Left turn: 'Revolution' hits Venezuela's oil culture - PDVSA beachhead for Chavez's vision *** CARACAS, VENEZUELA - At the gleaming offices of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the country's state-owned oil giant, a corporate revolution is under way. Nine-to-fivers have come to think of themselves as patriots. Senior managers now eat at the same cafeteria tables as secretaries. And former soldiers have left the battlefield for the boardroom.
After PDVSA workers walked off the job last December in a bid to force Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez from office, the fiery populist hitched his social revolution to the $110 billion business: He purged the company's ranks and installed his own people. What was widely regarded as a world-class energy company before the strike has a new philosophy: to help the poor. And a new corporate culture is gradually taking shape, injected with the president's particular brand of leftist ideology.***
TYRANTS APLENTY - Saddam has lots of bad company across the globe and in the U.N *** It's been hinted, speculated, even suggested that the war winding down in Iraq is but the first chapter of a new Bush administration policy to more forcefully project U.S. muscle around the world in defense of democracy and in defiance of tyranny. Rhetoric concerning Syria has been steadily ratcheted up in recent days. The idea of a broader, more aggressive U.S. policy comes with its own set of potential risks and rewards. But leaving the political debate aside, there would be no shortage of candidates. Evil as it was, Saddam Hussein's regime was only one of a fraternity of tyrannical tramplers of freedoms.
The Freedom House organization released a report last week entitled "The World's Most Repressive Regimes, 2003" (www.freedomhouse.org). Dubbed the "worst of the worst" are Burma, Cuba, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Turkmenistan. Ironically, Freedom House points out, five of the 16 most repressive countries -- China, Cuba, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Syria -- are all members of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. ***