Chavez Teams with Russia To Rape Venezuela

www.newsmax.com ^ | September 29, 2003 | Emma Brossard, Ph.D.

[Tailgunner Joe]

In February 2003, when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez fired over 18,000 Petroleos de Venezuela employees (of which three-quarters were managers, engineers and technicians), after they had joined the December 2002 national strike against his government, his hatred for the brave men and women of the Venezuelan oil industry turned to brutality.

Chavez’s cruelty reached a peak on September 25, when his goons savagely attacked, house-by-house, oil families sleeping in their beds, in the oil camp of Los Semerucos on the Paraguana Peninsula (where the Amuay and Cardon refineries are located).

The attack against the families of former PDVSA employees commenced at 2:30 AM, when National Guard troops stormed the camp houses with tear gas and rubber bullets. There were numerous injuries, and the families were hauled off, with no information on where they were taken.

It was no accident that this battle occurred in western Venezuela, far from Caracas, where the Opposition, by sunrise, would have had thousands of people marching in the streets to defend the PDVSA families.

One can go through a litany of Chavez’s brutality toward the People of Petroleum (Gente del Petroleo), such as the loss of their jobs, their savings in PDVSA (which amount to billions of dollars, now stolen), their pensions, and their homes; the destruction of Intevep, their prestigious research institute, where the Cuban flag now flies; the virtual abandonment of PDV Marina, its crews and tankers; the elimination of Bitor and the future production of Orimulsion (this will wind up in lawsuits against Venezuela in international courts, due to heavy investments made in foreign power plants, in order to run Orimulsion), to name just a few examples.

This brutality and destruction of the second largest petroleum company in the world makes no sense.

Why would a ruler of a country want to destroy the most profitable, exceptional industry in his country?

A Venezuela friend recently asked me this interesting question: “Do you suppose Chavez has connived with President Vladimir Putin to decrease Venezuela’s oil production, while Russia increases its petroleum production?”

We know that Chavez hates the United States as much as he hates the former employees of PDVSA, but would a president hate his own country enough that he would destroy his cash cow? (We can no longer refer to the Venezuelan oil industry as the Golden Goose that laid the Golden Eggs, because Chavez cooked it, and replaced it with a cow and the diminutive Petroleos de Chavez).

Since Chavez became president, PDVSA has lost 1.5 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude production capacity. Chavez and his Minister of Energy Rafael Ramirez continue to claim they are producing 3.3 million b/d. However, at the OPEC meeting in Vienna, September 24, it was pointed out in the Financial Times (9/24/03) that the Venezuelan “official figure was higher because the government is including products such as gas condensates and Orimulsion.”

The Chavistas were/are lying. This has become the modus operandi of the Hugo Chavez regime. The Venezuelan production, which was around 500,000 b/d below its OPEC quota of 2.92 million b/d, made it easy for OPEC on September 24 to cut its overall OPEC quotas for November 1, 2003, by 900,000 b/d, to 24.5 million b/d.

If it were not for the foreign oil companies operating in Venezuela, Venezuelan production would be much lower. The foreign companies under operating contracts are producing over 500,000 b/d, and the foreign companies in the four Strategic Association projects in the Oil Belt are producing another 500,000 b/d.

This production by foreign oil companies becomes more important daily; as the oil fields operated by Petroleos de Chavez continue to suffer irreversible damage, a result of their improper exploitation activities, which reduces oil and gas production. In other words, Chavez’s cash cow and his control of Venezuela is now being maintained by the foreign oil companies.

These foreign oil companies with their 33 agreements, in August, were turned over to CVP (Corporacion Venezolana del Petroleo), which is now under the Energy and Mines Ministry (MEM), not PDVSA’s Board of Directors.

One should take note of a very curious arrangement here. Luis Vierma, who is the president of CVP is also the vice Minister of MEM. Clearly, the supervision of the foreign oil companies has been transferred from PDVSA to the Ministry, and these companies will now be under the direct control of President Chavez, to use their royalties and payments as he pleases. More important, the legislative branch will no longer have any control over the foreign oil companies, or their remitted revenues.

While OPEC Ministers were meeting in September in Vienna, another interesting conference was going on in St. Petersburg. The purpose was to increase Russia’s oil and natural gas exports to the United States, which is Venezuela’s principal market for its oil production.

Russia is emerging as an oil superpower, as it attracts huge foreign investments. The two largest U.S. energy companies, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, are competing to take a 25% stake in YukosSibneft in a deal that could be valued as high as $12 billion. ConocoPhillips is talking to Gazprom about a possible LNG (liquid natural gas) project. BP recently announced it was buying half of TNK, and Royal Dutch/Shell is planning on investing $1 billion in the Salym oil field in western Siberia.

What makes Russia so attractive to these foreign oil companies? Most of Russia’s oil companies are now privatized, and Russia has the world’s largest natural gas reserves, and one of the largest oil deposits.

