If you are looking for a silver lining in the dark clouds of Bush’s foreign policy, I think I may have found one. In the past we would now be at war with Venezuela.
President Hugo Chavez ordered by decree on Monday the takeover of oil projects run by foreign oil companies in Venezuela’s Orinoco River region.
Chavez had previously announced the government’s intention to take a majority stake by May 1 in four heavy oil-upgrading projects run by British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA.
He said Monday that has decreed a law to proceed with the nationalizations that will see state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, taking at least a 60 percent stake in the projects.
“The privatization of oil in Venezuela has come to an end,” he said on his weekday radio show, “Hello, President.” “This marks the true nationalization of oil in Venezuela.”
Of course, this is all going on in a wider context.
Private companies pumping oil elsewhere in Venezuela submitted to state-controlled joint ventures last year, and few resisted because they were reluctant to abandon Venezuela, which has the largest oil deposits outside of the Middle East.
Chavez has been given special powers by congress for 18 months to issue laws by decree in energy and other areas, which he has used to nationalize the country’s biggest telecommunications company and electricity company in recent days.
Chavez has justified the nationalizations as necessary to give the government control of sectors “strategic” to Venezuela’s interests.
There used to be a little thing called the Monroe Doctrine, or the Dulles Bros. Doctrine, or just a kind of gentleman’s agreement, that Latin American countries don’t do stuff like tell Exxon (or ITT or the United Fruit Company) to go get fucked. Used to be, you do stuff like that and we bring the shithammer down. But Bush is so distracted that the most we can muster is a few nasty and factually inaccurate columns in the Washington Post. Of course, gentlemen still think this behavior by Chavez is deplorable and makes him an anti-American, al-qaeda loving dictator.
I don’t really have an opinion on whether Chavez is making good decisions or not. What I do know is that he has been elected repeatedly (in 1999, in 2000, and 2004). The Carter Center certified the 2004 election (.pdf) as free and fair. He survived a coup attempt in 2002 that was welcomed in Washington DC.
He’s the President of Venezuela and he can do what he wants. We have no right to threaten him or try to undermine the stability of his government. And it looks like we might just be weak enough that we will let him get away with nationalizing all the oil fields and telecommunications in his country. If you want to look for a silver lining, being bogged down in Iraq might just mean that we are incapable of giving Venezuela a new Augusto Pinochet to ruin their lives over the next couple of decades.
W. W. III
The Third World War
The war being fought by the Third World for its freedom from the overdeveloped nations.
Just like Hitler, the United States has opened one too many fronts and cannot handle its commitments.
Not enough shithammers to go around.
Sigh.
If we are lucky, we will recognize the futility of continuing this war and go rest on our laurels as Europe has largely done since its various components realized that there was no way that they could maintain their empires by military means.
If we are not lucky, we will have to suffer having our ass thoroughly kicked and then rebuild from the ground up, as have Germany and Japan.
The ass-kicking here will probably be less military and more economic, as befits the situation.
Unless nukes come into play, at which point all bets are off.
I mean…al Queda, Venezuela and China are not going to be staging landings on the shores of Virginia Beach and Marina Del Ray or fighting the Battle of Brokeback Mountain in order to thoroughly subjugate THIS evil empire.
THAT kind of war would go on for decades.
Fighting the U.S. armed forces on their own turf?
With the addition of the Bubba Brigades in the countryside?
Armed Crips and Bloods in the cities?
Naaaaahhhhh…ain’t happening.
It would make Iraq look like a day at the park.
They will take us down with money.
Just like Chavez is doing with the nationalization of oil interests,
W. W. III.
The gentler, kinder war.
Relatively speaking.
AG
I want to like Chavez. I actually visited Venezuela over Christmas, last year, and the people seem to truly love him. Of course the patrician families (the circle of folks I was with, anyway) are all very nervous, as they should be. Payback is a bitch. Just ask the Russian nobility.
I am a bit disturbed by his silencing of the opposition, though I suppose I can understand why he needs to do it, at least in the short term. Let’s see what happens when this eighteen-month period expires.
I have absolutely NO problem with the nationalizations, btw. I wish we could do the same thing here in the US.
I’d start with the health insurance industry.
