Resumen

MENDOZA POTTELLA, Carlos. The Validity of the Oil Nationalization. Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2006, vol.12, n.1, pp.183-207. ISSN 20030507.

This article assumes a critical posture towards the Venezuelan oil nationalization, regarding it as a mere stage within the general context of an industry that, during the course of the twentieth century, developed on the basis of a dependency on international oil capital. During this period, there was a constant struggle to increase Venezuela’s participation in the rent, in which the nationalist sectors were consistently defeated by an oil power comprised of the international oil companies and their local agents, employers, judges, lawyers, technocrats and corporate managers. The nationalization was another chapter in this history of frustrations, maybe the most damaging one, because of the false expectations it generated in the population at large. The economic consequences were terrible, the institutions designed to control the industry were dismantled, the normative legal framework painfully built up since the 1920s was perverted. But, worst of all, the main result has been a demobilization and a weakening of the capacity for struggle built up during generations. The author concludes arguing that, far from being an worthless relic, oil nationalism needs to be strengthened on the basis of a recovery of this willingness to struggle.

Palabras clave : Oil; Oil Industry; Nationalization; Nationalism; Dependence; Foreign Capital; Venezuela.