Throughout his presidency Chavez has battled PdVSA's management, trying to destroy the autonomy that many say was the secret to the company's much-vaunted efficiency. Before the strike Chavez's efforts to wrest control of PdVSA had failed. But when oil company executives threw their weight behind the opposition strike in December, they miscalculated badly. Two months later, thousands of PdVSA's top managers have been fired and Chavez is firmly in control. It remains to be seen if the new, inexperienced managers can bring back production to normal levels.
Either way, the United States faces a difficult choice. Does it place support for democracy above or below its need to secure oil supplies? While Washington may not like Chavez, he has pledged to continue to supply the United States with oil. It was in the name of democracy -- and to prevent what it feared was the spread of Cuban-inspired communism -- that the Reagan administration became deeply involved in Central America in the 1980s. But the world has moved on since the Cold War. Now the White House is fighting a new enemy: terrorism. Meanwhile, no one in Washington seems to be paying much attention to the spread of left-wing ideas -- not to mention anti-Americanism -- in its own back yard.***