Describing the Orinoco Oil Belt, “from the savannas of Guarico, to the delta of the Orinoco,” an area of more than 55,000 square kilometers as a “sea of oil” and a “key objective of foreign transnationals who want to take advantage of its vast reserves,” Chavez explained how, through the application of five legislative measures aimed at recuperating oil sovereignty Venezuela has obtained and additional US$5.8 billion a year.

“Venezuela gave oil to the United States, a great part of the oil was given” by the governments of the Fourth Republic, said Chavez. However, “with this historical accounting we eliminated the so called Apertura Petrolera [oil opening], an initiative developed by the Fourth Republic to deliver into the hands of the transnationals the control of all the oil reserves in the country.”

The first “revolutionary measure” was adopted on October 11, 2004, to increase the amount of royalties in the Orinoco Belt, from 1% (since 1943) to 16.6%, which generated an additional $1.9 billion annually, he said.