Wednesday, February 03, 2021

How Socialism Wiped Out Venezuela’s Spectacular Oil Wealth

How Socialism Wiped Out Venezuela’s Spectacular Oil Wealth
"Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves and yet the country has run out of gasoline. 
The socialist government has lost the capacity to extract oil from the ground or refine it into a usable form. 
The industry's gradual deterioration was 18 years in the making, tracing back to then-President Hugo Chávez's 2003 decision to fire the oil industry's most experienced engineers in an act of petty political retribution.
The near-total collapse in the nation's oil output in the ensuing years is a stark reminder that the most valuable commodity isn't a natural resource, but the human expertise to put it to productive use.
"At this moment Venezuela is living through its worst nightmare,"...
The Venezuelan oil industry turned a once poor agricultural nation into an important geopolitical player and one of the region's richest countries. 
..."The current administration, in the last 20 to 25 years, destroyed what we built," says Pedro España. What they had built was "economic independence."...Read all.



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