Erika Barris
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Then it was part of Colombia.
And by the early 20th century, it had gained independence, was run by a series of dictators, and had its own export economy.
I think I'm going to guess coffee.
It has to be coffee.
The country's number one export was my favorite bean.
In 1922, they made a huge oil discovery at Lake Maracaibo, the Lake Maracaibo Gusher.
Some surveyors had been digging for oil for years around that lake.
And then one morning, the earth started to rumble and there was a loud roar.
And this small well came alive in a way that no one had ever seen before.
It started spouting up oil.
Yeah, please do.
200 feet above the derrick.
That's what we call the oil well tower thing.
It spewed oil.
This black, tarry oil that sprayed everyone and everything in the town.
And so Venezuela's strongman dictator allowed more than 100 foreign companies to just set up shop
and drill away in search of more gushers.
It was a boom, a boondoggle.