Venezuela's current foreign policy is the result of a major shift that took place during the rule of former President Hugo Chavez. Prior to Chavez's election in 1998, Venezuela was a centrist state that was politically oriented toward the United States and Europe, and the country maintained some deals through which it exported limited quantities of oil at discounted rates. But Chavez's ascendance put Venezuela on a new ideological path. As its socialist ideology came to mirror that of Cuba, cooperation between the two countries deepened. Venezuela expanded low-cost oil and refined products shipments to Cuba to about 53,000 barrels per day in 2000. Then, two years later, an attempted coup to overthrow Chavez made Venezuela's government even more eager to secure Cuba's friendship, which officials hoped would help reinforce their hold on power.