Hugo Chavez depicted as tyrant for challenging western oil domination: McQuaig

[Catherina]

Hugo Chavez depicted as tyrant for challenging western oil domination: McQuaig
Venezuelan leader redirected vast sums of national wealth to the swollen ranks of Venezuela’s poor.


/ PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDA MCQUAIG
Columnist Linda McQuaig with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez after she interviewed him at the presidential palace in Caracas for her 2004 book on the oil industry, 'It’s the Crude, Dude: War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet.'

Had Hugo Chavez followed the pattern of many Third World leaders and concentrated on siphoning off his nation’s wealth for personal gain, he would have attracted little attention or animosity in the West.

Instead, he did virtually the opposite — redirecting vast sums of national wealth to the swollen ranks of Venezuela’s poor, along with free health care and education. No wonder he alienated local elites, who are used to being first in line at the national trough.

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He was accused of muzzling the press, although anyone who’s ever turned on a TV in Caracas knows there’s no shortage of Fox News-style media outlets carrying a frothy mix of celebrities, U.S. sitcoms and anti-Chavez tirades.

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What actually appears to have infuriated the western establishment was Chavez’s audacity in challenging — and scoring some victories against — western dominance of the world economy.

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Up until the 1970s, the major western oil companies, known as the Seven Sisters, controlled the world oil market through a cartel established at a secret retreat at Achnacarry Castle in Scotland in 1928. The Achnacarry agreement set out in detail how the companies would maintain their lucrative control of oil markets into the future, setting quotas among themselves, never competing with each other and preventing competitors from getting in on the action. (Page 41)

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http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/03/12/hugo_chavez_depicted_as_tyrant_for_challenging_western_oil_domination_mcquaig.html