Benedict Mander writes for the Financial Times of London, and since he was posted to Venezuela last year has been one of the few fair voices covering the country’s economy (and politics, for that matter). He does what a good reporter should do; reports on what’s going on. Period.
His latest FT missive points out something which has seemed obvious for quite a while if you don’t swallow the hype and find out what’s really going on: Chávez isn’t a dumbass, Venezuelan oil is still drooled over by BigWorldOil Ltd. and the partial nationalization of the country’s oilfields last year (the state now controlling 60% of the business, and oil companies get 40%) did not live up to the Coup d’Etat-making wet dreams of the kneejerk anti-Chávez establishment.
Sorry (IESA) boys, it looks like greed is winning out over fear again. Oil companies are now lining up to do business in the Venezuelan oilfields on Chávez’s terms, and the money Venezuela makes is actually getting spent on radical lefty things like ‘schools’ and ‘hospitals’ and ‘roads’ and…..errr…..stuff……dude.