Enemy Mine
Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend?
By John D. Turner
Did you know that Citgo gas is owned by Venezuela? I didn’t, but
the Left does, and it is the latest weapon in their arsenal to
express their disapproval of George W. Bush. Yes, the left has come up with a new champion in their fight to
unseat the administration of George W. Bush;
Hugo Chavez,
the President of Venezuela. You know Mr. Chavez, the man who stood
on the floor of the U.N. recently and stated “the Devil was here,”
referring to President Bush who had given a speech on the floor of
the U.N. the day before. [1]
What does the left in this country know about Mr. Chavez? Well,
he’s a fellow leftist, making him a “man of the people”, and he
doesn’t like Mr. Bush. What else is there to know?
An
article, posted in USA Today in January 2006, revealed that
Citgo, one of the largest refiners of oil in the United States, is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company,
Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA). Citgo owns six refineries in
the United States (and 14,000 gas stations), with a refining
capacity of 1.1 million barrels/day - over 6% of the U.S. total
refining capacity. As USA Today puts it, quoting Antonio Szabo, a
former PDVSA official and the president of Stone Bond Technologies,
a Houston energy software firm, “the only difference between Citgo
and other companies is that Citgo has only one shareholder,"
referring to the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
It’s not that there is anything secret about this. The PDVSA
purchased 50% of Citgo in 1986. In 1990, they purchased the
remaining 50%. This was well before Mr. Chavez came to power. No big
deal. It isn’t as if there aren’t other foreign-owned oil companies
doing business in the United States. Shell Oil (Royal Dutch Shell),
and BP (British Petroleum) spring to mind. It’s not as if it is
unusual for a company in the U.S. to be owned by a foreign country.
The left, always in search of a good cause to bash Bush, seized
upon this news, and with it formulated a strategy to protest the
foreign policies of the Bush administration and at the same time
“help to alleviate global poverty”; buy your gas from Citgo service
stations. According to an article on
Commondreams.org, Chavez is using the resources and oil revenue
of his government to help the poor in Venezuela.
A worthy effort to be sure, if that were actually what Mr. Chavez
was doing. But is it?
Mr. Chavez began his career in the military, rising to the rank
of Lieutenant Colonel. In 1992, he orchestrated a failed coup
attempt against the government of Venezuela, and spent the next two
years in jail, being pardoned in 1994. In 1998 he was elected to the
presidency, taking office in 1999. He was elected again under the
country’s new constitution in 2000. In 2002, there was a coup
attempt made against him by the Venezuelan military. It ultimately
failed, and Chavez blamed the attempt on the United States, although
exactly why the U.S. would attempt to overthrow the government of
Venezuela remains a mystery.
Since then, Mr. Chavez has been an outspoken critic of the U.S.
and George W. Bush in particular. Announcing that the United States
had a plan to invade Venezuela, Mr. Chavez has been pouring money
into building up his military. In addition to the purchase of
100,000 AK-47 assault rifles and other assorted small arms and
ammunition for his army, he has recently announced the purchase of
24 Sukhoi
SU-30MK2s and 30
Mi-35 assault helicopters that were part of an arms order worth
about 1 billion dollars that he placed in July during a visit to
Russia. He has also placed orders for military aircraft with Spain
as well, and has stated that he plans to have 1 million well-armed
men and women, standing ready to repulse an American attack.
On the oil front, Chavez has been cultivating his image as a
humanitarian, by ordering Citgo to donate heating oil to the poor in
New York and Massachusetts last winter. In an interview, Felix
Rodriguez, the President and CEO of Citgo, said Chavez, “ordered the
giveaway so poor Americans wouldn't have to choose between food and
heat.” He also volunteered oil supplies in the aftermath of
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
However, the velvet glove hides beneath it an iron fist. He has
also stated that if the Bush administration wished to cut diplomatic
ties to Venezuela, he would have no second thoughts about closing
all the Venezuelan refineries in the US. "Let's see what'll happen
to the price of crude oil then", Mr. Chavez told his audience. [2]
Venezuela is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter, and supplies
the U.S. with 1.5 million barrels/day. Proven reserves total some 75
billion barrels. Recent finds in the so-called “Orinoco
Belt” may contain up to 275 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
If so, Venezuela’s reserves may rival those of Saudi Arabia.
To cover his bets, he has sought energy deals with China,
India, and France. On 24 August, he
inked
a deal with China to supply 300,000 barrels/day by 2007, rising
to 500,000 barrels/day by 2010.
