The essay examines the relationship between the economy and the oil of Venezuela in the elaboration of Salvador De La Plaza, underlining the most remarkable elements of a clear contradiction of the Venezuelan productive structure: the ambiguous role of the oil that is, at the same time, the source of an extraordinary wealth and the most remarkable element of subjection to the North American economy and the business of the multinational enterprises. The theoretical elaboration and the political-practical proposal of De La Plaza intersect the Venezuelan scientific and cultural debate and individualize two traces of investigation and reflection: the nature of the economic development and the process of subordination of the economy and the politics of the country.