Venezuela oil refinery explosion--sabotage?

[Peace Patriot]

With Chavez way ahead in the polls and the presidential election in Venezuela only days away, BOOM! goes a Venezuelan oil refinery, killing dozens of people and knocking out a portion of the country's major industry.

And, right away, all of the Corporate Media organizations are, prior to any investigation, telling us that this tragedy is the result of Chavez government mismanagement of the state oil company, and furthermore are using FIRED state oil company workers (the have's of Venezuela's rich oil elite who sabotaged the state oil company's computers and pipelines in their 2003 effort to bring down the Chavez government after the failed coup in 2002) as their "source."

There is no evidence, as yet, regarding blame for this explosion. Yet it's Chavez's fault?

This "Axis of Logic" analysis lays out the Corporate Media's monotonous repetition of the same 'talking point' over and over: It's Chavez's fault (subtext: don't vote for Chavez).

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_64910.shtml

So, you gotta wonder--as the writers of this analysis do--what's going on here. The article is well worth reading and is much more cautious than I'm going to be.

Does the U.S. government and its Exxon Mobil dictators hate democracy so much, and hate Venezuelan democracy in particular, so much, that they would murder dozens of innocent people and light up the sky with explosions, to regain control over the biggest oil reserves on earth (twice Saudi Arabia's, according to the USGS)?

It's not only thinkable, it's been done. And not only dozens of innocent people--tens of thousands of them in the "shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad.

Yes, they would. Did they do this, too?

The article lays out some very preliminary indications that it may have been sabotage--a U.S. Marine caught illegally traveling in Venezuela who can't (or won't) account for his origin or destination or purpose in Venezuela; a leaked U.S. embassy comment; the Corporate Media chorus that it's Chavez's fault, and, of course, the overwhelming weight of past and recent history of often brutal U.S. interference in Latin America.

There are so many "dirty ops" groups abroad in the world these days--spawned by the Bush Junta--governmental, quasi-governmental, private and, above all, secretive and unaccountable (including rightwing death squads operating from the U.S. client state of Colombia, just across the border--the so-called "Black Eagles" and others (the "Black Eagles" were discovered setting up crime networks in Venezuela) and U.S. military contractors (Blackwater and others--Blackwater was, at the least, conducting illegal training of "foreign persons" IN COLOMBIA "for use in Iraq and Afghanistan&quot and including not just the CIA but also the NSA, the DIA, the DEA, the FBI, the AFT and the whole "Homeland Security" octopus worldwide), that who knows, any more, how to track criminal guilt for "dirty ops" back to its sources, funders, managers and commanders?

Could be a rogue U.S. group; a cabal within the transglobal oil industry; a private "black ops" outfit that got its start with U.S. taxpayer money; the Miami Mafia--there are many possibilities. But I'd say that the quick orchestration of the Corporate Media--with the same "talking points" in hand--points to a CIA operation (considering their particular disinformation expertise and networks).

You can learn a lot from the Corporate Media by what they say in chorus and also by what they don't say (the blackholes where information or context should be--for instance, their utter failure to mention the plaudits that Venezuela has received from UN reports on income distribution and dramatic decreases in poverty in Venezuela, which has been designated "THE most equal country in Latin America"--among the reasons WHY Venezuelans support Chavez--NO mention if it, none!)

They can't defeat Chavez in honest elections--so they try to sabotage the election. They've done that before, too. This horrible explosion may be the measure U.S. Corporate hatred of Latin American independence, social justice and democracy. Or it may be Chavez's fault, or some manager's or worker's fault, or just happenstance. We don't know yet. Nobody knows. But the Corporate Media has nevertheless made up your mind for you and you will hear nothing else from them--even if investigations exonerate the Chavez government. THAT tells me that sabotage is likely--their past lying and disinformation and blackholes where information should be, and their early and monotonous current spin on this.

[Bacchus4.0]

1. my bet is on incompetence, mismanagement, and lack of maintenance

that pretty much describes the Chavez administration

[naaman fletcher]

2. In other words, there is zero evidence of this whatsoever.

With Chavez way ahead in the polls and the presidential election in Venezuela only days away, BOOM! goes a Venezuelan oil refinery, killing dozens of people and knocking out a portion of the country's major industry.

He's no longer way ahead in the polls, and it is over a month away. Plus there was a leak many hours before the explosion, which would suggest it wasn't planted charges or something.


