Was the Venezuelan oil industry, on which the government’s revenues depended, to be primarily a political entity, with its agenda set by politicians and the interplay of domestic politics, or would it be a government-owned entity that was run as a business, with a longer time horizon and with its agenda set by oil men? Behind that question, of course, was a struggle for power and primacy in post-nationalization Venezuela, as well as a battle over the future of the nation’s economy.
