Jerry, I think you may have missed my point. I am sure Chavez thought he was being very clever and using oil as a weapon. But your unfazed reaction is the right one (I am reminded of a card in the boardgame Junta, set in a Chavez-like republic, which read “Students circulate petition condemning repression: No effect.”) Chavez’s oil weapon policies had negligible effect on public opinion towards him, but they are certainly hurting him now. If Chavez was using oil as a weapon, he has shot himself with it, not his enemies.