Miguel Sorans, a leader Socialist Left, and of the Argentinian section of the IWU-FI
5 August 2024.
The electoral crisis in Venezuela is once again raising many questions among thousands and thousands of fighters: What is happening in Venezuela? Is Maduro a left and anti-imperialist government that defends oil from the Americans? Is Maduro confronting the oil multinationals? Should we defend Maduro and not denounce the fraud? Our socialist Trotskyist current has another view.
As revolutionary socialists, we want to clarify once again to the anti-imperialist and socialist vanguard of the world the true character of Nicolas Maduro’s government and what Chavismo meant. The claim of a left government in Venezuela is false. Chavez has lied when he said he was promoting a “Socialism of the 21st Century” on May 1st 2005. The facts clearly show that Chavismo never made a break with capitalism, nor did it stop making pacts with the oil multinationals.
The world left Peronism and even sectors that call themselves Trotskyists have distorted reality. To justify their surrender to the bosses’ governments of class conciliation, be it Maduro, Lula, Petro, or Boric.
Let’s see what, for example, Valerio Arcary, leader of the Resistance current and of the PSOL in Brazil, supporters of Lula’s government, says. Arcary claims to be a Trotskyist. According to him: “The analysis of the election result cannot be reduced to a naïve consideration (…) What is at stake is a realignment of Venezuela with the USA, as a semi-colony, the privatisation of PDVSA and the handing over of the largest oil reserves to the big oil corporations (…) Maduro’s government has taken on a project of nationalist state regulation of capitalism with social reforms.” (https://jacobinlat.com/2024/08/01/la-batalla-por-venezuela/).
In other words, for Arcary, it is secondary whether there was fraud or not (not to have “a naive consideration”) and whether that is why the police kill 20 people and imprison massively. Rather, the focus of the “battle” is on the control of oil. If Maduro were to fall, according to Arcary, “the biggest oil reserves would be handed over to the big oil corporations” (multinationals). It is this kind of message that is spread by much of global reformism and Castroism.
It is logical that it generates a lot of confusion and doubts in millions. And even more so when Corina Machado’s opposition is right-wing liberal and pro-American. But it is a big lie.
Chevron and the oil multinationals have been in Venezuela for years, hand in hand with Chavismo
First clarification, to avoid further confusion. Of course, the pro-American right wing led by Maria Corina Machado wants more oil. But fundamentally they want to be the intermediaries in the oil business, displacing Chavismo and its corrupt mafias. Exchange one mafia for another. Nothing more.
Because it is a bigger lie than a house that if Maduro’s government were to leave, “the big oil corporations” would come in. No! The oil multinationals have already been in Venezuela for a long time. Since 2007, Chávez agreed, by law, to associate the multinationals as joint ventures in PDVSA.
Among the first companies to sign the agreements were, among others, Chevron of the United States, Spain’s Repsol, Britain’s Shell, France’s Total, China National Petroleum and Brazil’s Petrobras. Exxon Mobil was the only one that did not agree to reconvert and withdrew. Later, Mitsubishi of Japan, and the Russians Lukoil, Gazprom and Rosneft joined in,
The only opposition to this policy came from socialist leaders Orlando Chirino and Jose Bodas. From the first moment, the slogan was “No more mixed companies. PDVSA 100 per cent state-owned under workers’ co-management”.
Venezuelan oil was handed over to multinationals in 2010 when Chavez signed the handover of blocks in the Orinoco Belt, known for its massive oil reserves.
In the first months of 2010, the then Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Rafael Ramirez, announced that the consortium formed by the US oil company Chevron, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Inpex Corporation, the latter two from Japan, and Suelopetrol from Venezuela, would be PDVSA’s partners in the Carabobo 3 project, formed by blocks 2 South, 3 North and 5. The Carabobo 1 project was handed over to the consortium formed by Repsol, ONGC Videsh Limited, the Indian Oil Corporation of India and Petronas of Malaysia. This field is made up of areas 1 Centro and 1 Norte. The blocks handed over to the transnationals produced between 400 and 480,000 barrels of oil per day.
Hugo Chávez then called on the capitalist companies not only to exploit the oil but also to join in the “development of the country”, and congratulated himself for the “confidence” shown by the businessmen in the Venezuelan capitalist economy (data and quotations see the book ¿Por que fracaso el chavismo? by Simon Rodriguez Porras and Miguel Sorans, pages 135 and 136).
This pact was also made with other multinationals (Nestlé, Coca Cola, DHL, Movistar, Citibank among others) and big Venezuelan businessmen, while encouraging the emergence of companies that did business with the state, many linked to the Armed Forces, generating a new bourgeois sector known as the “Boli-bourgeoisie”. It is estimated that there are some 15 companies run by the military. This explains why they are still the backbone of the regime. All within the framework of an anti-worker policy of low wages and attacks on workers’ and independent left organisations.
Nothing could be further from the truth than Arcady’s other lie that the “Maduro government has taken on a project of nationalist state regulation of capitalism with social reforms”. Under Chávez, working people faced hardships because of multinational profits and corruption. It was this policy that led to the economic and social debacle in Venezuela.
The multinationals never left Venezuela
Despite the sanctions imposed by the US on the oil business in recent years, the multinationals never left. There were only partial withdrawals. In this context, the most important thing is that Chevron’s licence was ratified in November 2022, when it began sending 200,000 barrels of oil per day to the US.
A year later, in November 2023, the Spanish daily El País reported on new oil investments after the US announced the lifting of many of the economic sanctions on Venezuela: “besides Repsol and Eni (Italy), which have been working with Venezuela for some time on gas projects, the French company Maurel and Prom has announced that it is resuming its operations in Lake Maracaibo. China Petroleum and Indian Oil are already working with Miraflores (…) Mitsubishi wants to take over the petrochemical project of Metanol de Oriente Metor. Caracas has confirmed joint oil and gas projects for Colombia’s Ecopetrol. There is also talk of Petrobras and India’s Reliance’ (El Pais, 27 November 2023).
In June 2024, showing that the supposed blockade does not exist, the National Assembly (NA, Parliament), dominated by Maduro, authorised a 15-year extension for Venezuela’s mixed oil company Petroindependencia, in which Chevron has a 34 per cent stake, to operate until 2050 (Periodico Energia, 18 July 2024).
Due to the political crisis, Maduro threatened to give US oil company licenses to BIRC countries. This shows two things: first, confirmation that there is a pact with the American oil companies, and second, that he is not threatening to nationalise these concessions, but to hand them over to the oil multinationals of Brazil, India, Russia, and China, which have already been in Venezuela for years.
To put it more bluntly, to pour water on it. Maduro’s government is not at all socialist and even less anti-imperialist. It is a capitalist dictatorship with a pseudo anti-imperialist discourse in order to continue with the surrender of oil and the exploitation of the working people. The PSL and the IWU-FI continue our struggle to end Maduro’s dictatorship, his fraud, and his repression, rejecting the right-wing pro-American opposition as an alternative. We fight to achieve a workers’ government that begins the road to true socialism with democracy for the working people.
