![]() government's policy on Chávez (nefariously influenced by President Clinton's former ambassador to Venezuela, who is now Condoleezza Rice's National Security Council advisor for Latin America) is betting on the chance that Chávez can weather the work stoppage and get the oil flowing soon (for an Iraq war timetable?).Īs in Rand's novel, things get progressively worse and government rhetoric cannot alter the reality. Venezuela supplies the United States with 15 percent of its oil imports. He even failed to condemn the televised murder of opposition members by Chávez thugs, instead engaging in moral equivalency and blaming "two sides." ambassador in Venezuela has blithely mouthed platitudes about the importance of democracy while disregarding the crimes of the government. The governments of the hemisphere have abandoned the liberty-loving producers of Venezuela (Brazil's government, now headed by Chávez sympathizer Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has sent tankers with gasoline to break the work stoppage), and the U.S. Oil facilities now produce less than 10 percent of their capacity. Most tankers remain at port-Chávez does not have the manpower with the expertise to sail them at full capacity. Other tankers were also forced back to port, and all crews were arrested. Twenty days later, the tanker was taken over in a commando-style raid by Venezuela's armed forces after Chávez decreed the lethal use of force in order to protect the "energy supply of the revolution" from the "pirates." Simultaneously and with no planning, motorboats, yachts, canoes, and even kayaks surrounded the Pilin Leon to offer moral support to its crew. Leon herself, in London judging the Miss Universe contest that had recently been moved from Nigeria, sent the ship's crew a message that she was proud of them and hoped they would stand firm. The drama surrounding the Pilin Leon became the focus of the struggle. Pilin Leon was the Venezuelan beauty queen who became Miss World 1981. Some companies use the names of monarchs and heroes on their ships, others use the names of presidents or business leaders in Venezuela, oil tankers are named after the country's second greatest export: beauty queens. One ship, the Pilin Leon, was headed for Cuba (Chávez supplied free oil to Fidel Castro's government). Dozens of oil tankers, part of the merchant marine, suddenly dropped their anchors and declared solidarity with the opposition. Beyond the 40,000 laborers, engineers, and technicians that left the refineries and oil fields, the stoppage climaxed at sea. The drama of the oil stoppage illustrates the magical realism that South America is famous for. ![]() But most surprising and encouraging: the government's main source of revenue, the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, has also stopped. The unions orchestrated the closing of industry for one day. They see his rule as a threat, and on December 1, 2002, they discontinued their complicity. They all speak of liberty, dignity, and the right to work for one's prosperity. The labor unions and the chamber of commerce oppose him. Chávez passed forty-nine decrees that expropriated private property in the name of his "revolution." He terrorizes the opposition with his militia, the Circulos Bolivarianos-armed thugs financed by the government. Corruption and poverty have grown to levels unseen in the country's history. Since he was elected he has done away with the rule of law and private property while presiding over the greatest oil boom in Venezuela's history. ![]() ![]() In a disorganized and chaotic fashion, without any single leader or political party, the people (referred to as "the opposition") have taken a page out of Ayn Rand 's novel Atlas Shrugged and tried to answer an important question in that literary masterpiece: What would happen if the productive forces laboring under a despotic government went on strike and ceased subsidizing their own subjugation?Ĭhávez, a radical Marxist, was elected four years ago on a campaign promising to eradicate poverty and do away with government corruption. ![]() Close to 90 percent of the working population refuses to participate as producers in an economy that supports the regime of Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez. On January 1, Venezuela entered into its second month of a national work stoppage. ![]()
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