Historically, the rents of oil wealth in Venezuela were not distributed well across the population, and obscene economic inequality led to a disenchantment with capitalism in the 1990s for a majority of the voting populace. The advent of democracy in the country's 1998 election thus delivered the Ma Contact online >>
Historically, the rents of oil wealth in Venezuela were not distributed well across the population, and obscene economic inequality led to a disenchantment with capitalism in the 1990s for a majority of the voting populace. The advent of democracy in the country''s 1998 election thus delivered the Marxist populist leader Hugo Chavez, who benefited from a high oil price during much of his tenure to secure his rule. He rallied the public around revolutionary rhetoric with atavistic speeches that claimed the anti-colonial mantle of Caracas-born Simon Bolivar, who had led the movement of independence from the Spanish empire in the early nineteenth century. Chavez''s death of contested natural causes in 2013 left a power vacuum that often follows the passing of charismatic leaders.
My first office visit in Venezuela was to meet the remarkable entrepreneur Juan Jose Pocaterra, who has developed a series of companies that use data analytics for smarter urban planning. His overarching platform, called Vikua, has been recognized by the World Economic Forum where he also serves on the Global Future Council on Clean Air. His business partner (and spouse) Maria Fernandez Vera is the CEO of a transport company that uses data analytics to provide a "micro-mobility" solution through a fleet of minivans across Venezuela''s major cities called Wawa. Their work has been profiled by the Interamerican Development Bank and is being also replicated in other Latin American countries.
Next, I visited an established petrochemical servicing company called Vepica, which has been in operation for five decades but is reinventing itself as an energy services and sustainability solutions provider. They are headquartered in Venezuela''s only LEED certified green building. Vepica has offices in Houston and Beijing and is well-positioned to expand into new markets with easing of sanctions. The CEO Juan Nutt was a professional golfer before taking on the executive role in the family business. He chose to stay in Venezuela despite the turmoil and run the firm. What impressed me further was that the executives I met were trained at Venezuelan universities rather than elite foreign locales as is often the case in other Latin American countries.
I also visited the campus of Universidad Simon Bolivar which hosts the Instituto de Estudios Avanzados (Institue for Advanced Study). This institute is specializing its efforts in biotechnology and has also provided office space for the United Nations University''s Biotechnology Program for Latin America (BIOLAC). At the heyday of Venezuela''s educational investment period several decades ago, the government provided an endowment of $10 million for this program. To this day the returns of this endowment have sustained the program despite all the economic challenges.
The Coordinator of BIOLAC is currently Cornell-educated Dr. Gustavo Fermin, who is poised to develop further research and training capacity for the program. Young researchers were working on a range of innovative projects involving microbes and algae for improved removal of pollutants and carbon sequestration. Such organizations deserve greater attention from development donors and can be a means of fostering science diplomacy (as was argued in a CSIS report as early as 2014), even if the political situation remains uneasy.
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In July 2020, Venezuela''s state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), spilled over 26,000 barrels of oil into the Caribbean as it attempted to reactivate its El Palito refinery that for years had been lacking proper maintenance. The oil washed ashore Morrocoy National Park, coating nine miles of beaches and damaging one of the country''s most biodiverse ecosystems, one rich in mangroves and coral reefs. Scientists commissioned by the National Assembly projected that the Morrocoy coast could take a half-century to recover. The Nicolás Maduro regime downplayed the spills, impeding offers to clean up by volunteers and environmental groups.
That same refinery produced two more spills in 2020, just a few of the over 46,000 oil and pollutant spills that have occurred in Venezuela since 2010 as the country''s state oil company operates with inadequate technical capacity and maintenance. The spills are emblematic of a much larger environmental crisis that has afflicted the country for years, damaging ecosystems and endangering local communities from the Caribbean coast to the Amazon rainforest. This environmental component has attracted little international attention with global responses focused on the country''s humanitarian crisis.
This environmental crisis illustrates how extensively Venezuela''s institutions have collapsed during the Chávez and Maduro administrations. But just as the environmental situation is inexorably linked to the country''s political crisis, so too must it play a role in an eventual solution.
Venezuela once led the region in environmental policy and conservation efforts. In the latter half of the twentieth century, Venezuela established 29 protected areas, and 70 percent of the country''s south was protected in a combination of national parks, biosphere reserves, and a UN Educational Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site.
