic and social activities of a country, but at the
leverage for a compressive development which is only beginning today in Venezuela. You brothers have done so in many
ways in your countries, but together as we spoke in Doha we can do far more to promote agriculture in our countries, to
promote tourism in our countries, to promote the diversified industries; the small and medium enterprise, cattle
raising, fishery, the activities of life, education, health, the life of our peoples.
If we have done anything in the first 40 years of our existence, yes it is before your eyes, but I think that we could
have done much more. It is never too late, lets begin anew. Lets find co-operation agreements as we have been
discussing, so that together and using the revenues of our oil we can promote our peoples and lead them to the greatest
level of happiness, stability and quality of life. Together we can advance far more, more quickly and with greater
efficiency than we have done in the past. I am sure we will do this, as Walt Whitman would say, sure as the surest
certainty.
Now, as we speak of regular supply, what do we mean? Well regular supply implies timely complying of our commitments
with the regularity. OPEC has how many years supplying oil?. Almost a hundred years supplying oil to the whole world. Of
course with great unequality in the industrialised world. They consume 20, 40 times more than in the world of the South.
No matter wars and disasters, world wars, countries, natural disasters, we have been supplying. In this case, OPEC
supplying over 40 years, regularly supplying in a timely way its oil to the world for its development or its sustainment
to its promotion. No one can say we have denied anyone our oil, except I think it may have happened a few details here
and there, but circumstantial affairs. We have never denied our oil to anyone nor will we do so.
In the economic arena, efficient supply, regular supply and economical supply. Everyone can say, you see I was right,
they have to sell us cheap oil. No, I say, wait a minute, economical does not mean cheap. Giving away, no. Economy is a
concept that contains reality. I will just touch on a few.
Economical. The price of any good, in this case it is oil, should have a relationship a personal relationship with its
cost of production and we know that in the world there are more requirements placed on us in order to produce our oil.
The reserves sometimes plumit, of course. It is not a renewable resource and we have to invest a great deal of money to
explore and to find oil. To drill deeper and deeper . Any of you Ministers and petroleum technicians can tell us, off
the top of your head, how much the cost of exploration has increased and has grown with sophisticated technology or to
export offshore at great costs. To increase production and reserves because the population of the world continues to
grow , so this has to be seen in that full dimension. We cant reform heavy oil, super heavy oil, extra heavy oil into
lighter oil. In the case of Venezuela the greatest reserves are heavy crude and extra heavy crude. To exploit these
heavy crudes we would have to invest great amounts of money.
For example, the Orinoco Oil Belts, someday, we have already begun at least exploration, but only taken the first steps.
We will have to guarantee the production potential and the cost continues to rise. Not only the cost of production, the
use and the exchange value.
As to the fair price for our oil, we have to wonder what is the price of energy produced compared to a barrel of oil?
What can the countries that buy our barrel do with one barrel? What could they do to make this a more dramatic picture?
Turn this around and say: What could they do without oil? How could they have reached the levels of development they
enjoy today? What would they have done? What would they do today if we hadn't sold them our oil and if we didn't
continue to sell them our oil? Use value. The development, the take-offs of the countries of the industrialised north
is, of course, due to many factors, but in good measure it is due to the regular, efficient supply, continuous and
permanent supply of oil that we have always complied with for the last 100 years. And in OPEC, for the last 40 years
without interruptions.
Now the exchange value. What can we exchange for one barrel of oil? I have a few examples that might be of interest to
you. I have to confess that I was very interested when I heard these examples that I'm going to share with you, drawn
from different tables and studies. Do you know, for instance, that a barrel of oil (let's assign the average price for
this year in Venezuela, $26.2 a barrel - this is the average for this year in Venezuelan oil. Let's take that as a point
of reference, as a benchmark.) Do you know how much a barrel of unleaded gasoline is worth? Well, a barrel of unleaded
gasoline costs $30.6, without considering the taxes, and with taxes it's worth $54.14 a barrel. That is to say, one
hundred percent more than a barrel of oil is worth, in the case of Venezuelan oil. Do you know how much (and forgive me
for this ad) a barrel of Coca Cola is worth? A barrel of Coca Cola is worth $74.7: 303% compared to a barrel of oil. A
barrel of spring water, $94.37: 360%. A barrel of milk: $150. A barrel of ice cream: $1,105: 4,250% compared to our poor
little barrel of oil. A barrel of good wine is worth, you know how much?, $1,370: 450% more. This is almost laughable,
but let's tell the truth to the whole world. A barrel of shampoo - $2,056; a barrel of Tabasco sauce - $2,600; a barrel
of tanning oil (when you go to the beach) - $5,365: the gigantic proportion of 620% compared to our poor little barrel
of oil.
You know that the truth... Krishna Murta, the great Indian philosopher said this, the truth is that the only thing that
joins us with all. If we are apart from the truth, we are disconnected and we lose our way. I invoke Krishna Murta and
his Hindu wisdom to appeal to what Bolivar said from El Chimborazo. Let's tell men the truth but tell the whole truth.
Let's not continue to manipulate and have lies, to confuse the men of the world. This is one truth and we have to tell
the world this truth. Remy Martin, a cognac, $7,800 a barrel. Ambassador, let's tell the world the whole truth. Thirty
thousand percent compared to one barrel of oil that we find it very hard to produce, and for the last 100 years we have
exploited and sold to the world.
