Miguel Tinker Salas

It was flying from Caracas to Paris.

Some people could take flights on Friday and be in Miami in a couple hours, spend the weekend shopping, return to Caracas on Sunday.

During the period known as La Venezuela Saudita or Saudi Venezuela.

Saudi Arabia, yes.

Saudi Venezuela, where the slogan was, It's cheap, give me two, because I can afford it.

Poverty was everywhere.

Caracas was ringed by what was euphemistically called ranchos or ranches, which were in fact cardboard neighborhoods.

A song by Ali Primera called Casas de Cartón, Houses of Cardboard, was playing at this time.

And when that happened in 1989, there was a massive protest known locally as El Caracazo.

You had the rise of new political forces, new political arrangements that claimed that they would solve Venezuela's long-term problems.

Chevron stayed.

Chevron agreed.

I believe it's because they saw Venezuela as a long-term investment, not a short-term investment.

It didn't make any sense.

It didn't make any sense.

But with the exit of the other company, Chevron then shines.

And the other argument that they kept making to the U.S.

when they wanted to have their license renewed is if we leave, the Chinese step in.

So that there was an argument being made that Chevron's presence had both a geopolitical interest as well as an economic interest.

And to the extent that you had Chevron, an American company in Venezuela, you had an American footprint.