Kenny Malone

But Venezuela has become one of the cases that people point to.

And that happened during World War II, when the U.S.

needed massive amounts of oil from Venezuela.

And Venezuela's government realized how much money was leaving its country in barrels.

Chevron and the other seven sisters did not like it, but they didn't really have a choice.

Venezuela had the biggest and closest foreign source of oil for the U.S.

They had the upper hand.

So the sisters agreed.

And in the not-so-small print of that agreement was a longer-term plan that Venezuela would in fact take over the country's oil completely.

It would own everything in 40 years.

At that time, if they wanted, the Seven Sisters would have to negotiate new contracts.

And these...

would be the moments in a petro-state that seem wonderful, that make people gloss over what could be the downside.

Because that single resource just feels like abundance.

I mean, it is abundance.

Yes, an oil camp, a company town built by the American company, one of the seven sisters, Creole Petroleum.

In fact, we found a little promotional video about their Venezuelan oil operation.

Miguel's mother worked at the Creole Petroleum Hospital.

His father worked at the ports on the docks in the refinery.

And even at that age, Miguel says he could see the profits from the oil were not necessarily being distributed equally across the country.