Conoco Begins Confiscating Venezuela Oil Assets, Infuriating China

[Swordsmyth]

On April 25, ConocoPhillips won a ruling that said the US major was entitled to more than $2 billion from Venezuela’s insolvent state oil company, PDVSA, over the country’s expropriation of several oil projects more than a decade ago. The drawn-out international legal struggle began in 2007 when ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil refused to cede control of their major oil production ventures to the Venezuelan government, as demanded by Hugo Chávez, who was president. The U.S. firm left the country after it could not reach a deal to convert its projects into joint ventures controlled by PDVSA, even as several other oil companies, including Chevron, Repsol of Spain and Total of France, agreed to the demand and accepted partnerships with the national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, better known as PDVSA.
The problem, however, now that Conoco has the greenlight to demand billions, is trying to collect on the court ruling: the Venezuelan government has resisted the demands of companies whose assets it has confiscated, and since it is effectively bankrupt, there is little it can be threatened with under conventional contract law.
So, following the April 25 ruling, in a statement the Houston-based ConocoPhillips said it would “pursue enforcement and seek financial recovery of its award to the full extent of the law.”
Over the weekend it did just that.
As Reuters updates (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-conocophillips-pdvsa-assets/conoco-moves-to-take-over-venezuelan-pdvsas-caribbean-assets-sources-idUSKBN1I70RA), ConocoPhillips has moved to "take Caribbean assets" - i.e. confiscate - belonging to Venezuela's state-owned, solvency-challenged PDVSA as part of its unilateral enforcement of the $2 billion arbitration award.
The U.S. firm is said to have targeted PDVSA facilities on the islands of Curacao, Bonaire and St. Eustatius that accounted for about a quarter of Venezuela’s oil exports last year. The three play key roles in processing, storing and blending PDVSA’s oil for export.
The move, incidentally, is entirely legal: Conoco received court attachments freezing assets at least two of the facilities, and could move to sell them, one of the sources said.
What the confiscation of key Venezuela assets means is that the US oil major's legal maneuvers could further impair PDVSA’s already sharply declining oil revenue and the country’s convulsing economy. Venezuela is almost completely dependent on oil exports, which have fallen by a third since its peak and its refineries ran at just 31 percent of capacity in the first quarter.
Venezuela's collapsing oil production juxtaposed with the soaring US shale output, is shown in the Reuters chart below:
https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/venezuela%20production.jpg
Making matters worse, this could be just the beginning of Conoco's aggressive confiscation: the company's claims against Venezuela and state-run PDVSA in international courts have totaled $33 billion, the largest by any company.

“Any potential impacts on communities are the result of PDVSA’s illegal expropriation of our assets and its decision to ignore the judgment of the ICC tribunal,” Conoco said in an email to Reuters.
Meanwhile, making confiscation a relatively simple venture for Conoco, PDVSA has extensive assets in the Caribbean. Some examples:


On Bonaire, it owns the 10-million-barrel BOPEC terminal which handles logistics and fuel shipments to customers, particularly in Asia, i.e. China.
In Aruba, PDVSA and its unit Citgo lease a refinery and a storage terminal.
On the island of St. Eustatius, it rents storage tanks at the Statia terminal, owned by U.S. NuStar Energy, where over 4 million barrels of Venezuelan crude were retained by court order, according to one of the sources.

Additionally, Reuters reports that Conoco also sought to attach PDVSA inventories on Curacao, "home of the 335,000-barrel-per-day Isla refinery and Bullenbay oil terminal. But the order could not immediately be enforced, according to two of the sources."
And this is where not only Caracas, but also China is about to get very angry.
While PDVSA’s shipments from Bonaire and St Eustatius terminals accounted for about 10% of Venezuela's total exports, the more important question is who were the recipients. According to Reuters, the exports were mostly crude and fuel oil for Asian customers including ChinaOil, China’s Zhenhua Oil and India’s Reliance Industries.
Which means China is about to see a significant decline in its Venezuela imports thanks to, you got it, a confiscation green lit by United States, and it will be most displeased.
Some more details on the confiscated assets: "From its largest Caribbean operations in Curacao, PDVSA shipped 14 percent of its exports last year, including products exported by its Isla refinery to Caribbean islands and crude from its Bullenbay terminal to buyers of Venezuelan crude all over the world."
Meanwhile, making matters worse, operations at the bankrupt state-owned oil company are grinding to a halt: PDVSA on Friday ordered its oil tankers sailing across the Caribbean to return to Venezuelan waters and await further instructions, according to a document viewed by Reuters. In the last year, several cargoes of Venezuelan crude have been retained or seized in recent years over unpaid freight fees and related debts.
“This is terrible (for PDVSA),” said a source familiar with the court order of attachment. The state-run company “cannot comply with all the committed volume for exports” and the Conoco action imperils its ability to ship fuel oil to China or access inventories to be exported from Bonaire.
And now the question is what will China do after a US company has effectively crippled Venezuela's oil output, forcing Beijing to look for much more expensive oil elsewhere.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-07/terrible-pdvsa-conoco-begins-confiscating-venezuela-oil-assets-infuriating-china