And, right away, all of the Corporate Media organizations are, prior to any investigation, telling us that this tragedy is the result of Chavez government mismanagement of the state oil company,

Because there was an engineering report from 2010 saying that maintenance was not up to par, and the PDVSA annual report said maintenance was behind schedule, and the unions were saying that to.

and furthermore are using FIRED state oil company workers (the have's of Venezuela's rich oil elite who sabotaged the state oil company's computers and pipelines in their 2003 effort to bring down the Chavez government after the failed coup in 2002) as their "source."

That is not true. See my paragraph above.


There is no evidence, as yet, regarding blame for this explosion. Yet it's Chavez's fault?

I have actually not seen the media say for sure it is his fault. The only one who is sure is Chavez, who insisted it was not a maintenace report.


This "Axis of Logic" analysis lays out the Corporate Media's monotonous repetition of the same 'talking point' over and over: It's Chavez's fault (subtext: don't vote for Chavez).

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_64910.shtml

that's nice.

So, you gotta wonder--as the writers of this analysis do--what's going on here. The article is well worth reading and is much more cautious than I'm going to be.

So far, your article is all provable lies and bullshit.

Does the U.S. government and its Exxon Mobil dictators hate democracy so much, and hate Venezuelan democracy in particular, so much, that they would murder dozens of innocent people and light up the sky with explosions, to regain control over the biggest oil reserves on earth (twice Saudi Arabia's, according to the USGS)?

Maybe.



It's not only thinkable, it's been done. And not only dozens of innocent people--tens of thousands of them in the "shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad.

Yes, they would. Did they do this, too?

OK, and..

The article lays out some very preliminary indications that it may have been sabotage--a U.S. Marine caught illegally traveling in Venezuela who can't (or won't) account for his origin or destination or purpose in Venezuela; a leaked U.S. embassy comment; the Corporate Media chorus that it's Chavez's fault, and, of course, the overwhelming weight of past and recent history of often brutal U.S. interference in Latin America.

In other words, no evidence at all. Certainly, far less evidence then the good documentation about the poor maintenance.

There are so many "dirty ops" groups abroad in the world these days--spawned by the Bush Junta--governmental, quasi-governmental, private and, above all, secretive and unaccountable (including rightwing death squads operating from the U.S. client state of Colombia, just across the border--the so-called "Black Eagles" and others (the "Black Eagles" were discovered setting up crime networks in Venezuela) and U.S. military contractors (Blackwater and others--Blackwater was, at the least, conducting illegal training of "foreign persons" IN COLOMBIA "for use in Iraq and Afghanistan&quot and including not just the CIA but also the NSA, the DIA, the DEA, the FBI, the AFT and the whole "Homeland Security" octopus worldwide), that who knows, any more, how to track criminal guilt for "dirty ops" back to its sources, funders, managers and commanders?

I don't know, who knows?

Could be a rogue U.S. group; a cabal within the transglobal oil industry; a private "black ops" outfit that got its start with U.S. taxpayer money; the Miami Mafia--there are many possibilities. But I'd say that the quick orchestration of the Corporate Media--with the same "talking points" in hand--points to a CIA operation (considering their particular disinformation expertise and networks).

It could be the loch ness monster as well. Idle and stupid speculation with zero supporting evidence can dream up anything.

You can learn a lot from the Corporate Media by what they say in chorus and also by what they don't say (the blackholes where information or context should be--for instance, their utter failure to mention the plaudits that Venezuela has received from UN reports on income distribution and dramatic decreases in poverty in Venezuela, which has been designated "THE most equal country in Latin America"--among the reasons WHY Venezuelans support Chavez--NO mention if it, none!)

that's nice. What does this have to do with your total lack of evidence that it was anything but a maintenance issue, when there is in fact extensive evidence to suggest that it was?

They can't defeat Chavez in honest elections--so they try to sabotage the election. They've done that before, too.

When was that? Where is the shred of evidence they are doing it now?

This horrible explosion may be the measure U.S. Corporate hatred of Latin American independence, social justice and democracy.

Or the tooth fairy.

Or it may be Chavez's fault, or some manager's or worker's fault, or just happenstance. We don't know yet. Nobody knows.

Actually, Chavez insists he knows that it was not a maintenance issue.

