Posted on 01/15/2007 2:10:29 PM PST by freemarket_kenshepherd
His country is the fourth-largest exporter of oil to the United States, and he just announced an oil nationalization plan that would undercut private investment in his country, but dictator Hugo Chavezs announcement earned no mention on the ABC or NBC evening weekend newscasts.
Chavezs announcement is just the latest step in his push to socialize his countrys economy. In the April 14, 2006, edition of the Christian Science Monitor, contributor Jens Gould reported on Chavezs pre-election push to seize private oil company assets. At that time, Chavezs government seized private oil fields after Frances Total and Italys ENI refused to convert their contracts to joint ventures with the state by April 1.
The socialist presidents most recent power grab was reported on CNNs January 15 American Morning.
Hugo Chavez is busy taking over the energy industry in Venezuela, and he probably is after more than that, teased anchor Miles OBrien as he introduced Ali Velshis Minding Your Business segment shortly before 8 a.m. on the January 15 program.
Weve decided to nationalize the whole Venezuelan energy and electricity sector. All of it. Absolutely all of it, Velshi quoted Chavez from his January 13 State of the Nation.
Velshi explained the new policy would mean nothing short of the Venezuelan government seizing oil service firms like Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) as well as refining operations owned by American companies such as Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) as well as international companies such Britains BP, Norways Statoil, and Frances Total, Velshi said.
Yet even as Velshi noted the march towards full-fledged socialism, he punted when it came to what the move could mean for oil markets or for the Venezuelan people. Well have to see how this all works out, he concluded, insisting that the country cant afford to stop selling the United States oil.
But as AEIs Mark Falcoff wrote on January 10 in The American magazine, Chavezs nationalization policy bears a strong resemblance to the failed Marxist policies of another Latin American country.
It is ironic that Cuba the country Chavez takes as the model after a half-century of socialism is courting foreign private capital for joint ventures and is also running short of sugar, which for over a century was its principal export. Cubas problem is not just one of world sugar prices, which have slumped for decades, but also maintenance of equipment and subordination of management to political considerations, the Princeton-educated Latin American scholar noted, drawing parallels to Chavezs gamble with state-owned and managed oil reserves.
The medias disinterest in Chavez and his economic policies is hardly new.
On March 1, 2006, the Business & Media Institute (BMI) released a special report on the medias paltry coverage of the bellicose anti-American Chavez that found that, among other things, the media downplayed Chavezs radical politics. In fact, only four stories in an 8-year time period mentioned Venezuelas state ownership of gasoline retailer Citgo. Nearly two months later, BMI found that the broadcast news media had little inclination to criticize Chavezs management of the profits from state-owned oil ventures, even as reporters criticized publicly-listed U.S. corporations for record profits.
Someone needs to blow up those oil fields before that Iranian loving facist starts making money from the oil.
Chavez and Ajiminijad, butt buddies.
If you can wait 10 years, the communists will have destroyed the fields and bombing them will be redundent.
And furthermore, Venezuela has lots of assets in the US that could be seized by court order.
I wonder if that's actually possible. Seized and awarded to U.S. firms to defray the losses of their assets in VZ? It's got a nice ring to it. But how much is there, I wonder?
Why would the Media be hostile to the idea?
I'm serious, wait a few years and you will be hearing this same idea from California.
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