[Swordsmyth]

As Venezuela’s creditors are gathering (https://oilprice.com/Interviews/Expert-Analysis-Creditors-Are-Cracking-Down-On-Venezuela.html) to discuss how they may best protect their interests, additional pressure from former head of the country’s state-owned oil company, PdVSA, was applied on Saturday. Rafael Ramirez, the former head of the company under Chavez and Maduro, barely escaped with his life when Maduro arrested the top officials at the company last year for “engaging in corruption.” Maduro replaced Ramirez with Major General Manuel Quevedo, who is succeeding in even more rapidly running into the ground the once-prosperous and highly profitable energy producer.
In an 80-minute telephone call from an undisclosed location, Ramirez told Gulf News that oil production from his former company, already cut in half thanks to Maduro’s decisions and the company’s lack of capital to maintain it, will decline even further this year. He estimates that daily oil production, at barely 1.4 million barrels a day (down from 3.5 million a few years ago), will decline by 600,000 barrels this year. Ramirez claimed that the corruption charges were phony — that they were an attempt to increase Maduro’s hold over the company by his military.

There are so many creditors — banks, bond investors, international oil companies, and governments such as China, Russia and Cuba — that have helped fund Maduro’s socialist experiment that Nick Cunningham (a journalist at OilPrice.com who has been following Venezuela’s decline for years) asked an attorney skilled in such matters to help in sorting it all out. Jay Auslander, recognized for his work in enforcing judgments and in litigating debt defaults, did his best. Aside from standing aside and letting the socialist regime collapse by itself or with outside help, “the other thing creditors can do is … declare defaults.… We’re going to have a sort of cascade of creditors [who will] declare defaults … and get judgments.”

More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/south-america/item/28980-creditors-gathering-to-plan-seizures-following-venezuela-s-defaults

[Swordsmyth]

Two days after ConocoPhillips moved to seize assets owned by Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, in the Caribbean, shipping data revealed that PDVSA has diverted a tanker carrying crude from Russia from its course to offload it at Curacao, Reuters reports (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-conocophillips-pdvsa/venezuelas-pdvsa-diverts-crude-tanker-from-curacao-shipper-data-idUSKBN1I92EA).
The Aframax tanker British Sygnet, the data shows, loaded at Primorsk, Russia, a month ago and set sail for Curacao. It was diverted on Monday, after the news about Conoco’s court orders—to seize inventories and other assets—became public. But a source from PDVSA told Reuters that it is not the first tanker to be diverted: at least nine other vessels have set sail for Venezuela and Cuba since Friday to avoid passing into the hands of the U.S. company, whose total demands for compensation from PDVSA reach US$33 billion.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/PDVSA-Diverts-Tanker-From-Caribbean-Terminal.html

[Swordsmyth]

A Curacao court has authorized ConocoPhillips to seize about $636 million in assets belonging to Petroleos de Venezuela, Reuters reported May 12.

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situation-report/venezuela-caribbean-court-authorizes-conocophillips-seize-state-oil-companys-assets

[Swordsmyth]

