This past Friday, while most of you were probably, ironically, drinking Cuba Libres until you soiled your Hugo Chavez hotpants and woke up covered in body oil, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was in Cuba talking petroleum:

Chavez, who wants to use Venezuela’s vast oil reserves to help create a “confederation of republics” free of U.S. interests, called on regional leaders to ban together against the failed “dictatorship of world capitalism.”

This isn’t anything Chavez hasn’t said before. Wait. Oil? Failed dictatorship? Say what now? Hey, are those weapons of mass destruction in your pocket, or are you just happy to see us?

Chavez on Thursday suggested the summit could pave the way for other countries to repay the oil under plans modeled on Venezuelan agreements with Cuba. Cuba repays by providing doctors and other health professials who offer free services in impoverished areas of Venezuela.

He also called for creating an international fund to promote alternative energy sources.

What about to impoverished freelance writers? Can the U.S. come to play, pleaaaaaaase?:

“Despite the Yankees, our gas is at the service of Venezuela first, and next to our brothers in the Caribbean,” Chavez said in a reference to the United States.

Ay, no fair. :(

Chavez presides over oil summit in Cuba [Yahoo! News]