Economic War Against Venezuela Began in 2002, President Maduro Says

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro said this Friday, September 9, that the economic war against Venezuela, carried out by the US and the collective “West,” began in December 2002 with the oil strike of the Venezuelan political right wing.

“Imperialism aimed for an economic collapse [of Venezuela],” the president commented during an official program at the Petrocedeño Industrial Complex. “The economic war began long before the sanctions. It began on December 6, 2002. That was when the intense economic war began. Targeting the principal wealth of the country in order to defeat Comandante Hugo Chávez. That is the mentality of imperialism.”

President Maduro applauded the Venezuelan workers for their hard work in recovering all the facilities of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) through the 3R.NETS mechanism.

“The working class has been and is the backbone of the PDVSA of the 3R.NETS,” Maduro emphasized. Fully recovered facilities of the industrial complex were inaugurated during the program.

“The Venezuelan people were attacked head-on, and the first ones were PDVSA’s working class,” said the president.

He also commented that in addition to the imperialist persecution, a mafia was imposed in PDVSA to steal the country’s wealth.

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In view of these acts, the workers stood up to defend the oil industry.

“It fell upon the oil sector workers to confront the mafia that had installed itself here, the mafia that now lives in luxury in their mansions abroad, and the people shouted ‘clean it up,’ and so it was. Maybe it took a while, I should be self-critical, the investigations took a long time, but now there has to be justice,” the president emphasized.

In this vein, he pointed out that the sanctions against Venezuela are due to the fact that the country has proven to be a potential in energy, able to maintain the balance on the global scale.

“We have been in the eye of the storm for being a global energy potential, and because we are a moral power due to the Bolivarian Revolution, founded by our Commander Hugo Chávez,” he said.

“They have wanted to destroy us, to colonize us, but they have not been able to do so and will never be able to do so,” the president emphasized.

PDVSA has to be a socialist industry

During the event, President Maduro stressed that PDVSA must become a socialist industry that creates wealth for the benefit of the people.

“PDVSA has to be a socialist industry, to distribute the wealth, to invest it in the people,” said the Venezuelan president.

In this regard, he urged the relevant authorities to give more power to the Workers’ Productive Councils (CPT).

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“The CPTs of PDVSA must be given more power and presence throughout the country,” President Maduro stressed. “The old corrupt mafia was terrified of workers’ control. I saw up close, with my own eyes, the terror that mafia had for the word workers’ power. It is time for development, for experimenting in new, efficient management methods.”