The U.S. Government finds Russia an alternative to more unstable Middle Eastern countries, and recently, Chavez’s Venezuela. And, the oil companies are interested in replacing their depleted reserves.

In the meantime, the major and independent foreign oil companies in Venezuela are helping to maintain Hugo Chavez in power through their oil and gas production. It is ironic that if it were not for the men and women of the Venezuelan Opposition to the Chavez regime, the United States would already be facing an Axis of Evil on the continent of South America.

These Venezuelans did not leave like the Cubans did in Cuba, but are in a desperate battle to save their country from a Castro/Chavez/Marxist takeover. Thus, this courageous Venezuelan Opposition is not only trying to save their country from turning into another Cuba, they are also performing a tremendous service for the United States.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[Carry_Okie]

I haven't seen anything from ShaneC in a long time.

[Shermy]

Like Saddam.

He earned more money in hand via the Sanctions Regime corruption than he would have earned through Iraq openly selling, and accounting for, oil.

The oil cartel economy is not about "grabbing" oil, but suppliers limiting other suppliers in a world with a glut of oil.

Consider that Castro has sold himself off to Iran to keep Chavez in power. Chavez invested former OPEC chief Ali Rodriguez as head of PVDSA, and Venezuela has been extremely vocal about suppressing oil production.

Ask - does it profit Venezuelan officials personally? Well, why wouldn't they do it! Ask also - is the long time tacit support of colombian rebels in East Colombia, where Colombia's oil is, another supply-side market-driven tactic?

[Carry_Okie]

It's been going on since the days of the Dutch East India Company, and it's driven by the same people (with some more recent players in on the game).

[Carry_Okie]

Another front.

[marron]

I am familiar with Amuay.

I always like to remind people that when OPEC announces production cuts, that they are either trying to fake out the other producers while maximizing their own, or else if the cut is real, they are usually covering maintenance problems by making the cut sound voluntary when in fact it is unavoidable.

When the problem is corrected, production drifts back up without any fanfare, the earlier announcements simply forgotten. Venezuela's production is unavoidably down, so they announce that they are cutting production. It is true, but the press always gets cause-and-effect reversed when it comes to OPEC.

These people were fired from the oil company, which means that technically they can't live in company housing anymore. Chavez was evicting them. Technically, he was in the right.

That doesn't change who and what he is.

I was there during his attempted coup in '92, and I remember the attitudes of the people. The professionals were in absolute mourning at the state of their country, I have never seen or felt anything like it. The average folks in the street, however, were lets say incandescent. They wanted the coup to have succeeded.

Venezuela is a country that is like few others. Their memory of military rule is that it was a kind of "Golden Age", when life was grand, crooks were punished, no one littered, people left their doors unlocked, everyone had a job. I can't tell you how many people told me, prior to the coup, that they longed for military rule again.

Consequently, when that crazy little colonel led his disastrous rebellion, the people were behind it 100%. He failed, and got hundreds of his buddies killed, but he became an overnight hero.

I would tell people, you can't be serious, you can't possibly want military rule... but of course they were very serious. But you can vote out the president in two years from now... and they don't allow anyone to serve two terms in a row anyway... Not good enough, they told me, we want him out now. Elections would only give us another just like him.

And life was apparently better under military rule, but no one there notices why. Under the generals, the oil industry was private. There were half a dozen majors operating in the country, investing, building, and consequently there was money sloshing around the country like no where else in Latin America.

But once Democracy took hold, socialism also took hold. They nationalized the oil industry, and it became the government's cash cow, and the economy began to stagnate from that day forward.

Each subsequent government tried to solve the problem by further centralization and socialization of the economy, which means that the economy slowly has drifted downward for decades.

Chavez took power, blaming "neo-liberalism" for the problems of the economy, which was laughable, since the country had really never had a free economy, and especially had not had one since becoming a democracy. So Chavism, really, is solving their economic problems with more of the same. They remember that they were better off under the generals, but they missed the why of it.

Now this guy is driving them into the ground, and he still gets away with blaming the multinationals, and the global system, when the multinationals haven't operated in Venezuela in thirty years. But a significant proportion of the people buy it, and the important thing is that the people who back him are prepared to fight. The majority who now, finally, want him gone want a peaceful solution. And in any fight, the winner is the guy who will fight.

The loser is the guy still waiting for someone else to fight for him.

[jimt]

The author's title is not supported by the article. His buddy's supposition does not a "team" make. Before fragging Russia he ought to develop at least SOME proof, and he has zip.

[jimt]

he = she

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

Bump!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

........ the important thing is that the people who back him are prepared to fight. The majority who now, finally, want him gone want a peaceful solution. And in any fight, the winner is the guy who will fight.

Bump!

[halfdome]

Typical Newsmax. At least the article didn't begin with "Newsweek is reporting", or "the Washington Times says", etc. It seems that all they do is read articles in other publications and then paraphrase them to advance their own agenda.

