General Discussion

out to be a saint. It's simply that he was better than what they had. A lot of the problem with the understanding of what happened to the oil companies when Chavez took control was that it wasn't that they couldn't continue on in Venezuela it's that they didn't want to continue on unless they continued to get an unfair deal. They very much relied on the idea that they might swing Chavez to their side either by bribery or by force. It didn't happen. Also there was a concerted effort by those in the industry to not sell parts, do maintenance etc. which of course didn't help.

The major companies that left thought they could bully as they always had around the world. A good deal of the "unrest" in Venezuela over the last 2 decades has been fomented and supported by our CIA. The propaganda picture always painted in Western media has been that Chavez was a horrible human being and the Venezuelans were living in rags. As usual under Latin American reform there was tremendous push-back from the vested interests internally and externally who wanted their control over land and resources to continue and so they resisted moves that involved land reform and increased social programs for the people. So all of that also had a negative effect on the operation of the oil infrastructure as well.

Here is a link with a brief but broad overview of the situation for the Venezuelan oil industry at that time.

https://factually.co/fact-checks/business/venezuela-chavez-oil-restructuring-impact-on-foreign-jv-d5fe7f