Nelson Motta
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Caracas (Venezuela) - The president of the National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES), Guido Mantega, who is accompanying President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his trip to Caracas, will ratify today (14), together with the Venezuelan government, contracts worth up to US$ 235 million to finance infrastructure projects within the territory of the neighboring country.

The superintendent of the BNDES's Area of Foreign Trade, Luiz Antônio Araújo Dantas, informed that these credits had been under analysis for some time. The funds will be for the La Vueltosa Hydroelectric Plant, the third line of the Caracas subway, and the purchase of harvestors and other agricultural machinery.

According to Dantas, the transfer of the bank's resources to Venezuela still depends upon a ruling by the Venezuelan government's Solicitor's office, "to make it possible to begin liberating the resources," he explained.

Translation: David Silberstein