U.S. oil company ConocoPhillips has brought new court actions to seize two cargoes of crude and fuel near a terminal operated by PDVSA subsidiary Citgo Petroleum in Aruba, the Aruban government confirmed on Tuesday. Conoco is moving aggressively to enforce a $2 billion arbitration award over the 2007 expropriation of two oil projects in Venezuela, creating unease in the Caribbean, where many islands depend on fuel produced by state-run PDVSA .
"The Aruba refinery has said that an embargo on two Citgo oil cargoes was introduced last night. Citgo is claiming the crude as its own, and is fighting at court to demonstrate the product is not PDVSA's," said Prime Minister Evelyn Wever-Croes in a statement. "Independent of any outcome, this is not going to affect Aruba," she said.
The cargoes seized included 500,000 barrels of crude oil on the Grimstad and about 300,000 barrels of jet fuel, gasoline and diesel on the Atlantic Lily, according to a source at the Aruba terminal and Thomson Reuters vessel tracking data.
Citgo, the U.S. refining unit of PDVSA, has leased the 209,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Aruba refinery and its 13 million-barrel terminal from the government since 2016 to store Venezuelan and other crudes for supplying its U.S. refineries.
As the refinery remains idled since 2012 while a major refurbish project is underway, Citgo regularly supplies the island with imported fuel.
Wever-Croes told journalists government officials and the management of the refinery were organizing a contingency plan to avoid a situation similar to Curacao and Bonaire, where inventories were blocked by Conoco's legal actions.
No fuel shortages have been reported in the Caribbean but officials are trying to import from other sources.
Conoco in recent days seized the 10-million-barrel BOPEC oil terminal owned by PDVSA in Bonaire and fuel inventories at the 335,000-bpd Isla refinery operated by the Venezuelan firm in Curacao. Both islands are in talks with Conoco to free fuel for domestic consumption.
"What belongs to Citgo belongs to PDVSA, but a judge has to rule on it," Wever-Croes said.

More at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-5733325/Conoco-aiming-seize-oil-cargoes-near-Citgos-Aruba-terminal.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

[Swordsmyth]

Lawyers for Venezuela's state-owned energy company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and ConocoPhillips lawyers met on May 21 in Curacao and agreed to lift liens on PDVSA assets, Argus reported May 22. The two are close to reaching a deal on a $2 billion arbitration award that PDVSA owes ConocoPhillips.

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situation-report/venezuela-state-oil-company-pay-debt-owed-conocophillips

[juleswin]

I am sure Venezuela's economy problems is mainly due to socialism :rolleyes:

[Swordsmyth]

I am sure Venezuela's economy problems is mainly due to socialism :rolleyes:

Yup, when they destroyed their economy they couldn't pay their debts and their creditors started to foreclose assets.

[juleswin]

Yup, when they destroyed their economy they couldn't pay their debts and their creditors started to foreclose assets.


Conoco is moving aggressively to enforce a $2 billion arbitration award over the 2007 expropriation of two oil projects in Venezuela, creating unease in the Caribbean, where many islands depend on fuel produced by state-run PDVSA .

You are right, I am sure the arbitration process was very fair to both sides and were not at all showing favoritism to the western backed company. Btw, this is all speculation on my part. Venezuela has a massive oil reserve that I am sure the US wants to control. They tried a coup when Chavez was in power and believe they have never stopped trying

[Swordsmyth]

You are right, I am sure the arbitration process was very fair to both sides and were not at all showing favoritism to the western backed company. Btw, this is all speculation on my part. Venezuela has a massive oil reserve that I am sure the US wants to control. They tried a coup when Chavez was in power and believe they have never stopped trying
Venezuela owes money to lots of people, even if you imagine some justification for the seizure Conoco's assets to suit your love of communists it doesn't change a thing:


As Venezuela’s creditors are gathering (https://oilprice.com/Interviews/Expert-Analysis-Creditors-Are-Cracking-Down-On-Venezuela.html) to discuss how they may best protect their interests, additional pressure from former head of the country’s state-owned oil company, PdVSA, was applied on Saturday. Rafael Ramirez, the former head of the company under Chavez and Maduro, barely escaped with his life when Maduro arrested the top officials at the company last year for “engaging in corruption.” Maduro replaced Ramirez with Major General Manuel Quevedo, who is succeeding in even more rapidly running into the ground the once-prosperous and highly profitable energy producer.
In an 80-minute telephone call from an undisclosed location, Ramirez told Gulf News that oil production from his former company, already cut in half thanks to Maduro’s decisions and the company’s lack of capital to maintain it, will decline even further this year. He estimates that daily oil production, at barely 1.4 million barrels a day (down from 3.5 million a few years ago), will decline by 600,000 barrels this year. Ramirez claimed that the corruption charges were phony — that they were an attempt to increase Maduro’s hold over the company by his military.

There are so many creditors — banks, bond investors, international oil companies, and governments such as China, Russia and Cuba — that have helped fund Maduro’s socialist experiment that Nick Cunningham (a journalist at OilPrice.com who has been following Venezuela’s decline for years) asked an attorney skilled in such matters to help in sorting it all out. Jay Auslander, recognized for his work in enforcing judgments and in litigating debt defaults, did his best. Aside from standing aside and letting the socialist regime collapse by itself or with outside help, “the other thing creditors can do is … declare defaults.… We’re going to have a sort of cascade of creditors [who will] declare defaults … and get judgments.”

