Gustavo Coronel, a founding board member of PDVSA: “In Venezuela, there is a popular saying: ‘Los mochos se juntan para rascarse.’ That is, ‘The one-armed get together to scratch each other.’ This is the case with the Iran-Venezuela connection, since both countries are under sanctions and restricted from getting their oil to market. Since both countries have authoritarian governments and share a deep anti-U.S. sentiment, their cooperation is logical. Iran has been providing Venezuela with assistance in the refining process, so far with only modest success, and it has been delivering light oil to Venezuela to mix with its heavy Orinoco oil. Maduro pays for this support with illegally exploited gold, with a heavy cost in terms of environmental degradation and human rights violations. While Iranian support helps to keep the Venezuelan oil industry from imploding, the fundamental problems remain unresolved: Corrupt and incompetent management, a lack of capital investment for new equipment, poor maintenance of existing equipment, a demoralized workforce and…”