Chávez is close to the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, who seems to delight in needling President Bush and his administration.
''He's been kind of an apologist for Chávez for some time," said Steve Johnson, a Latin American specialist at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Meeting with the leader who calls himself a revolutionary populist, Johnson said, ''is not something I'd like my congressman to be doing." ........***
Izarra, a 25-year PDVSA employee, left Venezuela for Saudi Arabia three months ago because, like Carrillo, as a consultant trying to drum up business after the firings, he was "radioactive," or blacklisted from any contracts with PDVSA, far and away the country's biggest employer.
......But as Chavez spends money all over the world, some say the PDVSA infrastructure is deteriorating and endangering the sustainability of his largesse. Many of the wells and extraction equipment have fallen into disrepair through lack of investment, ....
All those fired employees are sorely missed, said Carrillo, ... "A refinery is like a car. If you don't maintain it, it will break down. And that's what's happening."
...Some foreign oil companies, including Chevron Corp., BP and Royal Dutch Shell, that entered into lucrative agreements in the 1990s to upgrade the Venezuelan industry are balking at Chavez's attempts to roll back the deals made before he came to power. Chavez has threatened to send troops to take over the projects, which account for about 500,000 barrels a day, or 19% of crude output, unless the companies agree to turn over majority interests to the government and to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in alleged back taxes.
....More than ever, analysts say, Chavez will have to rely on foreign expertise to exploit the heavy oil reserves because PDVSA has lost the bulk of the researchers and technicians who knew how to deal with the resource. Virtually the entire heavy oil research staff that PDVSA once had has fled, including a dozen researchers who have joined the faculty of the University of Calgary's engineering school. Among them is Pedro Pereira, who headed PDVSA's heavy crude oil research.
"They've lost the clinical histories, the surgeons aren't there anymore, and the hospital is falling down," ....