UN General Assembly
1974

"The economic Confrontation has been created by the major Powers, which refuse to allow the developing countries equal participation in the search for an indispensable balance in the terms of trade. Within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Venezuela has not used no r will it use its energy resources as a political weapon because that is not and never has been the purpose for which that organization was established; rather, its purpose was to protect the basic wealth extracted from our subsoil at prices that have never compensated for the costs of our imports and of the technology needed for our development. "We see no other way to confront the economic totalitarianism that has been coming to the fore in business and world trade" said our Head of State "and portends as much evil for the world as was threatened by political totalitarianism in the form of Nazi fascism, against which your great country fought, rendering the world a heroic and splendid service that earned the gratitude of all mankind.