Oil-rich Zulia state in western Venezuela, right under the radar, is seeking autonomy or possibly independence from Venezuela. There are now growing calls for it, from an independence group called ‘Our Course.’

Situated near Lake Maracaibo, the rightwing stronghold on the Colombian border is the only state that’s never been mowed down by the forces of Chavismo. Its governor is anti-Hugo Chavez, and its people hate the Thug more than almost anyone in the country.

Its autonomy move resembles that of natgas-rich and very rightwing, market-oriented Santa Cruz province in Bolivia. But the desire to break away from an unbearable central government doesn’t stop there. There ought to be a name for this phenomenon because it’s very recognizable around the world. It’s present in the rebellions of oil-rich Nigeria, and in the bitter struggle in Indonesia’s energy-rich Aceh province, too.

In each and every case, the central government treats the oil region like a hated colony, mines its riches, and refuses to share even a drop of the oil wealth with the locals. Making matters worse, it won’t let the locals do anything else with their talents, effectively shutting all but a few collaborators out of the region’s lone source of wealth, its oil and gas riches. Hence, the virulence and anger in all four of these places with such colonizing governments. The natural response is to want to just get the hell away from them.

Chavez now has packaged this homegrown bitterness over oil wealth into ‘treason’ and claims it’s all a U.S.-inspired plot. His own failure to satisfy Zulia is ignored and he’s fooling none of the locals by making these charges. Only his Caracas base responds to such rhetoric, and that’s apparently who he thinks he needs to mobilize.

It’s going to get ugly in Venezuela if this goes on. The scary story is here, here and here.

UPDATE: Chad at In The Bullpen has more thoughts here.

UPDATE: Miguel Octavio has an excellent explanation, complete with pictures (oh man, I love those Zulia guys, they say ‘enough with leftwingery’ on one of their signs!) in a great post here.