Posted by cs702 8 hours ago
So where is all their money going right now into the middle-east?
Is the President taking a cut?
Investigations in 2027 are going to be bonkers
“Investors have previously estimated that Venezuela also owes $30bn-$50bn to oil companies and trade creditors for unpaid invoices and more than $20bn in legal claims awarded to companies after Chávez’s regime expropriated their property.
Venezuela has also been estimated to owe $10bn-$20bn to China in debts that Caracas previously paid from oil exports but is believed to have stopped servicing, about $6bn to Russia, and $4bn to development banks”
But notice that one of the first acts of the new government was to pass laws handing Venezuala's most valuable asset by far, their oil, to foreign companies. Imagine the US, Russia, Norway, or Saudia Arabia doing that. Even if that wasn't a politically disasterous idea - one with a proven track record worldwide - it's hardly the top need of the Venezualan people. They don't seem to be people served by the new government - the Venezualans aren't the people who put the government in power, for one thing.
Control over countries and their oil, including via debt, an old, well-established strategy, long used by the West. It's been abandoned until Trump has seemingly returned to it - as if the oil companies are hoping to relive their most powerful era.
Notice also that Trump's attacks have been on the leading oil producing countries outside US influence: Venezuala and Iran, and Nigeria. (Yes, the first two are also long-term political enemies - you might consider that the oil, inability of US to control them, and enemy status might not be coincidental.)
[0] https://www.ft.com/content/b7f25ca2-827c-40f9-ab1a-57067d8ec... - quote stolen from another comment
Before the 2018 sanctions and after the American expropriation in the 2000s, the biggest foreign players in Venezuela's ONG industry were Spanish (Reposol), Indian (ONGC, Indian Oil, Oil India, Reliance), Chinese (Sinopec, CNPC), and Russian (Rosneft).
The Spanish and Indian players kept operations at a minimum during the sanctions regime, but quickly scaled up after Maduro was captured.
Lesson for the rest of the world is: you go against the USA, prepare to suffer.
Of course, s/USA/China/ or s/USA/Russia/ above in a few years time.
And who do you think was extracting oil these years there? Chevron is one of them.
Don't bother. It's hopeless. They're obsessed with Orange Man Bad and won't listen to anyone who might actually know something about a topic they've been preprogrammed about.
The funniest thing to watch after the Maduro operation was the endless stream of leftist Redditards (but I repeat myself) rushing to /r/vzla to denounce Trump/USA/imperialism/fascism/capitalism, then backing away slowly <https://giphy.com/clips/hamlet-the-simpsons-homer-bushes-O4B...> once they realize how massively supportive the subreddit is of getting rid of Maduro.
Or, as a post in the /r/buenosaires subreddit put it regarding exiled Velezuelans celebrating in that city, "The left demonstrating at the U.S. embassy and progressivism militating against intervention in networks while Venezuelans celebrate at the obelisk is the best postcard of the transformation of progressivism into an intellectual bubble on the margins of common sense."