the major concern is that he has a huge oil revenue, is funding opposition parties in various latin countries, and is going to provide an increasingly large destabilizing effect in latin america.
after the botched 2002 removal, i think he is in for (long) life.
Oil by itself doesn’t guarantee wealth. It’s an extremely complex business, requiring a huge number of skilled people in the middle income ranges.
Exactly the kind of people that Hugo is pissing off the worst and who are fleeing the country in major numbers.
You can’t eat oil. A 30 day total boycott of Venezuelan crude by the US would unseat him.
They can’t ship it elsewhere. All the refineries are booked via long-term contracts.