If Chavez hurts US oil assets: Nationalize Citgo

The Chavez dictatorship in Venezuela is bent on picking a fight with the United States, confident that the US is hamstrung by its dependence on Venezuelan oil.

Venezuela's state-controlled oil monopoly, PDVSA, is one of the largest oil suppliers to the US, and owns the Tulsa-based fuel giant Citgo.

Chavez has turned what his regime calls "the new PDVSA" into an engine of his subversive network of violent revolutionary movements. Citgo has become a funding mechanism for the regime to consolidate its control of the country and fuel interests around the world that are hostile to the United States and its allies.

The United States should prepare to nationalize Citgo, taking care to ensure the property rights of the American owners of Citgo gas station franchises.

It should then privatize the company to American investors, and use the proceeds to combat the dictatorship in Venezuela and its friends in neighboring countries.