There’s nothing quite like like a dose of economic reality to reveal preferences: 

Venezuela increased oil shipments to the US in January, despite President Hugo Chavez’s anti-US rhetoric and a promise to Opec to cut output, the US Department of Energy said.

Crude shipments from Venezuela to the US rose to an average 1.2 million barrels per day in January, up 14% from December, according to data from the department. Venezuela had promised to cut exports to the US by 16% starting 1 January to comply with Opec cuts.

…

Chavez has often vowed to diversify Venezuelan oil markets, slashing its reliance on the US and boosting exports to allies such as China. When Opec asked its 12 members to reduce output by a combined 4.2 million barrels per day in January, Venezuela agreed to a 364,000 barrels-a-day cut, 11% of total production, and vowed the bulk of those cuts would come from exports to the US.

But tough times may now be stalling those plans, said [energy analyst Roger] Tissot, who suggested it would be easier for Venezuela to cut expensive, long-distance shipments to China, or discounted sales Latin American and Caribbean neighbors under Venezuela’s Petrocaribe pact instead.

Heh.

A spokesman for PDVSA declined to comment on the US report.

I bet he did.