PDVSA was once celebrated for its operational capacity and commitment to environmental security. In 1993, the company announced an $800 million environmental protection plan that responded to Venezuela''s uniquely stringent environmental protection laws by establishing plans to control atmospheric emissions, treat wastewater, and treat and dispose of toxic waste. The company also had one of the most comprehensive oil contingency plans in the region.
PDVSA''s environmental standards and technical capacity have weakened tremendously since then. As conditions inside Venezuela worsened, thousands of technically skilled oil industry workers left the country, their spots filled through political patronage. The company''s decaying infrastructure and lack of trained personnel make oil spills and other accidents frequent and contingency plans nonexistent. Ironically, though Venezuela is producing a fraction of its 2001 output, it is flaring so much gas that experts believe emissions have not been reduced correspondingly. (Exact data is difficult to find as neither PDVSA nor the Ministry of Ecosocialism generate or publish data on PDVSA''s methane and carbon dioxide emissions.)
In 2020, PDVSA and its joint venture partner reportedly abandoned a floating storage and offloading (FSO) tanker carrying 1.3 million barrels of crude oil. By the summer, with its staff reduced from 72 to 5, the FSO had tilted, and water was reportedly seeping in, raising concerns about a potential spill that would have disastrous consequences for neighboring Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean more broadly. Maduro''s security forces arrested a national oil workers union official for alarming the media about the tilting ship.
Photo: YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Mining operations have not ceased despite the fact that the opposition-controlled National Assembly passed the Organic Mega Reserve Law in 2018, which legally repealed Maduro''s Orinoco Mining Arc decree. Instead, mines have proliferated, now extending beyond the Arc into protected areas and subjecting indigenous communities to increased violence and human rights abuses. According to SOSOrinoco, there are at least 59 illegal mining clusters inside Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Regime loyalists arebuildingprivate mansions and resorts in national parks and other protected areas, including Los Roques Archipelago National Park, where new construction is banned per local laws. This construction has intensified now that high-level officials are subject to targeted international sanctions and unable to travel the past four years, 10 tourism-related buildings were constructed on the island of Gran Roque, the only populated island in the archipelago.
Venezuela''s environmental crisis is inherently tied to its political situation. The Maduro regime is increasingly protecting itself from mounting international pressure at the expense of Venezuela''s natural resources and pristine biodiversity. Without a negotiated solution or change in government, the regime will likely continue to irreversibly damage the environment, silence environmental activists, and threaten indigenous communities.
The Biden administration, which has repeatedly advocated for international coordination to mitigate climate change, protect rainforests, minimize biodiversity loss, and safeguard environmental justice communities, should incorporate Venezuela into its regional environmental strategy. So should other key institutions, including environmental groups, the UN Environment Program, and development banks such as the Inter-American Development Bank, which recently launched its Amazon Initiative.
In this regard, a future transitional government in Venezuela should be encouraged and helped to take the following steps:
Cristina Vollmer Burelli is a senior associate (non-resident) with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Claudia Fernandez is a research associate with the CSIS Future of Venezuela Initiative.
Commentaryis produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).
Enjulio de2020, lacompañía petrolera estatalde Venezuela,Petróleosde Venezuela (PDVSA)derramómás de 26.000 barriles de petróleoen el Caribemientrasintentaba reactivarlarefineríaElPalito,la cual había carecido deun mantenimiento adecuado durante años.El petróleoderramado llegó hasta las costas delParque Nacional Morrocoy,extendiéndose por15 kilómetrosde playas y deteriorando uno de los ecosistemas con mayor biodiversidad del país, rico en manglares y arrecifes de coral.Expertos comisionados por la Asamblea Nacional proyectaron que podría tomar medio siglo para que la costa de Morrocoy se recupere. El régimen de Madurole restó importancia alos derrames,bloqueando los ofrecimientos de limpiar la costa por partedevoluntarios y grupos ambientalistas.
Lamisma refinería produjo dos derrames más en 2020, y esos fueron solo algunos de los más de46.000derrames depetróleo y sustancias contaminantesque han ocurrido en Venezueladesde 2010,ya que la compañía petrolera estatal del paísopera con capacidad técnica y mantenimiento inadecuados.Estos derrames son emblemáticos de una crisis ambiental que haafectadoal país durante años, perjudicando a losecosistemas y poniendo en riesgo a las comunidades locales desde la costa del Caribe hasta la Amazonía.Este componente ambiental ha atraído poca atención de la comunidad internacional ya que la atención internacional se ha centrado en la crisis humanitaria.
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