The Further Unraveling of Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez is unhappy. It seems that oil giant Exxon refuses to accept Chavez' theft of billions of dollars of oil production infrastructure that Exxon built. Chavez is accustomed to getting his way, and is quite capable of throwing a temper tantrum or two whenever his aims are thwarted.

MARACAIBO, July 13 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday oil prices could hit $300 per barrel if U.S. oil company Exxon Mobil again freezes Venezuelan assets in a dispute over a nationalized oil project.

Exxon (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) won court orders freezing $12 billion in assets held by Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA after the OPEC nation took over a multi-billion dollar oil project, heightening tensions with the United States and helping to raise oil prices.

A London court later overturned Exxon's temporary asset freeze, but Chavez said the company could seek further action against Venezuela.

"If they freeze us there will be no more oil for the United States, and the price will go to $300," Chavez said during a televised meeting with Caribbean and Central American leaders as part of an energy cooperation scheme called Petrocaribe.

Chavez also said oil prices were being influenced by a "speculative bubble", the collapse of which could send prices as low as $70 per barrel. _Source

Chavez is clearly talking out of three sides of his mouth, hoping desperately to score points with one strategy or another. Perhaps the recent failures of his allies--the narco-terror group FARC-has Hugo feeling a bit on edge lately. You might even call the rather clownish and rotund Latin dictator a bit paranoid.

Paranoid or not, in predicting $300 a barrel oil prices, Hugo Chavez makes the best argument yet for his ouster. He continues to destroy the civic and social infrastructure of his country, along with the oil infrastructure that would have meant so much to a more free and democratic Venezuela. Chavez also demonstrates how the term "low life third world leader" can be both redundant and an oxymoron.