The global coalition of oil cursed citizens: February 2026

Saturday, February 7, 2026

For Venezuela as a nation, as a nation, the most important amnesty would be to free it from the yoke of the centralized redistribution of its oil revenues

Extracted from: “The right of ownership of hydrocarbons in Venezuela: origin and legal tradition.” by Jesús Mora Contreras, 2002.

"The Ordinances of San Lorenzo, issued by Felipe II in 1584, which incorporated all mines into the royal patrimony, remained in force in America until 1783 when they were repealed by the Mining Ordinances for New Spain, promulgated by King Charles III, which stipulated that "The mines [including bitumens or earth oils] belong to my Royal Crown."

In 1829, Simón Bolivar, the Liberator issued a Decree in Quito that tacitly established that the mines passed from the Spanish Royal Crown to the domain of the Republic... whose government grants them in ownership and possession to the citizens who request them, under the conditions expressed in the Mining Laws and Ordinances, and with the other provisions contained in this decree." As if to reaffirm their origin, Congress, in the Law of 1832, resolved: "in accordance with the Decree of October 24, 1829, the Ordinance that shall serve as a rule for the Government regarding mines is that of New Spain of 1783."

Something which has caused me to now post on X the following:

The most important amnesty for Venezuela as a nation, the one that would free it from the yoke of those interested in redistributing its oil revenues, is to eliminate any trace left by the Ordinances of San Lorenzo, issued in Spain in 1584, by Felipe II.

http://theoilcurse.blogspot.com/2026/01/ai-chatgpt-grok-speculate-on-what-might.html

Where I come from

I was named Diversification Manager in the Venezuela Investment Fund that was created in 1974 to handle the oil income surpluses of the nation.

I entered the Fund its very first day, and I left a couple of weeks later, the same day my desk arrived, utterly frustrated when the Fund was requested to analyze, and obviously endorse, in just four days, the economic feasibility studies of a 4 billion dollar investment known as the Fourth Plan of SIDOR, the big Venezuelan iron and steel complex.

With an “if something goes wrong with this project the Venezuelans might have the right to hang us in Plaza Bolívar, and I’m much too young for that” I slammed the door on the public sector … for the following 28 years... except for a short two year stint as an Executive Director in the World Bank.

I have lived through two immense oil revenue bonanzas in my country and I am absolutely convinced that when the oil revenues a government receives exceed 5% of the nations GDP, or 15% of its exports, or 25% of all taxes paid by citizens, the balance of power is so fundamentally affected that bad governance and bad citizenship becomes the major malignant symptoms of the oil-curse.

There is not one single word or idea that I hear today from politicians, or from well-intentioned groups of mostly non-oil-cursed professionals as in EITI or the Resource-Charter, and that I have not heard before with respect to making better use of oil revenues.

The only route to go is keeping the oil revenues from the politicians and giving these directly to the citizens in an orderly fashion.

The global coalition of oil cursed citizens

Saturday, February 7, 2026

For Venezuela as a nation, as a nation, the most important amnesty would be to free it from the yoke of the centralized redistribution of its oil revenues

Where I come from

Down with the Oiligarchs!

Down with the Petrocrats!

Kings and beggars

In Venezuela

21st Century Asocialism

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