It’s not about oil? Ask the Venezuelans

www.examiner.ie 24/02/03

IT isn’t very often that one is treated to a compelling documentary on RTE, but the True Lives series produced a gem on February 18 regarding Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the attempted coup in April of last year.

Anyone who dismisses as a conspiracy the allegations of oil being a driving force behind US policy on Iraq would do well to look at the situation in Venezuela.

It is the third biggest supplier of oil to the US where the administration has openly admitted its interest in the strategic value of this country and its commodity.

Chavez's crime was to attempt to distribute the oil proceeds among his people. The coup was orchestrated by the disposed oil barons and compliant elements of the military. It failed when the people refused to accept the new regime. Most Venezuelans are convinced of CIA involvement, which the US denies. What the US cannot deny, however, is the peddling of lies on behalf of the plotters and their verbal support of a ‘regime change.’

In short, Chavez’s oil policy doesn’t suit the US. Therefore they see it as strategic imperative to secure their supply through whatever means are necessary. The US administration’s fundamentalist view of the world as good or evil is a nonsense. If you’re with them, your good; if you’re against them, you’re evil. Morals don’t come into it.

Cormac Cahill, 3, Eugene Drive, Grange Heights, Douglas, Cork.