ABSTRACT
In 1959 the companies began a well coordinated plan of disinvestment in Venezuela, and at the same time they intensified their explorations in Canada and in the Middle East. The dictator’s government had not pressed for more out of the companies because it wanted to ingratiate itself with such powerful interests, and thus with the governments with which they were linked; it did not dare to claim a higher proportion of the surplus profits made by the oil companies because that could only be done by a government which was immune to bribery and certain to have the Venezuelan people behind it not against it. As recently as 1967 there was a unanimous wave of national protest when it became known that US Congress might pass a law to ratify the policy of restrictions on oil imports from Venezuela permanently.