More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/south-america/item/28980-creditors-gathering-to-plan-seizures-following-venezuela-s-defaults

Also Venezuela got themselves into this mess long ago and the arbitration award just happened, the commies have had the benefit of the two oil projects all this time.

[Ender]

You are right, I am sure the arbitration process was very fair to both sides and were not at all showing favoritism to the western backed company. Btw, this is all speculation on my part. Venezuela has a massive oil reserve that I am sure the US wants to control. They tried a coup when Chavez was in power and believe they have never stopped trying

From Ron Paul:


Most importantly, the dollar/oil relationship has to be maintained to keep the dollar as a preeminent currency. Any attack on this relationship will be forcefully challenged — as it already has been.

In November 2000 Saddam Hussein demanded Euros for his oil. His arrogance was a threat to the dollar; his lack of any military might was never a threat. At the first cabinet meeting with the new administration in 2001, as reported by Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, the major topic was how we would get rid of Saddam Hussein — though there was no evidence whatsoever he posed a threat to us. This deep concern for Saddam Hussein surprised and shocked O’Neill.

It now is common knowledge that the immediate reaction of the administration after 9/11 revolved around how they could connect Saddam Hussein to the attacks, to justify an invasion and overthrow of his government. Even with no evidence of any connection to 9/11, or evidence of weapons of mass destruction, public and congressional support was generated through distortions and flat out misrepresentation of the facts to justify overthrowing Saddam Hussein.

There was no public talk of removing Saddam Hussein because of his attack on the integrity of the dollar as a reserve currency by selling oil in Euros. Many believe this was the real reason for our obsession with Iraq. I doubt it was the only reason, but it may well have played a significant role in our motivation to wage war. Within a very short period after the military victory, all Iraqi oil sales were carried out in dollars. The Euro was abandoned.

In 2001, Venezuela’s ambassador to Russia spoke of Venezuela switching to the Euro for all their oil sales. Within a year there was a coup attempt against Chavez, reportedly with assistance from our CIA.

After these attempts to nudge the Euro toward replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency were met with resistance, the sharp fall of the dollar against the Euro was reversed. These events may well have played a significant role in maintaining dollar dominance.

It’s become clear the U.S. administration was sympathetic to those who plotted the overthrow of Chavez, and was embarrassed by its failure. The fact that Chavez was democratically elected had little influence on which side we supported.

Now, a new attempt is being made against the petrodollar system. Iran, another member of the “axis of evil,” has announced her plans to initiate an oil bourse in March of this year. Guess what, the oil sales will be priced Euros, not dollars.

Most Americans forget how our policies have systematically and needlessly antagonized the Iranians over the years. In 1953 the CIA helped overthrow a democratically elected president, Mohammed Mossadeqh, and install the authoritarian Shah, who was friendly to the U.S. The Iranians were still fuming over this when the hostages were seized in 1979. Our alliance with Saddam Hussein in his invasion of Iran in the early 1980s did not help matters, and obviously did not do much for our relationship with Saddam Hussein. The administration announcement in 2001 that Iran was part of the axis of evil didn’t do much to improve the diplomatic relationship between our two countries. Recent threats over nuclear power, while ignoring the fact that they are surrounded by countries with nuclear weapons, doesn’t seem to register with those who continue to provoke Iran. With what most Muslims perceive as our war against Islam, and this recent history, there’s little wonder why Iran might choose to harm America by undermining the dollar. Iran, like Iraq, has zero capability to attack us. But that didn’t stop us from turning Saddam Hussein into a modern day Hitler ready to take over the world. Now Iran, especially since she’s made plans for pricing oil in Euros, has been on the receiving end of a propaganda war not unlike that waged against Iraq before our invasion.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2006/02/ron-paul/why-the-us-hates-iraq-iran-and-venezuela/

More Ron Paul:


There is something unsettling about how President Trump has surrounded himself with generals. From his defense secretary to his national security advisor to his White House chief of staff, Trump looks to senior military officers to fill key positions that have been customarily filled by civilians. He’s surrounded by generals and threatens war at the drop of a hat.

President Trump began last week by threatening “fire and fury” on North Korea. He continued through the week claiming, falsely, that Iran is violating the terms of the nuclear deal. He finally ended the week by threatening a US military attack on Venezuela.

He told reporters on Friday that, “We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary. …We have troops all over the world in places that are very, very far away. Venezuela is not very far away and the people are suffering, and they are dying.”

Venezuela’s defense minister called Trump’s threat “an act of craziness.”

