Since Mr. Chavez took power seven years ago, Venezuela has mismanaged its oil so disastrously that production may have fallen by almost half, according to the estimates of outsiders, reducing global oil supply by a bit more than 1 percent. Along with natural disasters and Nigerian rebels, Mr. Chavez's ineptitude has contributed to high energy prices.

It takes sustained determination to reduce output by that much, and Mr. Chavez has provided it. He inherited a competent national oil company that produced three times more per worker than its Mexican counterpart. He immediately starved it of investment capital and dispatched ignorant political cronies to oversee it. When this abuse provoked a strike, Mr. Chavez fired the staff en masse, getting rid of two-thirds of the skilled employees and managers.

Venezuela's courts, media organizations and civil society groups have been bullied into submission, and Mr. Chavez is talking about a constitutional change that would allow him to remain in power indefinitely. "The people should not be stripped of their right if they wish to reelect a compatriot whoever it may be three, four, five, six times," he said recently.