VENEZUELA
Written by UST – Venezuela
Friday, 27 June 2014 02:04
While President Maduro cries out against the “economic war” and the U.S. interference in Venezuela, and accuses them of supporting “a smooth coup”, the Minister of Oil and Minerals, and President of PDVSA (Oil of Venezuela), Rafael Ramirez, announced in the beautiful Maracaibo, surrounded by the executives of some of the major multinational  oil companies, the signing of a contract (actually a credit line) of two billion dollars to “raise the level of the activities of these companies in the country”(according to ‘O Universal’, of May 22, 2014).

We are talking about the German company Schlumberger, number 1 in the world in oil services, of Halliburton (who undertook the recovery of oil wells after the invasion of Iraq) and had Dick Cheney in its director board (whose role is well known for everybody), former vice president of U.S. during George Bush’s presidence (who smelled of sulfur at the UN meeting), and of Weatheford also of the oil sector and “with expertise in recovering well”.

A long history of subservience

These agreements are nothing new for this government. Last year, the very same Ramirez announced the signing of a contract of also two billion dollars in loan form, with the imperialist multinational Chevron, the same one that in Ecuador is accused of contaminating the Amazon River, and that, at the eastern of our country, has already received as a concession, years ago, a large part of the delta platform. Soon after Ramirez announced a deal with Repsol, a multinational company whose headquarters are in Spain, of 1.2 billion dollars on the Cardon IV oil field for gas extraction. It is important to add that this field is the most important of Venezuela and the largest in the Americas! Ramirez has also announced that it would be signed contracts with the Russian Gazprom, the Chinese CNPC and the Italian ENI, reaching several billion dollars (according to the government, more than 10 billion).

All these contracts are apparently made ​​in the form of “joint venture” enterprises, except the contracts for gas. Nobody, however, knows these contracts’ terms. But when observing the PDVSA current situation, which must increasingly resort to “loans” and be exposed to a greater foreign indebtedness, these contracts do not seem to be good for the country. Many of these agreements are payable with oil. No dollar goes into the national accounts. The same happens with the agreements with China. These “joint ventures” are actually run by their own foreign companies that take decisions on production and investment. What about the  national sovereignty? And what about the anti-imperialism? And what about the accusations of imperialism interference by the government in Venezuela?

Once again nationalization of 100% of oil under workers’ control!

The joint enterprises, the contracts with multinational companies, have created a situation of greater dependence on imperialism. The official speeches against the United States are hollow words, purely rhetorical. The reality is that imperialism has full interference in Venezuela controlling our most important industry. No matter the huge amount of complaints, the government policy totally favors the imperialism and the multinational companies. There is no higher “foreign interference” in Venezuela’s affairs than this current one.

The workers and the people must fight for a different policy, a policy of national independence. Our sovereignty is defended only by fully nationalizing our oil, under a genuine workers’ control, by the suspension of the public debt payment, both internal and foreign, rather than with secret contracts about which workers know nothing.

It is essential to form an investigative committee together with the trade unions, safety stewards who are not corrupt, the workers and activists, elected by rank and file assemblies, in order to make public the contracts and check whether they are harmful to national sovereignty. And as for the money resulting from the foreign debt suspension, we must use it to reactivate the PDVSA and the basic companies, starting from valuing the work of its workers and staff. Reinvesting everything needed for maintenance and production. And as for the corrupt ones, prison for them.