Even more worrisome, when Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro tried to call President Trump for clarification he was refused. The White House stated that discussions with the Venezuelan president could only take place once democracy was restored in the country. Does that mean President Trump is moving toward declaring Maduro no longer the legitimate president of Venezuela? Is Trump taking a page from Obama’s failed regime change policy for Syria and declaring that “Maduro must go”?

The current unrest in Venezuela is related to the economic shortcomings of that country’s centrally-planned economy. The 20th century has shown us very clearly that state control over an economy leads to mismanagement, mal-investment, massive shortages, and finally economic collapse. That is why those of us who advocate free market economics constantly warn that US government intervention in our own economy is leading us toward a similar financial crisis.

But there is another factor in the unrest in Venezuela. For many years the United States government, through the CIA, the National Endowment for Democracy, and US government funded NGOs, have been trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government. They almost succeeded in 2002, when then-president Hugo Chavez was briefly driven from office. Washington has spent millions trying to manipulate Venezuela’s elections and overturn the results. US policy is to create unrest and then use that unrest as a pretext for US intervention.



And Darius Shahtahmasebi:


Now Venezuela may ultimately join the bandwagon, all the while cozying up to Russia, as well (unsurprisingly, Venezuela and Iran were identified in William R. Clark’s book as attracting particular geostrategic tensions with the United States). The CIA’s admission that it intends to interfere inside Venezuela to exact a change of government — combined with Trump’s recent threat of military intervention in Venezuela and Vice President Mike Pence’s warning that the U.S. will not “stand by” and watch Venezuela deteriorate — all start to make a lot more sense when viewed through this geopolitical lens.

What initially sounded like a conspiracy theory seems to be a more plausible reality as countries that begin dropping the U.S. dollar and opting for alternative currencies continuously — and without exception — end up targeted for regime change.

If the U.S. steps up its involvement in Venezuela, the reasons why should be clear to those who have been paying attention.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/09/no_author/venezuela-ditch-dollar/

[Swordsmyth]

From Ron Paul:



https://www.lewrockwell.com/2006/02/ron-paul/why-the-us-hates-iraq-iran-and-venezuela/

More Ron Paul:



And Darius Shahtahmasebi:

[/B]

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/09/no_author/venezuela-ditch-dollar/

None of which changes the fact that communism is the primary factor responsible for the current state of Venezuela.

[juleswin]

Venezuela owes money to lots of people, even if you imagine some justification for the seizure Conoco's assets to suit your love of communists it doesn't change a thing:



Also Venezuela got themselves into this mess long ago and the arbitration award just happened, the commies have had the benefit of the two oil projects all this time.

And the US owes lots of people lots of money too. As a %age of GDP, the United States Capitalist country has a much higher debt to GDP ration than Commie Venezuela, imagine that? The difference between the two is that one has the ability to print money and two have the ability to sanction countries they don't like to make it harder for that country to finance their much smaller debt.

Sorry buddy, but the US meddling is the cause of their economic problems.

[Ender]

And the US owes lots of people lots of money too. As a %age of GDP, the United States Capitalist country has a much higher debt to GDP ration than Commie Venezuela, imagine that? The difference between the two is that one has the ability to print money and two have the ability to sanction countries they don't like to make it harder for that country to finance their much smaller debt.

Sorry buddy, but the US meddling is the cause of their economic problems.

Sorry buddy, but the US meddling is the cause of their economic problems.

Exactly- and the meddling is to bring countries with large resources down & into the complete control of USG.

[CaptUSA]

the United States Capitalist country

Where is this country of which you speak? Sounds like a great place! I'd really like to visit there!

[Madison320]

And the US owes lots of people lots of money too. As a %age of GDP, the United States Capitalist country has a much higher debt to GDP ration than Commie Venezuela, imagine that? The difference between the two is that one has the ability to print money and two have the ability to sanction countries they don't like to make it harder for that country to finance their much smaller debt.

Sorry buddy, but the US meddling is the cause of their economic problems.

No it's not. I don't like US meddling but the US meddles in lots of countries and their economies don't suddenly collapse. Socialism/communism is clearly the cause.

[juleswin]

No it's not. I don't like US meddling but the US meddles in lots of countries and their economies don't suddenly collapse. Socialism/communism is clearly the cause.

Maybe the Venezuela is just more vulnerable to US meddling. Sudden collapse or tipping point? their efforts to undermine the Venezuelan economic started when Chavez was in power and now with the help of low oil prices which the economy(which the country is high dependent on) and well placed sanction led to a collapse. The point being that the economy would most likely not have collapsed had the US not meddled.