Smart business or deliberate strategic planning? Chavez claims
that the deals he is seeking will not impact this oil flow, as they
will come from new exploration and production. [3] However it is a
fact that increasing his suppliers would soften the economic impact
of an embargo by Venezuela on the U.S.; an embargo he threatens
whenever the opportunity arises.
It is said that one can tell a person by the friends he keeps.
And who are the friends of Hugo Chavez? Al Jazeera considers him a
friend of Iran. In a recent article, al Jazeera reported that
“Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has defended Iran's right to
pursue a nuclear energy program, and vowed to back the country in
its continuing disagreements with the United States.“ Sounds like a
friend to me.
Other friends of Hugo Chavez include Fidel Castro of Cuba, whom
he describes as “one of my best friends”, and Daniel Ortega of
Nicaragua, whom he describes as a “great guy” and a “close friend.”
Saddam Hussein was one of his friends (he once referred to Saddam
as his “brother” and business “partner”). However, while that
friendship may still be operative, its significance has become
overcome by events.
So other than a mutual dislike of George W. Bush, what does Iran
have that Hugo Chavez might want? And what does Chavez have that
might be of benefit to Iran?
Well,
Iran has also inked a deal with Venezuela for a $2 billion
investment fund to help Venezuela develop oil fields. And new
mosques are being opened in Venezuela as well, for the Muslim
faithful there. While it is unlikely that Iran is too terribly
interested in Venezuelan oil (they have 133 billion barrels in
proven oil reserves of their own), they are interested in any help
they can get in their on-going dispute with the United States over
the production of nuclear weapons. And an ally in the U.S.’s own
backyard is a coup indeed. The “enemy of my enemy is my friend” is a
concept well understood in Persia.
As for Venezuela, Chaves has been angling for a seat on the U.N.
Security Council, an initiative that is backed by China, Iran and
other Middle Eastern countries. Such a seat would give Venezuela
much prestige, and allow him to be an even bigger gadfly in the side
of the United States.
Then there is the fact that Iran is a leader in the production of
ballistic missiles. AK-47’s, long range attack aircraft (SU-30s),
and attack helicopters - would perhaps some
Shahab-3 MRBMs, with a range of 1300 km and a payload of 1200 kg
be just the thing to hold off the supposed invasion of Venezuela by
the U.S.? And suppose they could later be fitted with Iranian
nuclear weapons that he claims Iran is not attempting to produce?
Of course, the Shahab-3 doesn’t have the range to strike the U.S.
mainland from launching sites in Venezuela. The most destructive
attack, however, would not be dropping a nuke on a major U.S. city,
as bad as that would be. Even worse would be a nuclear air burst,
50-200 miles up, designed to create a large-scale
EMP
effect. Such an event would fry electronic components over a wide
area, and potentially kill many more people than simply attacking a
city. It would also have an immensely greater effect on the U.S.
economy as well. This can be accomplished by launching the missile
from a ship, a freighter or oil tanker for example. Extreme accuracy
is not required.
Then again, perhaps this is all a ruse. Maybe Chavez really wants
to carve off some pieces of his neighboring countries, and is using
the pretext of an impending U.S. attack as a cover to amass the
military power to do so. Maybe he is really doing this just to keep
the price of oil high; Venezuelan oil is of the type known as “heavy
sour” which is more expensive to refine. If the price drops too low,
his oil becomes less cost-effective to buy.
Perhaps. In any event, none of this seems to worry the American
Left, who sees nothing wrong with pouring money into the coffers of
those who are not friends of this country. If you are going to have
to buy gas anyway, best to buy it from those who share your dislike
of George Bush, no matter what the potential consequences.
After all, what’s really important is getting the Republicans
out, the Democrats in, and “ending Bush’s genocidal war in Iraq.”
All else is secondary; at the end of the day, the enemy of my enemy
is my friend, right? At least for now.
[1]
Hugo Chavez speech at the United Nations - Newsmax.com, 20 Sep
2006
[2]
Venezuela to buy more weapons - BBC News, 5 Feb 2006.
[3]
Venezuela-China joint oil, gas investment to reach $5 billion -
China Institute, 15 Sep 2006
Other reference articles:
Chavez cast himself as the Anti-Bush - WashingtonPost.com, 15
March 2005
China-Latin America Energy Relations - China Institute
Chavez:
Iran has right to atomic energy - AlJazeera.com, 3 Dec 2005
The growing Iran-Chavez alliance - FrontPageMagazine.com, 12
April 2005
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