Generally speaking, I have no problem with nationalizing things if the companies are fairly compensated. In the past there were cases where companies had been taking such an unfair share that there was an argument for just taking their property away. But that is not the case in Venezuela right now. If Chavez gives a fair price, then I suggest we see how it goes. As far as the business community is concerned, if their rhetoric has validity, the likely result will be increased ineffeciences in Venzuela’s industries and they will be back to inviting outside investment and development shortly.
Usually, a government-administered program is far more efficient then private one. Medicare / Medicaid spends a fraction of what insurance companies spend on administrative costs (think 2-3 percent as opposed to 25-35 percent). Let’s put that old GOP canard to bed, shall we?
Governments, on the whole, are much more efficient than companies, the latter of whom spend a significant portion of profits enriching executives and institutional shareholders.
As to Venezuela, everything depends upon whether Chavez will continue to allow the kind of corruption that leads to such inefficiencies.
You may be right, in other words.
Venezuela has announced that it is increasing the royalties paid by foreign oil companies from 1% of the sale price to 16.6%.
They already have profited billions of dollars. Through corruption and bribes these oil companies have been able to pay a miserable 1% tax increase. I think they already they have earned a fair compensation.
concerning the Bush cabal’s response (or lack thereof) to Chavez.
But I don’t.
We’re talking OIL here. It’s the Bush cabal’s major — probably only — raison d’etre.
I agree we’re probably too weak to take on Venezuela. I don’t necessarily agree that Bush and his cronies won’t try anyway.
When have they ever let a few rational facts stop them from doing what they wanted? These guys want CONTROL of oil resources. Chavez is saying he’s going to take some of it away from them.
I’d say it’s way too early to start crowing that Bush — or the oil barons whom he represents — won’t respond to this.
In fact, I’d be willing to bet they will.
I do not normally post here.
But I think it should be state clearly that the Bush presidency, except for the case of Middle East and global warming, has been a great presidency for the world at large.
It is not only venezuela.. but most of Latin AMerican countries are pursuing his own vision, and the increase of the Latin American middle class in argentina Brasil and Chile has beeen staggering. ANd all thanks to the incompetence of Bush and co.
Not only that. The US has lost Asia faster than anybody expected. Asia is now an area of the world with a multipolar arrangement, much more stable that it used to be thanks to the US lack of influence.
Europe,as always, is the great question mark: europe has not independent foreign policy but at least it is not dependent on the US anymore. Which is an excellent news for a future head to head world where a democratic administration could strength the relation (easier to do from the difference that by being a poodle).
And finally, I doubt the US president can influence Africa too much. Companies have more relevance there… but certainly, Africa is not worse thanks to Bush. Somalia, Etopia, Eritrea and Sudan have always been a disaster… and South African and other surrounding coutnries are booming while North-African follow more or less the path of the past.
So, there is more than a silver lining in the US presidecny regarding the rest of the world. Unfortuantley Iraqies, Afganistan and probably US citizens will take the bad consequences.
And if Bush attacks Iran.. well.. that could be such a world disaster that.. well a nightmare for the world with no clear ending. This would change any possible Bush incompetence benefit
A pleasure
A minor point on the quote: “Venezuela, which has the largest oil deposits outside of the Middle East.”
If you’re talking conventional reserves, it’s correct. If you’re talking proven reserves (recoverable with existing technology), then it’s Canada, hands down. If you count Canada’s oil sands (which are recoverable, albeit more expensively than conventional reserves), Canada has the second highest oil reserves in the world, after Saudi Arabia and before Iran. Heck, maybe we could pick a fight with Canada and invade them <snark>.
Except that they aren’t “oil”.
it’s bitumen. It’s mined, needs a lot of fussing with (it used to be called “tar sands”), and requires the addition of lighter hydrocarbons so that it can be transported by pipeline- otherwise, it’s way too thick (it’s really a type of synthetic oil). It’s an expensive process, which becomes more economically feasible as the price of oil goes up. It takes two tons of oil sands to process into one barrel of oil, and it’s even less environmentally friendly than “regular” oil. Venezuela, BTW, besides having a lot of conventional oil, also has a lot of “oil sands.” We’ve really got to come up with more environmentally sustainable ways to power our vehicles, and everything else that requires petroleum. We’re far, far too dependent on oil of all kinds (and coal, as well). It’s all too harmful to the environment.