Also take a look at the other countries US is meddling in. We have North Korea, Russia, Iran, Sudan and feel free to add more and you can see that all these countries are having problems with their economies. The common denominator with these countries is not their economic system but it is US meddling. End the US meddling, sanctions and economic sabotage and watch how they all experience economic recoveries.

[juleswin]

Sorry buddy, but the US meddling is the cause of their economic problems.

Exactly- and the meddling is to bring countries with large resources down & into the complete control of USG.

The funny part is that most of the stories he posts about Venezuela point to US meddling and he still thinks that the effects are minimal.

Btw, I used to be like him where I was staunch free markets. I was very dogmatic about the capitalist system being the only way to run an prosperous economy. I have soften up on that idea. Capitalism is the most efficient way and most likely to lead to prosperity but I now know that humans can succeed in just about any economic system. Socialism, command economy, capitalism (obviously), once you can psych the populous into believing that they are working for each other, there is equity in the system and the leader are not stealing from they. The human animal can thrive even in a cage.

The reason I think capitalism works best is that it is the economic system when these claims are easiest to make

[Krugminator2]

You are right, I am sure the arbitration process was very fair to both sides and were not at all showing favoritism to the western backed company. Btw, this is all speculation on my part. Venezuela has a massive oil reserve that I am sure the US wants to control. They tried a coup when Chavez was in power and believe they have never stopped trying



Hugo Chavez took numerous American businesses. That is never an appropriate solution. So what do you mean the the arbiters were biased to the US? Chavez literally just plundered US businesses and didn't even pay them. He said he did it because they were "exploiting the workers." This is a historical fact. https://www.google.com/search?q=chavez+seize+us+businesses&rlz=1C1CHZL_enUS757US757&oq=chavez+seize+us+businesses&aqs=chrome..69i57.4807j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I don't get these eyerolls. You can't have a functioning economy when anytime you are successful the government is going to take your business. That isn't debatable. Who is going to invest in a country like that? Socialism is 100% of the problem in Venezuela. Not 99%. 100%. The United States is 0% of Venezuela's problem.

A coup is totally legitimate against Chavez. He should have had his head cut off and kicked around like a soccer ball. He should have gotten the Mussolini treatment.

[angelatc]

Venezuela owes money to lots of people, even if you imagine some justification for the seizure Conoco's assets to suit your love of communists it doesn't change a thing:



Also Venezuela got themselves into this mess long ago and the arbitration award just happened, the commies have had the benefit of the two oil projects all this time.

You're talking to a guy who thinks Che is a hero. It shouldn't be shocking to find that he's a socialism-denier.

[Krugminator2]

Sorry buddy, but the US meddling is the cause of their economic problems.

Exactly- and the meddling is to bring countries with large resources down & into the complete control of USG.


What is this Commie Trash Forums? No, the United States is not the problem. Not even a little bit. The United State is not the cause of all evil.

[juleswin]

So many thread in RPF reminds me of high school, where one sides just lines up behind their cliques, deploying all manners of logical fallacies and ignoring the points made by the other side. Keep calling me a commie, that should win the argument with your clique.

[Krugminator2]

So many thread in RPF reminds me of high school, where one sides just lines up behind their cliques, deploying all manners of logical fallacies and ignoring the points made by the other side. Keep calling me a commie, that should win the argument with your clique.

I don't know if you are talking to me, but I provided factual arguments to why socialism is the cause.

You cannot seize private property on a mass scale and have a functioning economy. You are going to have capital flight out of the country. That happens every time. It happened in Zimbabwe. Price controls lead to shortages. It can't be any other way. It is non-debatable.


We have North Korea, Russia, Iran, Sudan and feel free to add more and you can see that all these countries are having problems with their economies.

Those are the least free countries in the world. North Korea is 180 out of 180. Communism does not work. This is a settled issue.

Cliques? I like reading contrarian opinions. I like Zippyjuan's posts even if they sometimes are a little annoying. He makes me think and defend my view. What he doesn't do is try to justify Communism as a system. A reasonable person cannot hold that view.

[Madison320]

Maybe the Venezuela is just more vulnerable to US meddling. Sudden collapse or tipping point? their efforts to undermine the Venezuelan economic started when Chavez was in power and now with the help of low oil prices which the economy(which the country is high dependent on) and well placed sanction led to a collapse. The point being that the economy would most likely not have collapsed had the US not meddled.

