Hugo Chavez And Big Oil

[108]

An interesting read

Didn't realize the dictator was kidnapped, and the very next day, a business partner of the US oil companies and president of the nation's Chamber of Commerce, declared himself President of Venezuela.

Link

"Hugo Chavez thinks we're trying to assassinate him. I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it."

It was 2005 and Robertson was channeling the frustration of George Bush's State Department.

Despite Bush's providing intelligence, funds and even a note of congratulations to the crew who kidnapped Chavez (we'll get there), Hugo remained in office, reelected and wildly popular.

But why the Bush regime's hate, hate, HATE of the President of Venezuela?

Reverend Pat wasn't coy about the answer: It's the oil.

"This is a dangerous enemy to our South controlling a huge pool of oil."

A really BIG pool of oil. Indeed, according to Guy Caruso, former chief of oil intelligence for the CIA, Venezuela hold a recoverable reserve of 1.36 trillion barrels, that is, a whole lot more than Saudi Arabia.

[wgbgator]

Its stange to think now, but Chavez wasnt always viewed as a villian. He ceremonially opened the NYSE in 1999! How crazy is that?

No one knew quite what to make of Hugo Chávez when he rose to international prominence in 1998. A Venezuelan historian who resigned from Chávez’s constitutional reform commission told the Associated Press in 1999: “One doesn’t know if Chávez is a fascist, a communist, an anarchist, a Peronist, a Fidelist. We just don’t know. Maybe he’s none of that, maybe he’s all of it.” The most common charge at the time was that Chávez was a potential dictator, and U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela John Maistos denied candidate Chávez a visa to visit the United States on those grounds. Nevertheless, after his election, there were some green shoots suggesting that Chávez and the United States could enjoy an amicable working relationship. Chávez vowed to leave U.S. investments intact. (He later reneged on that promise.) He personally charmed the editorial board of the Washington Post by rejecting “irresponsible populism.” As impossible as it may seem today, Chávez wielded the ceremonial gavel at the New York Stock Exchange and threw the first pitch at a Yankees game in 1999.

The relationship between the United States and Chávez took a decisive turn at the Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. The Bush administration’s top priority was finalizing the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which would have extended NAFTA throughout the Americas (excluding Cuba). Chávez was convinced the agreement would entrench disparities between the region’s wealthy and poor countries. He accused the Bush administration of bullying smaller neighbors and treating the free trade agreement as a certainty “written on Moses’s tablets.” Although Chávez and Bush made weak attempts at reconciliation at the meeting—they told each other they wanted to be “friends” on the summit’s final day—the meeting showed Chávez that his surest path to global significance was as an opponent of the United States. Chávez repeatedly claimed that the CIA was trying to assassinate him and that the United States attempted to oust him from office in 2002.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...states_so.html

[108]

it's always about money

it doesn't matter if a particular leader is a saint who craps gold or a guy who literally boils his enemies in oil... or anything in between.

If you put a dent in the profits of a corporation with ties to the US gov, you become evil incarnate. If not, you are just dandy.

Chavez wasn't perfect by any means, but even he if had been the dictatorial monster the US claimed he was, the US would have been fine with that if he hadn't gotten in the way of someone making lots of money.

[gatorev12]

By "Chavez wasn't perfect"...you mean: "Chavez wanted the money for himself and his cronies" so he decided to take it, right?

Because no one seems to deny he siphoned off vast amounts of Venezuela's oil wealth for himself.

Granted, I realize the US has a less than stellar history in Latin America, but for once, we took a more hands-off approach and pretty much let an avowed enemy do what they wanted. We knew he'd run his country into the ground--and sure enough, he did.

[G8trGr8t]

and here I was thinking only the righties were conspiracy nuts. this author certainly seems to have a few conspiracies under his hat and is definitely anti-oil on all fronts.

from one of his other musings

Obama may be "President," but he's not in charge. See the chapter, Petroleum Porn: The XXXL Pipeline, on how The Koch Brothers are about to stick the XL Pipeline up America's aquifers

[rpmGator]

The difference in Chavez, the OPEC Arab, the Russian and the American oil guy, is who sits where...

They all collude to take more of our money.

[Wormwood56]

Originally Posted by wgbgator

Its stange to think now, but Chavez wasnt always viewed as a villian. He ceremonially opened the NYSE in 1999! How crazy is that?





http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...states_so.html

Like Chavez, Castro was also welcomed here before publicly acknowledging that he was always a communist...

[wgbgator]

Originally Posted by Wormwood56

Like Chavez, Castro was also welcomed here before publicly acknowledging that he was always a communist...

I think that's somewhat simplified. He could have called himself whatever he wanted if he had protected US assets in Venezuela or gotten behind the free trade agreement. It's really still a matter of actions than labels.

[108]

Originally Posted by wgbgator

I think that's somewhat simplified. He could have called himself whatever he wanted if he had protected US assets in Venzuela or gotten behind the free trade agreement. It's really still a matter of actions than labels.

Case in point, our relationship with Communist China