Standing before a crowd at Alexandria’s vast Mohammed Ali Square, former President Gamal Abdel Nasser teases the crowd with his enigmatic smile before his speech, and then finally takes the microphone and begins to speak about the nationalization of the Suez Canal. “Today we are going to get rid of what happened in the past; some of your fellow citizens have just taken over the Canal.” The speech sent shockwaves across Egypt and the world, but it did not stop at the region or in Europe, but also across the oceans in Latin America. Egypt, for Venezuelan politician Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo, showed the world that “human solidarity could confront blatant injustices” and that small nations, or developing nations, can operate a company as large as the Suez Canal. So much has passed, and so many years have gone by, that today this historic event does not shake us as much or spark visions for the future anymore. But at the time, it made an echo and influenced two key events: the Panama Canal and the founding of OPEC. From Western Oil Majors to OPEC When Pérez Alfonzo became the…
