energy for energy

  Elites are the driving force behind decision-making [1] . Power is the tool they use to manage state resources, and the population acts as the source of legitimacy (in democracies) or as the workforce and support (in autocracies), always maintaining a structural command-obedience gap that is only altered when the elite loses its operational capacity. Since Spanish colonial times, Venezuelan elites have undergone constant and mostly traumatic transformations, leaving no room for an oligarchy like other societies in Latin America. The rise and fall of surnames and the instability of the productive process, always dependent on the external sector, have prevented the components of the elites from remaining the same. That is a reality that persists. There has only been one successful elite, and that is the one that was in power between 1928 and 1973, regardless of the form of government. These elites had a lubricant: oil revenues. Oil revenues. And with that, which is no easy feat, ...

  For any observer of what is happening in oil-rich Venezuela, reading the news on the subject in the global business press is sometimes laughable. The dynamics are simple. The oil companies involved in the Venezuelan oil quagmire and the news agencies are forced to sell a reality that does not exist. The former so as not to frighten their shareholders. The latter because their correspondents need to be paid for news from that country. Maduro's regime, not at all condescending to the free press, releases some data and scoops to correspondents in exchange for a friendly view of the regime. In the end, a deception is constantly generated around the oil industry in Venezuela. What is the reality? PDVSA is a shambles inside. It is not reliable. It is undermined by criminal networks. It has some managers who are trying to do things right, but the networks of Chavismo, that is, Maduro and his allies, are not only creating chaos, but brutal plunder in all areas of activity. This is no...

Comenzamos el año con una entrevista original realizada por Joaquín Ortega y publicada en noviembre del 2017 en Guayoyo enLetras . Martín Durán líder analista de Pontegea en España es licenciado en Ciencias Políticas, esto es politólogo -de verdad- y aunque caiga mal en ciertos grupos, es mejor recordar que es el pregrado el que determina el nombre de la profesión en esa área; sin demeritar a los excepcionales aportes de otros profesionales, quienes pueden ser analistas políticos, más no politólogos. Por ejemplo, valdría decir, que así como hacer un posgrado en estadística no te convierte en estadístico, lo mismo aplica para ésta disciplina de las ciencias sociales tan vilipendiada… con razón o sin ella.  Toda la carrera de nuestro entrevistado ha estado enfocada en el análisis, la investigación, docencia y consultoría sobre política petrolera global y últimamente, se está dedicando con mayor énfasis al estudio y aplicación de metodologías de análisis de inteli...