00:05We're going live to Caracas, Venezuela as the acting president, Dario Rodriguez, is holding
00:10an encounter, a meeting with the workers of the hydrocarbon sector. Let's listen to the acting
00:15president. Minister Paula, the board of directors of PDVSA, president of PDVSA, is vice president
00:27because it's been hard work, a month of hard work on negotiations. Difficult month but we
00:35never miss the horizon, we never lost sight of the horizon which is the happiness of our
00:40people. Our horizon is that our workers have better incomes, that their families live better,
00:51that hospitals are fully equipped, that schools have a high level of education. We want and
01:04we have focused in that the state of well-being conceived by Bolivar in his speech of Angostura
01:13becomes a reality, the greatest addition of happiness possible. That's what has inspired
01:20us during this month of strong negotiations. And as you know, we've reached a bi-national
01:29agreement with the U.S. government. I thank President Trump for his disposition, for his willingness
01:37to retake an energy relation that goes from years back, the energy relations between Venezuela
01:48and the United States, centuries back, centuries of energy relations. And I said it in January,
01:57we're going to work out our differences, our controversies, through diplomacy, through negotiation,
02:05negotiation. And these agreements are a great expression of that, on how through negotiation,
02:12mutual respect, of a win-win agreement, we can today look to the future of Venezuela. And
02:22I say this, Venezuela is a country with the most oil reserve in the planet, but it's number
02:2920 in terms of oil exporting countries. What are the worth of those wealth if we are not
02:41able to develop them? We want to be, yes, a country with the highest reserve, but we also
02:47want to be a powerhouse of production, and that that production translates in the happiness
02:52of the Venezuelan people, of workers. These agreements, because it's not only an extraordinary
03:04agreement, bi-national agreement, we have also signed agreements with European companies, Repsol,
03:13ENI, Shell, with companies from the Emirates, from Qatar. Those contracts will make a milestone
03:31for Venezuela in its economic development. You know that 80% of oil, 90% of gas, are fields
03:41that reach their ceiling. And I say this to you because you are workers of the industry
03:46in the world. And 90% of investment in the world are directed, 90% are directed to try to
03:56maintain
03:56those fields, prevent their decline. And we are signing to develop green fields. We are setting
04:05not only the future of Venezuela, but also the support that Venezuela will give to the world,
04:12to the hemisphere, to the security of international energy. And that, you are the ones doing that.
04:21Because, and here, I will go to the day-to-day of your life. Because workers in the oil field
04:29have been like the Phoenix.
04:32You know what we have been through. Hard. Very hard. But from your hand came solutions.
04:45From your hand came ways to recover production, as President of PDVSA said, and reach 1.2 million barrels in
04:54December.
04:56What we call our own effort. But it's been the effort of our workers. Now imagine the dimension, the magnitude,
05:05of 50 agreements that have been signed, how they will impact in terms of oil, gas production.
05:14It's been my dream since President Maduro, namely, Minister of Hydrocarbons. We are going to be a country that exports
05:22gas.
05:23And we began to export the first molecules of gas. But we are going to also be a powerhouse of
05:29gas.
05:29And we are also going to be a petrochemical powerhouse as well. Those are the dreams.
05:35Well, those dreams, we are going to see them. And our children will see them.
05:39We are going to experience it. The sons of our sons. Because we are setting the future of our homeland.
05:46With hope. With development.
05:53And I see, imagine, and you're going to see it this year, drills arriving in the west.
06:02The flexible pipelines that Hector needs for the, for the, for the basins, the chemicals, the diamonds, the moving forward
06:14of the national economy.
06:16Every industry, all industry of Venezuela of different fields will become active.
06:21And we are thinking also in more employment. Employment for our youth. For our talent youth. So the youth return.
06:32Return to our country to this joint effort. And the Venezuelan youth. The great opportunities that will open.
06:43And we can make together a great country. And put aside, put behind our differences. I've been accused because I
06:57want the well-being of the country. They are accusing me because I want better wages for the workers. They
07:02accuse me for wanting dignified hospitals for our people. They accuse me because I want dignified public schools for our
07:10children.
07:10Better nutrition. Better nutrition. But those differences, we're going to overcome them together and we're going to leave them behind.
07:19I want to take this opportunity to welcome the PDVSA gas team. You know, that last Saturday, there was a
07:33blackout in the west.
07:36They manipulated the gas pressure so that the thermoelectric system failed in Zulia state and took the whole west. Last
07:47night, thanks to the team of PDVSA gas, we detected they closed the gas pipeline so that gas system collapses
07:55and thermoelectric fail and impacts directly the national power grid.
08:00A power grid. A power grid that is already highly impacted by sanctions, by the demand of growing demand of
08:07energy and the high temperatures. Also, the extremist mafias are also joining to sabotage the process.
08:15I call for the collaboration of all workers of the country and I make a call for the workers of
08:19Corporal Lake to be vigilant. To be vigilant. Because in a week, in protest for what it has meant, the
08:32signature of these oil agreements, their protest is to bring harm to the Venezuelan people.
08:39We must all stand and be vigilant to defend Venezuela, to defend our people. As we have done, workers of
08:50the oil sector are vanguard examples of what it is a victorious resistance.
08:58Will they be able to do it now? No, they will not. I tell you, we will not allow, they
09:04will not be able to succeed. We will continue on this path. Nothing will stop us because our horizon is
09:10very clear and our horizon is named social economic happiness for the Venezuelan people in sovereign negotiations.
09:20Because all these contracts, because all these contracts, in the future as well, are going to give the country infrastructure
09:28where now we have fuel, highways where we now see fuel, power supply where there is only dirt now, have
09:38water, energy infrastructure. It will all belong to Venezuela. It will be ours.
09:44And that is the objective. And that is the objective, that nothing sets us aside from the objective. Those miserable
09:50people should not deter us. We, with joy and with bravery, we must continue this long path that we have
10:01launched for the recovery of Venezuela, but that you yourself and we, we will see it with our own eyes
10:07and we're going to bequeath this to our future generations.
10:10I came here to embrace you all. I came here to embrace you all, to thank you all for decades
10:15of resistance. A resistance that history has told you, you were right in resistance. You were right in never surrendering.
10:26You were right in never bowing down.
10:29And that's why my embrace you all. And that's why my embrace, I embrace you all. And I tell you,
10:34we are going to see that great dawn and we are going to see it together. Thank you all.
10:49We are listening to the statements of the acting president, Rodriguez, addressing this meeting with workers of the hydrocarbon sector,
10:58where she was going over the importance of the agreements that have been signed throughout the week.
11:03The 25 milestone agreement with the U.S. And also the different agreements that have been signed with European companies,
11:09with Colombian companies, with companies from Qatar, from the Emirates, all in this with the same objective, which is to
11:15strengthen the infrastructure of Venezuela, which in turn will bring about investment and will bring about more revenues that will
11:22benefit the people with better hospitals, better equipped hospitals with high level education in public schools.
11:29All the benefits increase in wages, in real wages for the workers of Venezuela with, as the acting president was
11:36saying, the horizon for this Venezuela that is rising is clear and is a horizon to bring joy and economic
11:41happiness for all Venezuelan together.
11:43And that's what is being done by the government. And they will continue to do so, as the acting president
11:48was saying, in sovereign negotiations with whoever wants to negotiate and will continue moving forward to preserve the national sovereignty
11:55of Venezuela over its national resources.
11:57This is the information we have now. We'll have more in upcoming news briefs.
