Beyond the threat of a U.S. attack on Iraq, a recent strike by Venezuelan oil industry workers raised U.S. gas prices.
Venezuela provides 4 percent of the world’s oil. In 2002, the country supplied about 13 percent to the United States, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Oil workers stopped going to work in early December in response to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Opponents to Chavez said he is trying to “establish a Cuban-style dictatorship in Venezuela,” according to Associated Press reports.
Most Venezuelan strikers have returned to work after the nationwide strike, which began Dec. 2 and officially ended Feb. 4. However, oil industry workers still are on strike, and Venezuela is having a difficult time reaching the same oil export levels before the strike, according to the Associated Press.
The Venezuelan Supreme Court ordered Thursday for oil workers to return to work in an attempt to halt the strike.
“Now, they are exporting a third of what they used to,” said Carie Go, product specialist for Citgo, which is owned by Venezuela’s national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela.
Kent Young, Citgo public relations manager, said under normal circumstances, the company imports half of its oil from Venezuela. He also said when the amount of imported Venezuelan oil lessened, the company had to seek out other sources for oil, and thus the price of gas in the United States rose.
Gustavo Douaihi, an LSU geology senior and Venezuela native, said because 11,000 workers for the oil company were fired for striking, the nation’s oil industry won’t get back to the previous production level for a while.
President Chavez accused the two opposition leaders, Carlos Fernandez and Carlos Ortega, of plotting to collapse his government with the strike, which cost Venezuela an estimated $4 billion.
According to the Washington Post, a Venezuelan judge ordered a warrant for the strike leaders’ arrest, and Fernandez, head of Venezuela’s largest business federation, was taken into custody outside a restaurant on Wednesday around midnight on charges of treason, instigating violence and rebellion.
Venezuelan officials also are seeking out Ortega, co-leader of the strikes and head of Venezuela’s largest labor union, Venezuelan Workers Confederation, for arrest.