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Proud of their oil, Venezuelans view US stake in their reserves as a surrender

AP Photo/Fernando Llano

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Nothing has shaped what it means to be Venezuelan today more than oil.

For more than 100 years, in good times and bad, Venezuelans' identity has been built around the belief that their country's bountiful oil resources belong to the people, not a government or a company.

This belief, and a troubled nation's pride, took a bruising last week when acting President Delcy Rodríguez agreed to give the United States control of roughly one-fifth of Venezuela's oil reserves - the largest in the world.

While the deal could eventually generate billions of dollars for an oil industry and economy wrecked by years of mismanagement, many Venezuelans see it as a surrender. Some say they are not surprised; they believe that gaining control of Venezuelan oil was the ultimate objective when President Donald Trump ordered U.S. forces to capture then-President Nicolás Maduro at the beginning of the year, leaving Rodríguez in charge.

"It's not just worrying, it's outrageous, because we, like a drop in the ocean, have no power to intervene," Lisandro Castro, an architect in the capital, Caracas, said referring to fellow citizens. "There is genuine collective concern in Venezuela right now about what we are witnessing."

Oil influences all aspects of life in Venezuela

The 1920s discovery of oil in northwestern Venezuela sparked a booming industry that transformed a poor, agrarian country into an urbanized regional power.

U.S. energy company employees working in the South American nation went on to popularize baseball. The companies built ball fields in oil-producing areas, boosting the sport among working-class Venezuelans who then took it to the rest of the country.

Europeans facing post-World War II hardships headed to Venezuela looking for economic opportunities created by the oil riches. The Portuguese established bakeries that are still open. The Italians designed buildings that are still standing.

A democracy in its infancy, Venezuela got most of its revenues from oil exports rather than from taxing local citizens and businesses, and politicians tried to buy the will of citizens, said Ronal Rodríguez, a researcher at the Venezuela Observatory at Colombia's Universidad del Rosario.

The country co-founded OPEC, and by the '70s, when it boasted of the highest per-capita income in the region, the government nationalized the industry with the creation of the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela S.A.

PDVSA, as it is commonly known, only allowed foreign companies to operate as minority partners in joint ventures. Its revenues subsidized cheap gas for Venezuelans, scholarships to study abroad, free surgeries and many more benefits.

"Every Venezuelan sees oil as something they have the right to claim," Rodríguez, the researcher, said.

Venezuela has been shaped by oil booms and busts

Plummeting oil prices globally in the 1980s devastated Venezuela's economy, necessitating an International Monetary Fund bailout. The state ended key subsidies, and social unrest followed. A military officer named Hugo Chávez attempted a failed coup.

Once elected president in 1998, Chávez expanded social services, including health, housing and education, thanks to resurgent oil prices that generated an estimated $981 billion in revenues for PDVSA between 1999 and 2011. The government handed out homes, refrigerators and medicines, and many families benefited from well-paid jobs in the public and private sectors.

Emboldened by popular support, Chávez tightened his grip on the national oil company -- to the detriment of U.S. oil companies such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.

But PDVSA's fortunes eventually turned as oil prices fell once again. Corruption and mismanagement further eroded profits and hurt production, first under Chávez, and then Maduro, his hand-picked successor.

By 2013, when Maduro became president following Chávez's death, the country fell into a dire economic crisis. Sanctions imposed by the U.S. over democratic and human rights concerns crippled the industry and the economy further.

Instead of attracting migrants, Venezuelans became migrants; the economic turmoil led to severe food shortages, among other deprivations, prompting millions to leave the country.

Even though markets and stores are now well-stocked, people struggle to afford the basics because of soaring inflation.

Many of today's public sector workers earn roughly $160 per month, while the average private sector employee earned about $237 per month last year.

"Something is better than nothing," former oil worker Romel Abreu said referring to the roughly 1 million barrels of oil per day that Venezuela currently produces. "If we didn't have it, we would be fried."

Abreu works as a security guard in Cabimas, in the country's northwest, the heart of the oil industry. Like many there, he pines for another oil boom and the jobs it would bring.

Oil deal raises skepticism among Venezuelans

Venezuelans had hoped the capture of Maduro in January would end the ruling party's 27-year hold on power. When that did not happen - Trump chose Rodríguez over Venezuela's opposition - people at least were optimistic about potential economic improvements from the easing of crippling sanctions.

In February, a legal overhaul opened the path to private investment in the oil industry, which some saw as a prelude to bigger changes.

"Everything that happened on Jan. 3 was simply a strategy to get where we are today," Castro, the architect, said of Trump's Venezuela policy. "That is, to fully immerse themselves in the country's energy affairs for their own personal gain and benefit, not for a purpose that would truly benefit us Venezuelans."

Under the deal, the U.S. is entering a joint venture with Venezuela's North American Blue Energy Partners, the second-largest private oil company operating in the country, behind Chevron.

Rodríguez is giving the joint venture 100-year rights over 17 oil fields with proven reserves of 65 billion barrels. The nation's total reserves have been estimated at roughly 300 billion.

Because Venezuela's energy infrastructure has been severely degraded, it will take years before new investments will lead to significantly higher oil production, experts say.

Speaking in Caracas on Wednesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Trump's mission in Venezuela "is to bring peace, freedom, opportunity and prosperity to the people." In an address to the nation Saturday, Rodríguez defended the agreement -- and said she wants her country to be an "energy powerhouse."

Cabimas residents can only hope.

"Well, on the one hand, one feels and thinks that one of the largest oil reserves has been handed over," Erwin Ayala, an oil company worker, said outside his home. "But if it's for the good of the country and for future generations, then yes, we agree with that, because what good is having so much oil ... if there's no machinery, no technology, to extract it?"

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Associated Press video journalist Juan Pablo Arraez contributed to this report from Cabimas, Venezuela.