Alejandro Velasco

And so those were the two primary hallmarks of the early Chavista sort of vision for Venezuela.

The price of oil when Hugo Chavez is inaugurated into office in 1999 is crazy.

$8.

Very low.

I mean, I'll give you the contrary example.

At the height of peak oil, the price per barrel of oil was around $160,000.

So if you think about the difference between $8 and $160, it's a lot.

Yes.

Right now, for instance, if you look at oil prices, they're around $60.

The historic average has been between $45 and $50.

So $8 is not just low, it is...

risibly low.

And so one of the things that Chavez tries to do in terms of building state capacity by revitalizing, not just revitalizing, but capturing more of Venezuela's oil revenues, is to bring OPEC, that long, kind of toothless, yet seemingly very powerful global cartel, together to say to them first, listen, we have to get this house in order.

This has to do with the summit of the OPEC.

Oil prices do rise somewhat in his first couple of years in office.

I think they get up to about $22 per barrel right around 2001.

But something dramatic changes in the relationship between the United States and Venezuela at that time, and in particular, in the relationship between the United States and Hugo Chavez.

Obviously, the attacks of September 11th in 2001 are extremely traumatic for the United States and the world.

The subsequent bombing campaign of Afghanistan is a moment when, using his communicational skills and access to media, Chavez publicly decries the bombing campaign as an cruel and exaggerated response to a vicious act.

public at the time, broadly speaking, in no mood to be criticized about their sort of response to 9-11.