But the Corporate Media has nevertheless made up your mind for you and you will hear nothing else from them--even if investigations exonerate the Chavez government.

Actually, Chavez is the only one who has made up it's mind. The "corporate media" has done excellent reporting pointing out the 2010 engineering report, the 2011 PDVSA annual report, and the unions saying that there was a maintenance problem and the eyewitnesses saying it was a leak.

THAT tells me that sabotage is likely--their past lying and disinformation and blackholes where information should be, and their early and monotonous current spin on this.

So the total lack of evidence of something is proof of it? I'll tell you what: Chavez insisting it was not maintenance tells me it probably was.

PP, this is the worst piece of crap you have ever posted

[bemildred]

3. Certainly thinkable, even obvious.

I'm inclined to wonder why it hasn't been done before, it's so thinkable.

However, in this case, incompetence seems quite on the table too, and more probable.

I was inclined at first to take the idea that it was to influence the election seriously, but on consideration, that seems like a stupid and risky way to try to influence the election, could easily backfire, not sure to have the intended effect; so on the one hand we never miss the chance to do stupid and risky things, but on the other hand maybe we wised up for a change? Hmmm.

On the other hand, it's not like Hugo doesn't have plenty of domestic enemies, dumb ones too, that could work.

[joshcryer]

10. The problem is the severity of the explosion.

It had to have built up over several hours (witnesses say they smelled unusual levels of gas 14 hours before the explosion).

Even if you were to buy the sabotage conspiracy you would have to also suspend belief that 1) the National Guard Barracks were unaware of it and sacrificed themselves and 2) that everyone in the refinery would have to know about it.

No, it really seems like gross, highly preventable negligence.

If there was a conspiracy it would've had to have been an inside job of epic proportions, with dozens of cohorts.

[bemildred]

11. So we agree sabotage is not the way to bet at the moment.

Though actually, creating a gas explosion at a refinery is not that difficult. Being dumb enough to want to, and yet smart enough to escape, is tricky, but technically it's a piece of cake, oil infrastructure is easy to attack, almost impossile to protect by force alone, it blows up all by itself even without help. So I don't see that you need much more than a disgruntled, knowledgeable person with access. And there should be plenty of those.

One of the great things about the modern age is that small arms have become so powerful and cheap, a situation our political leaders have still not come to terms with fully; they still believe in coercion.

[joshcryer]

12. Refineries are designed so if someone attacks one point...

...then the rest of the refinery is OK or at least the storage units. The explosion here was so large that it took out several oil storage containers, along with part of a subdivison quite far away. The likely cause was that the buildup was so big, just so massive, that it actually was allowed to go on for several hours.

I mean, if everything was working "as designed" the other containers would've been safe. They're placed hundreds of yards from one another and based on physics, if one goes they all shouldn't go even without people there to keep the temperature down.

In theory you could've had one guy turn off all the alarms or something and to open up some valves but it still would've required gross negligence on behalf of the other employees who should be trained to monitor the system regularly to assure that something bad doesn't happen.

The gas smell that permeated the neighborhood, imo, is a tell-tell sign that it wasn't likely sabotage.

I obviously can't rule it out completely, though, because it could be sabotage along with total failure to notice something was wrong (like I said, some guy turning off alarms and turning valves or something).

[bemildred]

14. Well, they try. nt

[COLGATE4]

4. More "Sum of all Fears"

The gas explosion couldn't have possibly been due to negligence, simple neglect or shoddy management by Chavistas running PDVSA. Nope. Those privileged few who are 'really in the know' know better than to swallow that lie. No - in fact it was probably all really cleverly stage-managed by the CIA/FBI/NSF/DIA/AFT (and other unnamed shadow organizations) who cleverly utilized a poor schmuck of an ex-Marine who happened to be in Venezuela at the time (but in reality was a carefully placed, highly trained 'Black Eagle' operative) to carry out the dastardly deed and make Chavez look bad. In fact they are SO clever that they even actually had the foresight to put out a feint with the smell of escaping gas around the whole area before the explosion, just to further cover their tracks.

I'm just thankful he didn't level the entire refinery with a dirty bomb, leave anthrax spores around to contaminate the site and then kill the cops that tried to arrest him by putting a pencil through their necks.

[joshcryer]

8. This is Lat. Am.'s regular Two Minutes Hate.

The Chavista's simply don't want to admit that their heroes are incompetent.

