Perhaps people need to be reminded that Venezuela is the fifth largest exporter of oil in the world. It is one of the five founding members of OPEC and gets over $75 billion dollars per year from petroleum sales.

Population is 26 million, just two million fewer people than Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

During much of the Twentieth Century, before the massive oil finds in the Middle East, Venezuela was the second larget oil producer, exceeded only the the United States.