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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Venezuela's national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), are dirty words to most Americans today due to high gasoline prices and media reports of confrontations between Venezuela's leader and the United States Administration. Headlines about spying accusations from a US Naval Attache and subsequent expelling of a Venezuelan diplomat caused the Washington Post to comment that, "the twin expulsions marked the latest downturn in an increasingly hostile relationship between the Bush administration and the leftist government of President Hugo Chavez."1 This conjures visions of verbal assault almost leading to fisticuffs. The media are doing a good job selling their product.