Adrian NorthrupIt was with no surprise that Hugo Chavez called President Bush “the devil” during his speech at the U.N. conference Sept. 20. Two weeks prior to this conference, the Venezuelan president told Bush that he would cut down oil supplies to the United States if it attacked Iran. Chavez made this allegation during a visit with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Venezuela in early September.
Chavez’s comments are very controversial. Some people might see him as outspoken and fearless, but he is Venezuela’s president, and that title doesn’t give him the right to speak without respect or down to others.
Chavez has been Venezuela’s president since April 13, 1999. During his first months in office, he changed the Venezuelan constitution so that he would be president for six years instead of five. Elections are due in December, and unfortunately, those elections may be in jeopardy right now, as Chavez’s opponents claim that they are not ready to have elections and that because of that, they must be suspended. How does this affect the United States and the rest of the world?
In my case, and as a Latin woman from Bolivia, I do fear that Chavez will get re-elected. Ever since Venezuela paid our external debt to Argentina, tension has being growing. There are some people that think that Bolivia will soon face a civil war, and if that would be the case, Chavez will send weapons to the west side of Bolivia in La Paz, where the government is based. When this happens, there are rumors coming from Paraguay and Argentina that the United States will send help to the east side of Bolivia for a counterattack.
Hopefully, this won’t happen, and the only problems we will have to face with Venezuela will be Chavez accusing capitalism and the United States of being the “evil empire,” and using his power to control oil exports to the rest of the world.
Venezuela is one of the wealthiest countries in the oil industry. The United States has been Venezuela’s client for more than 20 years.
The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population and consumes 45 percent of the gasoline produced on earth. Venezuela has been exporting more than 1,000 barrels of crude oil per day and more than 2,000 barrels of petroleum each day. With its exports to the United States, it covers 15 percent of American oil consumption. The United States consumes 20,000 barrels of oil per day. Just from Venezuela’s oil barrels, the cost was more than $140,000 a day when prices were near their peak at $78 this summer.
As of Oct. 4, the price of oil went down to $58 a barrel. Kuwait’s oil minister said that they would have to take drastic actions if the price for an oil barrel continues to be under $60. While some countries, like Saudi Arabia, depend on oil exports to the United States, Kuwait and Venezuela don’t have to worry about keeping the United States as a customer.
Each country that exports its oil counts on the United States’ demand for it. If the United States drops the price for each barrel, then the rest of the countries will have an oversupply of oil barrels. In the case of Venezuela, Chavez said that they will not tolerate the price of oil falling under $60 and that if it continues to go down, they would stop their oil exports.
This means that with one less source for oil in the United States, the price could rise up to $100 per barrel. Chavez states all this, because he knows that he can control oil exports. He is also aware that he has backup from Iran and that they will also help them if they get into a disagreement with the United States.
After the visit of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Venezuela, Chavez said that he would also like to explore nuclear energy. He made a confrontational remark to the United States saying that Bush had no right to prevent other countries to look for alternative sources of energy. He then said, “After all, they dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” The fact is that the world is afraid that countries will want to use nuclear energy against each other. Venezuela was the first Latin American country to have its own nuclear research facility and even Venezuela now has a nuclear affairs division in its Energy Ministry.
In the end, who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong? Who gets to call the shots or point fingers? Each country’s president has the responsibility to speak on behalf of its citizens and not use them as a shield. The Venezuelan situation depends upon many factors that could affect its future and whether or not the United States will be able to keep importing oil from them. Whatever the outcome is, we can only hope that in future elections, for both Venezuela and the United States, people will look back and they will make a better choice. If that would be the case, the problems we are facing now would be under different conditions, and new leaders will hopefully find better solutions that will work for all of us.