[Fred Hayek]

I have worked with some PDVSA engineers and technicians on the Orinoco Delta project (Jose, VZ), in 1999. Not one of them liked Hugo Chavez (La Contitucional Menaza). Chavez has turned out to be a worse disaster than expected.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Putin's voodoo doll - November 26th, 2004 | Amid monstrous electoral turmoil in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin decided to hold a press conference today in Moscow, with none other than Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. The purpose was to, uhhh, congratulate him on recall referendum victory. And no less than four months after it happened. But don't think this is about Chavez. Putin, as you may be aware, is going head to head with the West over whether his puppet-candidate, who fraudulently claims victory in a tainted election, has the right to assume Ukraine's presidency. Ukranians blocking the freezing streets of Kyiv don't think so.

So what is this really about? Last August 15, Hugo Chavez won a hugely fraudulent recall referendum victory comparable to the nightmare going on in Ukraine. However, the West didn't stick up for clean elections in Venezuela. Instead, it entrusted the matter to Jimmy Carter, who, always the dictator's friend, hastily declared it free and fair, giving Chavez the legitimacy he craves. Western media followed suit, repeating the lie with gusto.

Only Venezuela's referendum wasn't free and fair. And everyone who's watched it closely knows it. The State Department quietly scuppered its own plans to accept the results of the Carter Center report after evidence of its shoddiness (and the aghast reaction in the tropical streets of Caracas) came to light. The EU remained mysteriously silent, refusing to observe the next round of local elections.

But the Chavez fraud was never explicitly challenged by the West, and now it's coming back to bite. With Putin showcasing Chavez in Moscow, it's his explicit message to the West that fraudulent elections are tolerable, fraudulent elections are just part of geopolitical power games, and the West is stunningly hypocritical if it can accept one fraud and denounce another. More to the point, he's making the case that every big power's got a right to tolerate if not commit fraud. And it also shows that he doesn't intend to back down.

If Chavez had not won his recall referendum fraudulently, and if knowledge of this was not the West's dirty secret, there'd be no way he'd be up there on the podium with Putin right now. If the West wants any credibility at all right now in Ukraine, it needs to hold fast on the principle of free elections for Ukraine, and to begin denouncing the electoral fraud that has disfigured Venezuela. Because, like a voodoo doll, Putin's holding Chavez right in front of them.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias sees hand of Washington in Ukraine crisis - November 28, 2004 - "Almost all similar cases to what is happening in the Ukraine are stimulated from the outside for geo-political reasons ... if there were elections on the Moon and Mars, the USA would be there."

Venezuela to Buy 50 Russian Mig-29 Fighters - September 17, 2004 - Americans reveal Russian MiGs in Venezuela - Venezuelan generals have told European diplomatic officials that they need the MiGs to protect the Panama Canal. When asked against whom, the air chiefs wouldn’t specify.

Putin: Russia Will Develop Oil and Military Cooperation With Venezuela - 11/26/2004 - Venezuela will buy a hundred thousand Russian submachine guns, helicopters, anti-tank and air-defense weapons, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said.

Russia, Venezuela sign joint declaration against U.S. supremacy - May 15, 2001 - In addition to calling for an end to the Cuba blockade, Chavez said Venezuela was ready to help Moscow obtain greater influence in the United States' back yard, adding: "We will help Russia's presence in the Caribbean region."

For his part, Chavez seemed to welcome the opportunity to liken his own authoritarian style to that of the Russian leader, with whom he said he expected to become "good friends."

"In the world at large, they characterise us in the same way," he told reporters. "They call us democrats with our own vision of democracy."

"We believe in democracy, but not the kind of democracy forced on us," Chavez said, adding: "A strategic alliance has began, a joint path."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Ping to marron's post.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

Thanks for the ping

[risk]

Informative thread, thanks.

[SauronOfMordor]

Ask - does it profit Venezuelan officials personally?

A more penetrating question would be: is it easier for Chavez to get money into his overseas bank accounts by having it deposited by Russia and the rest of OPEC (in exchange for his helping keep prices high) than it is to directly loot Venezuela's oil industry?

[SauronOfMordor]

I would tell people, you can't be serious, you can't possibly want military rule... but of course they were very serious. But you can vote out the president in two years from now... and they don't allow anyone to serve two terms in a row anyway... Not good enough, they told me, we want him out now. Elections would only give us another just like him.

Democracy only works when the taxpaying middle-class is also the majority of the voting class. When the welfare class has the majority of votes, they will vote for socialism. They will vote for corruption. They will not care what happens to the long-term future of the country, as long as they get their handouts. Look at Zimbabwe. Look at South Africa. Look at Haiti. Look at Venezuela.

Look at the base of the Democrat Party in the US.

It does no good to talk to the welfare class about long-term effects. If they were able to understand the arguments, they would not be in the welfare class