[COLGATE4]

13. Absolutely right. What good is it having a 'hero'

when your hero turns out to have pretty big feet of clay?

[Judi Lynn]

5. It's not as if they haven't HAD politcal sabotage in this industry against Chavez already, is it?

The organizers on both the management and union sides, connected to US counterparts were well known long ago.

And only 6 weeks prior to the next election, to keep it fresh in the minds of any gullible Venezuelan voters, too, who are ripe grounds for misinformation.

Clearly anyone who has any grasp of US dealings anywhere in the Americas understands the appropriateness, and necessity of disgust in recognition when our corporate crap throwing "news" organizations start piling on with their nasty, and inevitable slime.

Time always proves them to be the liars they are.

Thank you for your article and your well-considered comments.

[naaman fletcher]

6. "There is no proof at all of sabotage, therefore sabotage is the only explanation"

Some people have gone off the deep end here.

There is, however, HARD PROOF of maintenance being behind.

[joshcryer]

9. A political strike is no where near in the same ballpark as contended by the OP.

There is absolutely zero evidence that the US has sabotaged the Venezuelan oil industry.

[joshcryer]

7. All the US has to do to sabotage PSDVA is to do nothing.

The sabotaging will come from within from incompetence.

The latest report from a western risk management company (a London based group commissioned to talk about the issues) told PDVSA of the problems its refineries had. Those problems were ignored.

The very idea that the US would waste intel efforts on sabotaging a totally failing industry is just preposterous. Hell, I'll even grant the absurd and conspiratorial possibility came up around a clandestine discussion roundtable. Someone with knowledge of PDVSA's industry would've certainly come back and said, "Do nothing."

We already know that there is piles of evidence to show just how mismanaged the oil industry in Venezuela is. Because it's not reported on these forums and because Venezuela propaganda outlets posted here regularly don't admit to it or know of it doesn't mean it isn't happening.

[COLGATE4]

15. PDVSA used to be viewed as a model

and an inspiration in all of Latin America as how a government-controlled business could be run efficiently and effectively. Unfortunately with the advent of the Chavez regime, all that changed. Wholsale replacement of PDVSA personnel became the norm and requiring technical expertise in hiring a thing of the past. What counted now was close ties to the Chavez government. And now it's starting to show. I completely agree with you that anyone in the know who was even considering trying to drive PDVSA into the ground in order to embarass Chavez only has to sit back and wait. No need for intervention. They can screw it up just fine by themselves.

[Judi Lynn]

16. PDVSA's remarkable restoration of production only 6 days after the destruction at Amuay

PDVSA's remarkable restoration of production only 6 days after the destruction at Amuay ( 1) Print This ShareThisBy Les Blough in Venezuela. Axis of Logic
Axis of Logic
Saturday, Sep 1, 2012

Venezuela's national petroleum company, PDVSA, has demonstrated their expertise in bringing the Amuay Plant back to into production in only 6 days following the destruction of 9 refinery tanks last Saturday. PDVSA's remarkable feat speaks against all those claims of the government's poor maintenance and inefficiency. The BBC however (article below), repeats the lame accusation of "critics" who "have accused PDVSA of neglecting maintenance as it funnels oil revenue into social programs run by President Hugo Chavez' government." Certainly the UK government cannot be accused of investing corporate profits into social programs! The BBC's actual beef is that the Venezuelan government is not funneling money into the profits of transnational corporations, putting capitalist governments to shame for their neglect of the people they are responsible to serve.

The BBC also is clever with their statement: "The cause of the blast is unclear, but officials have pointed to a gas leak." What they omit is that the gas leak itself is highly suspect, pointing to sabotage. On this point, President Chavez stated:

“You can’t exclude any hypothesis … It’s practically impossible that here in an [oil] installation like this which is fully automated everywhere and that has thousands of responsible workers night and day, civilian and military, and that there is a gas leak for 3 or 4 days and nobody responds. This is impossible.”

Let's be clear. When President Chavez notes that the installation "is fully automated" one of the things he's talking about is a highly sophisticated, multi-million dollar alarm system which alerts everyone in the vicinity of the smallest gas leak. No alarms were activated at the Amuay Plant when the refinery blew up under cover of darkness last Saturday morning.

More:
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_64941.shtml

[Peace Patriot]

17. Thanks, Judi! So the alarm system was deactivated.

This is smelling more like a sabotage operation.

