Chavez vs. Chavez

March 7, 2005

In typical
Chavez style, today he makes two statements that are difficult to understand
together. In one, Chavez
blames Bush for the price of oil going up because of the invasion of Iraq and threats to Iran. He even laughs at Bush and
says that Bush has a plan called “mister Bush” to get the price to US$ 260 per
barrel, because Bush and Condoleezza Rice have oil interests.

But then
he turns around and says
that the world can forget about cheap oil and that oil is searching for its
equilibrium price around $40 to $50 dollars per barrel. So, I ask, which is it?
Did Bush increase it or is the price correct?

But maybe
Chavez did it, at least that used to be the canonical explanation around here
until recently. This is typical Chavez versus Chavez, not long ago, Chavez took
the credit for making oil prices higher, saying that it was his decision to cut
production down in 1998 that brought prices to their correct level. While
Chavez may have been more hawkish on cutting production, the truth is that Venezuela was already
cutting production down to help prices before Chavez took power in 1998.

Chavez
clearly is now fixated with the US
President and Mrs. Rice. Many interpret this to be a strategy to gain
popularity. But as a good friend and reader reminded me today, polls last year
showed that attacking the US may be popular in Cuba, but not in Venezuela. Maybe
that’s the problem, Chavez has too many Cuban advisors.

This entry was posted on March 7, 2005 at 7:38 pm and is filed under Venezuela.

Leave a comment