Also take a look at the other countries US is meddling in. We have North Korea, Russia, Iran, Sudan and feel free to add more and you can see that all these countries are having problems with their economies. The common denominator with these countries is not their economic system but it is US meddling. End the US meddling, sanctions and economic sabotage and watch how they all experience economic recoveries.

So according to your theory the US wasn't meddling in Venezuela until after Chavez was elected, then right after the election the US started meddling and that caused the economy to collapse? Chavez's massive confiscation of private businesses (and all sorts of other violations of private property rights) had nothing to do with it? C'mon man.

How do you know the US meddled more in those bad countries compared to good countries like Switzerland or Canada or Singapore or Hong Kong? And if US governmental meddling is SO BAD that it is THE determining factor in the health of an economy why isn't the US economy the WORST OF ALL???? After all I'm pretty sure the US government meddles a lot more in the US compared to Venezuela or North Korea.

[Madison320]

You cannot seize private property on a mass scale and have a functioning economy. You are going to have capital flight out of the country. That happens every time. It happened in Zimbabwe. Price controls lead to shortages. It can't be any other way. It is non-debatable.


My wife is from Colombia so she follows the situation in Venezuela closely. Back when Chavez instituted price controls I told her "watch, they'll have food shortages next". Then like night follows day ... food shortages.

[Ender]

What is this Commie Trash Forums? No, the United States is not the problem. Not even a little bit. The United State is not the cause of all evil.

I am completely for free markets- have never said otherwise.

BUT- the USG meddles in elections & coups all over the world and for places like Venezuela & Iran, it is for resources. The sanctions put on these countries are deliberate acts of war & uncalled for. We have no business overthrowing other governments and sanctioning countries. PLUS the US is no longer a capitalist country- it is a center of crony-capitalism or more correctly, mercantilism, which the War of Independence was fought over.

Also, when left alone many "communist" regimes collapse & then become capitalistic- like Cuba right now. Here's a great article about how Cuba has morphed into real capitalism.


Investing in Collapse
By Jeff Thomas
International Man

May 22, 2018

For years, I’ve been writing about Venezuela, describing it as the “movie” by which we can view the future of other jurisdictions that are presently in decline.

The reason is that declining nations follow the same pattern, time and time again, over the centuries. This is not coincidence. The pattern exists because human nature never changes, regardless of the era or the locale. Political leaders make the same mistakes as their forebears, and the people of a nation react in kind.

For this reason, countries have a sort of “shelf life.” They rise in prominence, due to work ethic and productivity. They then go through a period of abundance, which eventually deteriorates, due to complacency and apathy. Finally, they collapse into a period of bondage.

If we recognize that this pattern has played out countless times over the millennia, we can track any given country and assess where it is at present, in the pattern. For example, Europe and North America are presently in the last stages prior to collapse, Venezuela is in the process of collapse and Cuba is in the post-collapse recovery.

But, although this may be historically interesting, of what value is it to us in terms of our own lives and the choices we make for our future?

Well, we can observe Venezuela and see the effects of the present policies evident in our own country, if we happen to live in one that’s on the verge of collapse.

For example, we can see that ever-increasing largesse by a government—on the backs of productive taxpayers—is a major destructive trend. “Protective” tariffs and capital controls also lead to collapse. And excessive debt is a pathway to economic collapse.

We can see from the recent history in Venezuela how these political mistakes caused their collapse, and we can now observe how that collapse plays out.

But, going back to the title of this essay, how do we invest in collapse?

Well, the reader will be familiar with the investment principle of “buy low, sell high.” This means that the investor should not wait until an investment is already popular. He should invest when it’s at its least popular.

So, let’s look at that a bit more closely.

The principle would suggest that, in the main, the US, in its final, declining stage, is a poor country for investment, but that Venezuela could be a far better possibility.

But at what point should investment take place? Well, there are a few basic assumptions that might be made. First, investment is difficult at a time when there’s massive unrest. If a “boots on the ground” assessment can be made fairly safely, this can be a very advantageous time to begin studying possibilities.

Also, during a collapse, local businessmen and government officials are desperate and will cut virtually any deal with anybody, just to get a bit of money into their hands. Such deals are normally cancelled wholesale by the incoming government, after power has been transferred to them (often just for spite).

So, for any investor, the country should ideally be researched both during and following the collapse and a decision made as to what investments to focus on. Then, when the new government has largely stabilized the country (the riots are over and commerce has begun to function normally), the greatest opportunities for investment occur. The country is desperate for inward investment, and opportunities abound.

So, let’s have a look at a country that has already passed through its collapse stage and has stabilized.

