Author: Fernando Coronil

The oil policy preva- lent in Venezuela during the 1990s, better known as the “aperture” (i.e. aperture-open- ing), called for maximizing the country’s production capacity in-country by attracting foreign oil companies to participate in the development of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure and, ultimately, to maximize production. unfortunately, the involvement of foreign oil companies came at a steep cost since the “incentives” offered led to a collapse in the country’s fiscal income which, in turn,

This apparent truism of “It’s the oil, stupid!” makes sense without being really true. Certainly, as the embodiment of immense wealth and energy, oil appears to be a force capable of defining the destiny of modern nations. Yet this appearance is deceptive. Oil does condition but does not determine the social life of these nations. To understand this, it is enough to observe that oil has radically different effects in different oil producing …