Justice, only justice. We cannot allow, brothers of OPEC, that once again, as has happened in other times of our
history, we be indicated as guilty as those who are guilty for the imbalance of the world. The guilty are elsewhere. We
are victims of the imbalances of the world economy. We are not at fault. Those at fault are to be found elsewhere.
Allow me, from here, to send in that same spirit of truth and tauhid, our greetings to the great consumer countries,
members of G-8, and the European Union, from where we have received some messages, be they public messages, and even
some private messages, via letters I won't read to you for ethical reasons, telephone calls. One time, a resident of a
powerful country in the world called me up and I felt, I was amazed, a call from so far away? What is the price? And I
picked up the phone and he tells me: Mr. President, I'm concerned over the price of the barrel of oil. And it wasn't
even at $25 at that time, and they were already concerned. I share your concerns, Mr. President. And it's a good
opportunity that we should have this talk. Why don't we talk about the external debt, which is scourge of the poor
countries of the world? Why don't we speak about the terms of trade which are so unequal and savage, and the imposition
of the economic systems which control the world, which Foster recently called in his new book "the economic dictatorship
of the world"? Why don't we talk about those matters? Let's speak about these matters?
A free agenda. From Caracas we state this. Venezuela states this and I'm sure that I'm joined in what I say because we
discussed it last night and will continue discussing it, my brothers Presidents, Heads of State. We're willing to
discuss this with the world any time, anywhere, but on equal footing. Let's talk about this. Let's seek solutions to the
common problems we share. Let's seek new paths. Our greetings, with all respect, faith, optimism and brotherhood, to the
brothers of the world, and in particular to the presidents and leaders of the powerful countries of the world. We wish
to co-operate with you. We wish to talk with you. We wish to seek solutions together. OPEC, strengthened and unified,
shall increase its efficiency, its supply, and shall its regularity and shall seek, as we have always sought, fair
prices, balanced prices for our oil, a vital resource for the world. In this we are responsible; we assume our
responsibility.
In this world panorama, then, and with great expectation, we now inaugurate in this Bolivarian Caracas the II Summmit of
Heads of State and Government of OPEC, after 25 years of that first historic summit in Algiers. His Excellency, the
president of the Republic of Algiers, Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, brought us so many memories, extraordinary memories of
the spirit of that summit in Algiers. On that occasion, the Heads of State in Algiers declared the following:
"Sovereigns and Heads of State, we emphasise that the cause of the current world economic crisis arises mainly from the
deep inequalities in the economic and social process of the peoples." Twenty-five years ago, Algiers; today, Caracas,
the year 2000. Unfortunately, we have to say that the causes, the reasons, not only have not vanished but they are even
more prominent, as was expressed by almost all the Heads of State and Government, in the recent Summit of the Millennium
in the United Nations. There, we set a goal to fight against poverty, to reduce it by half by the year 2015. A great
question: How will we do this? And that's part of the dialogue we have to undertake: frank, deep, open, in the whole
world. How will we change the history beyond words? Today, we will have far more to say. The crisis of today's world is
not limited to the economic sphere, as was the case 25 years ago. Today, it's a global crisis. It has spread like cancer
to the areas of ethics, of politics and society. The basic question, the great question in the whole world is how will
we leave this crisis behind us, this universal labyrinth? Allow me to say, brothers on this path, that only the union of
our efforts, that only the coming together of our peoples, of our cultures, of our economies, of our sovereign political
wills can allow us to solve this very difficult enigma and to help the world, with humility, to seek solutions.
And that's what we're here for in Caracas, that is our purpose, in the birthplace of Simón Bolívar the Liberator. We
invoke his thinking and his examples to claim, in one voice, "Let's join together and we will be invincible." It is now,
from this II Summit, that we have to relaunch OPEC to the XXI century, adjusting it to today's reality, to the changes
that we have seen in the world, and, in particular, to the magnitude of the challenges that we face.
Bouteflika mentioned the University of OPEC. Of course we support the idea of an OPEC University. An OPEC Bank? Of
course we support the idea. Research and Technological Institute of OPEC? Of course we are compelled to support that
idea, to launch it, to make this a reality as soon as possible, to increase our capacity to fight, to transform, to cope
successfully with the enormous challenges before us.
Never in my life shall I forget a recent trip visiting the countries that you so honourably represent here, from the
beautiful eastern coast of the Red Sea, travelling over the western part of the Persian Gulf with the splendid sun of
Kuwait, the shining nights of Doja, the beauties of Abu Dhabi, the mountains and plains of Teheran, the rich Tigris
Valley in Baghdad, a beautiful full moon over Djakarta, the Mediterranean dawn in Tripoli, the beautiful prairies of
Nigeria, and the beating and heroic land of Algiers. All that immensity, all that beauty, all that wealth of feeling is
summarised here in these legendary shores of the Venezuelan Caribbean, in these mountain ranges of the Indian America,
and in the mysterious Amazon of the New World, in this valley of Bolivarian Caracas. And all these, my brothers, in the
name of Allah, the merciful and most gracious, and in the name of God, merciful, the Father of Jesus, so that the II
Summit of Heads of State and Government of the countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that I am
honoured to declare inaugurated this afternoon bring happiness, peace and progress to all. Salam. Thank you, my
brothers.
ENDS