Letter to the Editor WSJ — Transparency in the U.S.-Venezuela Oil Pact

 Subject: Letter to the Editor — Transparency in the U.S.-Venezuela Oil Pact


To the Editor:


Your recent coverage of the 25-year U.S.-Venezuela oil agreement rightly raises alarms about secrecy and process, but a deeper danger deserves attention: the deal's opacity is a gift to precisely the actors it should exclude.


Free markets flourish on clear title, enforceable contracts and competitive bidding -- the institutions that let capital find its best use. A pact negotiated in secret, without competitive tender, invites middlemen with murky ownership and offshore accounts to insert themselves between two nations' resources and their rightful beneficiaries. That is not capitalism; it is the mercantilism Adam Smith warned against two centuries ago.


Venezuelans have spent 27 years watching their institutions hollowed out by cronyism dressed as socialism. Replacing one opaque arrangement with another, however well-intentioned, squanders a rare chance to rebuild the rule of law that private investment actually requires. Congress and the administration should insist on public disclosure of counterparties, beneficial ownership and payment flows before a single barrel changes hands.


The people of Venezuela, and the American taxpayers whose government is party to this deal, deserve nothing less.


Mikel de Elguezabal Méndez. 73492846a

Navarra, Spain


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