Fausta comments on the possibility that the Bush administration could designate Venezuela a state sponsor of terror:

The US is Venezuela's largest oil customer, buying 65% of Venezuela's oil output, while only 15% of the US's oil comes from Venezuela.

Hugo needs the oil revenues to stay in power. Without American oil revenues, Hugo's power collapses. Hugo's facing the option of having Venezuela on the State Department sponsors of terrorism list, or selling the FARC down the river.

The United States depends on Venezuela for 15 percent of its oil; Venezuela depends on the United States for 65 percent of its oil sales (and oil sales account for about half of Venezuela's government revenue). If the U.S. ceased to purchase from Venezuela, the country would have no immediate recourse. It would lose access to U.S. refineries that have been geared to process its crude. And while the nation will continue to expand its oil sales to China and India, it would be impossible to replace all of the lost export revenue immediately.

And as the United States assesses whether to designate Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism, Secretary Rice is traveling to Latin America to check in with two dependable U.S partners in the region: Chile and Brazil. And next week, the Organization of American States is expected to announce findings on the Colombian incursion into Ecuador which resulted in the death of FARC leader Raul Reyes. The OAS has already conducted a site visit to the destroyed FARC camp, which it has described as a "permanent" installation. If the OAS findings bolster the case for designating Venezuela a sponsor of terrorism, the United States could soon render a decision that would do great damage to Chavez.