Creating Anti-Americanism in Venezuela♣

My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and am now a writer who has

published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                          Before the leftist socialist dictator Hugo Chavez came to power in Venezuela, there

was in fact No ill-feeling, and certainly no hatred against Americans. This is not unusual as Venezuela

never had any bad relationship with the United States. On the contrary, it had actually developed a good

relationship with America. American oil companies had been influential and helpful in developing

Venezuela's oil and gas industry that helped make Venezuela one of the richest and most prosperous

countries in South America. American workers, engineers and economic advisers helped to modernize

the country's infrastructure, build the oil industry that helped Venezuela's economy, and led to extensive

trade between the United States and Venezuela. The average Venezuelan lived much better than any

person in almost everywhere else in South America, and things were so good in Venezuela that people

from the rest of South America went to live and work in Venezuela. Even in the 1990's, when I was in

Venezuela, the country was still better than many parts of South America even with the financial crisis

it was going through then. When Hugo Chavez was elected, he nationalized all of the key industries, including 

the oil industry, in order to "provide" money for programs for the poor. The problem is that there was no

oversight of how the money was spent, and Chavez also spent the money for his friends. In short, the

money was wasted, and when the money ran out so did the aid for the poor. So, to not take blame for

his mistakes, Chavez invented the conspiracy of the "evil American empire" that did all it could to sabotage

his socialist state. The only good news is that many Venezuelans are not buying this non-sense, and they

realize that the real problem lies with their own government. It is a lesson that I hope will lead to a change

in government in Venezuela.