Venezuelan Dictator Seizes Oil to Buy Weapons
Published: 4/4/2006 1:00 PM ET
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavezs offer of subsidized heating oil
to the frosty northeastern United States this past winter was met
warmly by the broadcast media. But network interest in Chavez turned
stone-cold with the dictators springtime pursuit of Russian weapons
financed by his countrys state-owned oil supply.
A Business & Media Institute (BMI) review of the three broadcast networks revealed no recent news stories on Chavezs move to socialize his countrys oil supply even further, financing weapons purchases. This continues the major networks trend of ignoring Chavezs saber-rattling after vilifying Big Oils profits. BMI previously documented the medias positive portrayal of Chavezs gift of subsidized heating oil from Venezuelan-owned petroleum company Citgo. On March 9, BMI reported how the media largely ignored Citgos efforts to avoid regulatory oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), among other oil companies, faced a March 31 deadline decision: to sign over a majority stake in its oil operations to Venezuelan control or pull out of the country. The stringent terms of the new contracts facing Exxon and other companies included a minimum 60 percent stake for the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) in each field; PDVSA controlling the boards of the new joint ventures; and a jump in income tax rates from 34 percent to 50 percent and royalties from 16.6 percent to 33.3 percent.
Ultimately ExxonMobil decided to sell its stake in Venezuela rather than accede to Chavezs demands.
On April 4, The Wall Street Journal and the AP similarly reported on the Chavez regimes latest move to consolidate control over the nations oil operations through the state-run PDVSA, which owns Citgo, an oil company operating in the United States.
Far from being earmarked to heat the homes of working-class retirees in South Boston, an influx of cash from heavier oil revenues will finance Chavezs order of Russian fighter jets and small arms in time for his imagined U.S. invasion of Venezuela. The BBC reported on April 4 that Chavez has purchased Russian military assault helicopters and Kalashnikov rifles in preparation for an imminent U.S. strike against his regime. On April 3 the APs Natalie Obiko Pearson found that Chavez is not only drumming up fear of the U.S. to buy military hardware, hes training civilians to be militia.
Housewives, students, construction workers, social workers and many unemployed have signed up for the Territorial Guard, Pearson wrote, following a group of 900 civilians whose 20 weeks of instruction will turn them into resistance fighters prepared to defend their communities in the event of a conflict. Pearson added that Chavez critics fear the Territorial Guard would more likely be a political weapon of Chavezs to stifle dissent.
Political repression at the hands of the Territorial Guard is far from an improbable threat. The Harvard Political Reviews Ryan Jamiolkowski noted that not only have Chavezs police and intelligence forces cracked down on political dissent, but mobs of his civilian supporters have attacked government critics. In November 2005, journalists from right-of-center stations covering student rallies were attacked with broken bottles and beaten by the students, who were angry at being filmed by stations unsympathetic to the government, wrote Jamiolkowski.
A Business & Media Institute (BMI) review of the three broadcast networks revealed no recent news stories on Chavezs move to socialize his countrys oil supply even further, financing weapons purchases. This continues the major networks trend of ignoring Chavezs saber-rattling after vilifying Big Oils profits. BMI previously documented the medias positive portrayal of Chavezs gift of subsidized heating oil from Venezuelan-owned petroleum company Citgo. On March 9, BMI reported how the media largely ignored Citgos efforts to avoid regulatory oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), among other oil companies, faced a March 31 deadline decision: to sign over a majority stake in its oil operations to Venezuelan control or pull out of the country. The stringent terms of the new contracts facing Exxon and other companies included a minimum 60 percent stake for the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) in each field; PDVSA controlling the boards of the new joint ventures; and a jump in income tax rates from 34 percent to 50 percent and royalties from 16.6 percent to 33.3 percent.
Ultimately ExxonMobil decided to sell its stake in Venezuela rather than accede to Chavezs demands.
On April 4, The Wall Street Journal and the AP similarly reported on the Chavez regimes latest move to consolidate control over the nations oil operations through the state-run PDVSA, which owns Citgo, an oil company operating in the United States.
Far from being earmarked to heat the homes of working-class retirees in South Boston, an influx of cash from heavier oil revenues will finance Chavezs order of Russian fighter jets and small arms in time for his imagined U.S. invasion of Venezuela. The BBC reported on April 4 that Chavez has purchased Russian military assault helicopters and Kalashnikov rifles in preparation for an imminent U.S. strike against his regime. On April 3 the APs Natalie Obiko Pearson found that Chavez is not only drumming up fear of the U.S. to buy military hardware, hes training civilians to be militia.
Housewives, students, construction workers, social workers and many unemployed have signed up for the Territorial Guard, Pearson wrote, following a group of 900 civilians whose 20 weeks of instruction will turn them into resistance fighters prepared to defend their communities in the event of a conflict. Pearson added that Chavez critics fear the Territorial Guard would more likely be a political weapon of Chavezs to stifle dissent.
Political repression at the hands of the Territorial Guard is far from an improbable threat. The Harvard Political Reviews Ryan Jamiolkowski noted that not only have Chavezs police and intelligence forces cracked down on political dissent, but mobs of his civilian supporters have attacked government critics. In November 2005, journalists from right-of-center stations covering student rallies were attacked with broken bottles and beaten by the students, who were angry at being filmed by stations unsympathetic to the government, wrote Jamiolkowski.