And it's not as if the U.S. and Exxon Mobil, and Venezuela's rich oil elite, haven't tried just about everything else to destroy Venezuelans' free choice of government--outright coup attempt ('02), the oil bosses' lockout and sabotage ('03), the USAID-funded recall election ('04), false polls and another planned coup ('06), the FARC hostages "sting"--trying to hand negotiator Chavez dead hostages ('07-'08), the "suitcase full of money" caper out of Miami (same era), the bombing of Ecuador (early '08), the Rumsfeldian "miracle laptop" bullshit (later '08), "Black Eagles" from Colombia (the Uribe/Bush death squads) found in Venezuela setting up a criminal network), and more, and likely other dirty ops/black ops that we don't know about, and of course non-stop propaganda.

It's damn hard to overthrow democratic choices in a fair and transparent election system. Is this yet another perverted twist in that effort? Suspicion is very justified, it seems to me. Hundreds of thousands of innocents murdered in Iraq--all about oil. It's not as if the parties to oil greed have shown any kind of conscience thus far.

[joshcryer]

18. Oh please. They couldn't smell the gas?

They weren't monitoring the alarms on a regular basis?

That's gross negligence and for the "sabotage" story to work requires a lot of people to be in on it, basically most if not all of the trained safety experts.

There is absolutely no evidence it was sabotage despite the FUD that Chavez wants to spread.

They blame sabotage on every single failure of the revolution.

[joshcryer]

19. "Everyone just accepted the smell as normal"

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/02/venezuela-refinery-aftermath-idUSL2E8K11TE20120902

[bemildred]

20. Around a refinery, that's not as silly as it sounds.

I dunno what they add to the gas to make it stink, but here we use sulfur compounds, and Venezuela has heavy crude, so I imagine it smells sulfury a lot around that refinery.

[joshcryer]

21. Residential accounts are that they smelled a strong odor of sulfur.

Unusually high for that area.

If residents, hundreds of yards away, could smell it, you can bet your ass the employees could smell it.

The fact that the security guard thought it was "normal" isn't terribly controversial, he's not trained to deal with these kinds of circumstances.

A trained official would have immediately checked the alarms to make sure they were operational.

A trained official would've tested the air around the facility to try to narrow down where the smell was coming from.

A trained official would look at the monitors and try to see what part of the facility was leaking.

[Judi Lynn]

22. The article by Petras, mentioned earlier:

Venezuela’s Oil Refinery Blaze: Seven Good Reasons to Suspect Sabotage

~snip~
The Argument for Sabotage:

(1) The first question in any serious investigation is who benefits and who loses from the destruction of lives and oil production

~snip~

2) According to official government documents the US has Special Forces operations in over seventy-five countries, including Venezuela, which is targeted because of an adversarial relation. This means that the US has operative clandestine highly trained operatives on the ground in Venezuela. The capture of a US Marine for illegal entry in Venezuela with prior experience in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan is indicative.

(3) The US has a history of involvement in violent destabilization activity in Venezuela – backing the military coup of 2002 and the bosses’ lockout in the petroleum industry in 2003. The US targeting of the oil industry involved sabotage of the computerized system and efforts to degrade the refineries.

(4) The US has a history of sabotage and violence against incumbent adversarial regimes. In Cuba during 1960, the CIA torched a department store and sugar plantations, and planted bombs in the downtown tourist centers – aiming to undermine strategic sectors of the economy. In Chile following the election of Socialist Salvador Allende, a CIA backed right-wing group kidnapped and assassinated the military attache of Socialist President, in an effort to provoke a military coup. Similarly in Jamaica in the late 1970’s under democratic socialist President Manley, the CIA facilitated a violent destabilization campaign in the run-up to the elections. Sabotage and destabilization is a common weapon in the face of impending electoral defeats (as is the case in Venezuela) or where a popular government is firmly entrenched.

(5) Force, violence and destabilization campaigns against incumbent regimes have become common operation procedure in current US policy. The US has financed and armed terrorist groups in Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Chechnya; it is bombing Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan. In other words US foreign policy is highly militarized and opposed to any negotiated diplomatic resolution of conflicts with adversarial regimes. Sabotaging Venezuela’s oil refineries is within the logic and practice of current global US foreign policy.

More:
http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=1908

[naaman fletcher]

23. In other words, ZERO evidence whatsoever, just speculation. nt.