OPINION: Andres Oppenheimer/
"...will oil prices rise enough to give Chavez's 12-year-old regime a second wind, and allow him to win the 2012 elections? Will he be able to resume his checkbook diplomacy in Latin America?
Venezuela's narcissistic leader -- if you think this depiction is unfair, consider that in his Jan. 15 speech to Congress he used the word "I" 489 times -- knows that his political future depends on oil prices."
"Chavez's financial problems won't be solved this year by the current spike in oil prices," claims energy analyst Evanan Romero "What he wins with rising oil prices, he loses with declining oil production."