If you think we are the only ones who are concerned about the negative effects that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is having on the oil industry, think again. Even the French, who often champion eccentric leaders, are sniffing at his actions these days.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy actually invited Chavez for a visit last week, but ahead of his arrival Le Monde newspaper issued an editorial that could not have been mistaken for the red carpet treatment.
To be sure, Le Monde did welcome Chavez in his role as an intermediary in resolving a hostage crisis between the Colombian government and a force of guerrillas in the country.
It said the Venezuelan president’s involvement is welcome because “hitherto nobody and no group of countries has succeeded in negotiating with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the hostage takers.”
Negative effects on oil
Yet hardly had the French daily issued that praise than it turned to the negative aspect of Chavez’s rule in Venezuela—especially the negatives for the oil industry there.
It said that Chavez’s high level of activity on the international scene, from Latin America to the Middle East, and from Russia to France, is accompanied in Venezuela by a worrying trend towards an authoritarian regime. “Erratic management of the huge oil resources, swollen by prices approaching $100/bbl, is starting to damage the social programs that have earned the head of state solid popularity,” the paper said.
More to the point, it said that, “The lack of investment in the oil industry explains why Caracas is struggling to achieve the quota set by OPEC, which has just held a summit in Riyadh. Venezuela is reduced to selling crude and importing practically everything the country needs.”
Nor did the paper find any consolation in Chavez’s political vision, saying his ties with Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinezhad are “unlikely to dispel the uncertainties concerning the 21st century socialism championed by the Venezuelan president.”
King Abdullah’s rebuke
Speaking of Castro, the Cuban leader was one of the few on earth who had any praise for Chavez’s performance at the recent summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Riyadh.
In an editorial of his own, Castro insisted that “Chavez said it very clearly in Riyadh” by proposing that “OPEC...assume the tasks the International Monetary Fund was created for, but never fulfilled.”
Fortunately, saner voices in OPEC prevailed, especially that of the meeting’s host, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Indeed, exactly a week after Chavez was told to “shut up” by the King of Spain, King Abdullah ignored the Venezuelan leader’s populist plea and deftly substituted his own: “Those who want OPEC to take advantage of its position are forgetting that OPEC has always acted moderately and wisely.”
Moderation and wisdom, regrettably, are not words that ever seem to appear in a speech by Hugo Chavez.
