Posted on 03/18/2005 3:17:04 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS - In the waning days of 2002, a little-known manager from the national oil company appeared in Caracas to file a petition requesting that Venezuela's highest court end a massive oil strike that had brought the country to its knees.
This maneuver failed to end the strike, but it did attract the attention of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the target of the opposition-led oil lockdown.
That obscure manager was Félix Rodríguez, who within weeks of his major public appearance would begin to shoot up through the ranks of state oil giant Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA. He became a corporate director, then vice president of exploration and production. Last month he was catapulted to the presidency of PDVSA's biggest subsidiary, Citgo.
The arrival of Rodríguez, whose style is more reminiscent of the boisterous Chavez than a typical top energy executive, puts a new face at the head of the huge Houston-based refining and marketing operation.
Rodríguez has yet to appear in Houston, where local leaders are eagerly seeking any clues about Citgo's new leader.
The big speculation is about a possible sale of all or part of Citgo, which is now at the center of Venezuela's political whirlwind.
Rodríguez was not available for comment, despite repeated interview requests.
But he presents a striking contrast to Citgo's previous president, Luis Marin, who is openly supportive of Chavez but has a reserved personality. Marin, the former head of PDVSA's eastern division, was sent to Tulsa after repeated clashes with local political bosses who had taken control of regional operations after the strike.
Soldier of the republic Marin, who was known as one of the company's most talented managers, made few comments about his surprise removal, telling reporters at a recent public appearance that he was willing to work wherever the government sent him.
''I am a soldier of the republic," he said.
Analysts say Rodríguez represents a new breed of oil executive who is sympathetic to Chavez and sometimes willing to let business take a back seat to fighting poverty.
Some say previous industry leaders became isolated from Venezuela's political and economic realities, most notably the spiraling rise of poverty over the last 20 years that left more than 60 percent of the country impoverished.
''Rodríguez is not your typical arrogant and self-aggrandizing energy technocrat," says Rafael Quiroz, a former PDVSA director who is supportive of President Chavez but is often critical of the government's oil policy. ''Talking to him is like talking to a regular person, which for many years was not characteristic of aPDVSA executive."
The handling of the company by Rodríguez will be closely scrutinized by Chavez supporters, along with a wide swath of the Venezuelan population that saw the acquisition of Citgo as a way for the previous generation of oil technocrats to hide oil revenue from Venezuelan tax collectors.
The mythology of the Venezuelan leftist movement has always included the belief that the acquisition was part of a campaign to increase foreign control over Venezuela's oil industry, says Luis Pachecho, former planning director at PDVSA, who was fired after the strike.
Citgo sparks the political ire of Chavez supporters in another way: It supports the United States. Citgo's 2004 financial reports show the company paid $400 million in dividends to Venezuela while paying almost as much in U.S. taxes.
Pacheco says the discussion of a possible Citgo sale has turned conversations away from problems in PDVSA, such as international estimates that Venezuela is producing only 2.6 million barrels per day rather than the official figure of 3.1 million.
Venezuela's legislature commissioned an investigation of Citgo this month based on allegations of corrupt practices. Several legislators traveled to Houston to interrogate Citgo employees, but the commission has not announced its findings.
Like Marin, Rodríguez rose through the company after Chavez beat back the opposition oil strike launched in December of 2002 and sacked nearly 20,000 employees.
Anti-poverty crusade But a 29-year industry veteran is more closely identified with Chavez's efforts to change PDVSA from a multinational oil firm into an engine of the president's anti-poverty crusade. Over the last year, PDVSA has spent nearly $2 billion on social programs ranging from helping more people get a high school degree to promoting sustainable farming methods. It also put $2 billion into a national development fund, a worrying pattern for critics who say the country's oil production suffers from rampant underinvestment.
PDVSA also has started to take on responsibilities that have nothing to do with its business, says Humberto Calderón Berti, a former energy minister closely linked to Venezuela's opposition movement.
During his tenure at PDVSA, Rodríguez was considered the most nationalist figure of Venezuela's oil industry, and has at times appeared hostile towards foreign investment.
Analysts say he is the closest PDVSA leader to Chavez, who walks a fine line between leading an anti-globalization movement and courting multinational oil companies to develop it's hard-to-produce heavy crude reserves.
New board members The nomination of Rod- ríguez as Citgo president also coincided with the arrival of several new board members, including Bernard Mommer, a German-born Marxist and behind-the-scenes architect of Chavez's oil policy.
Mommer helped create Venezuela's 2001 Hydrocarbons Law, which boosted royalty rates from 16.6 percent to 30 percent and requires a state majority in all upstream oil projects. Mommer has never trusted PDVSA or Citgo, viewing them as instruments to prevent revenue from reaching the nation.
Venezuelan energy authorities in recent weeks confirmed they are in discussions with several corporations for the sale of certain Citgo properties. The announcement that PDVSA was considering such changes coincided with the appointment of Rodríguez at Citgo.
In his 29-year career in the industry, Rodríguez has been almost entirely devoted to finding and producing oil. He has almost no experience in refining or financial administration.
He's arriving as the head of a company without a lot of experience in the area and with political pressure on him to do the right thing, Pacheco says. He's in a difficult position.
Chavez also has made a series of arms purchases, including one for military helicopters from Russia. And on Friday, Chavez hosted President Mohammad Khatami of Iran, a nation that has a secretive nuclear program and has been labeled by Bush as part of an "axis of evil."
.... "All over the world, there is a clamor for equality . . . and profound rejection of the imperialist desires of the U.S. government. Faced with the threat of the U.S. government against our brother people in Iran, count on us for all our support." …***
? How/Where does Mexico fit into this?
The only countries that "fit" into this, are enemies of the U.S. and freedom.
"sale of certain Citgo properties..."
My guess is that they are American properties. It's kind of difficult for Chavez to nationalize American interests in Venezuela when he's got so much invested in the US.
There were a lot of American investments in Cuba 50 years ago.
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