Cuba collapsed for much the same reasons as its neighbour, Venezuela is now collapsing. But that was back in the 1990s. An anomaly in Cuba’s case is that the government was not overturned and the re-stabilisation was left to the still-collectivist government. Being unable to admit that they’d caused the collapse, but desperately needing a recovery, the Castro government chose the obvious solution—capitalism. By this time, the once-committed communist Raul Castro advised his brother Fidel that collectivism was a failure and that they must adopt a free-market if the country was to recover.

However, being unable to admit that the problem was of their own doing (they blamed the American blockade), they set about introducing free-market principles within the existing system.

Over the years since that time, it’s become increasingly possible for Cubans to open their own businesses, and to pay the government taxes on the profits.

Today, there are now so many cuentapropistas (business owners) in Cuba that the taxes generated have not only enriched many of the Cuban people, but have refloated the government. (Even a mid-level bureaucrat understands that the reason he’s been able to discard his thirty-year-old Russian Lada and now has a new Hyundai is due to the influx of tax revenue.) No one in Cuba has the cheek to call it “free-market,” but most everyone understands that the end of food shortages and the importation of such goods as appliances and stylish clothing is due to the cuentapropista revenue.

So, then, why isn’t this big news in the larger world? Well, although the free market has been taking over the Cuban economy (from the bottom, up) for over a decade, the Castro government still maintains ownership of much of the real estate, still owns many businesses, and controls the military. However, the government businesses (as they are collectivist) are highly inefficient, so the flood of tourists prefer the privately run businesses, which are thriving.

And the military is now in charge of renovating Havana’s old buildings for new shops—they’ve become a sort of urban public works department.

Yet the claim internationally is that Cuba is still communist.

Strictly speaking, this is so. But each year, more government businesses fold and more opportunities are given to allow restaurants, tourist accommodations, taxi services, farm cooperatives and factories to be started up privately by the Cuban people.

The government not only condones the free-market development, but encourages it, as today, the butter on their own bread comes from tax receipts, not Russian subsidies.

At present, the government still holds many areas of investment for itself. An outside investor cannot legally make an investment deal with a local unless he’s a “relation.” But the government creates opportunities and joint-ventures with outside investors for tourism, mining, telecommunications, energy, biotechnology, etc., and, in fact, each day cruise ships arrive in Havana Harbour from Miami, loaded with American tourists, whose countrymen are under the impression that they cannot enter Cuba legally.

The anomaly in Cuba is that it’s a country that’s being reinvented from within, but without the customary announcements from the political leaders that the “rebirth” is underway.

Raul Castro has just stepped down as president, but as I’d expected, he’ll stay on as the Secretary General of the Communist party until 2021, which would mean that he’ll continue to engineer the rebirth of Cuba from behind the scenes.

After this date, the cloak of free-market secrecy may be tossed off in Cuba, and those who have invested at the bottom will watch their investments blossom.

[juleswin]

Hugo Chavez took numerous American businesses. That is never an appropriate solution. So what do you mean the the arbiters were biased to the US? Chavez literally just plundered US businesses and didn't even pay them. He said he did it because they were "exploiting the workers." This is a historical fact. https://www.google.com/search?q=chavez+seize+us+businesses&rlz=1C1CHZL_enUS757US757&oq=chavez+seize+us+businesses&aqs=chrome..69i57.4807j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I don't get these eyerolls. You can't have a functioning economy when anytime you are successful the government is going to take your business. That isn't debatable. Who is going to invest in a country like that? Socialism is 100% of the problem in Venezuela. Not 99%. 100%. The United States is 0% of Venezuela's problem.

A coup is totally legitimate against Chavez. He should have had his head cut off and kicked around like a soccer ball. He should have gotten the Mussolini treatment.

Btw, the US seizes private properties and bank accounts of foreign govts too, seizing private property is not unique to Venezuela. In the case of Venezuela, they understand how private property especially in vital sectors can be used by foreign govts to undermine the nation and cause unrest. You see what happened in Chile when the CIA was able to use the Chilean trucking industry to undermine the govt. These countries are virtually in a constant state of war playing defense all the time knowing that the US is unrelenting in their desire to overthrow them. These policies wouldn't be happening in peace time

If you think the US states, the greatest country in the world and its allies carrying on a campaign to undermine the Venezuelan govt is contributing 0% of the country's economic problems, them I am really a Nigerian prince and a $5000 custom fees wired via western union to me is the only thing stopping me from sending you $25m for your effort.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd4tsaRJBes


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_JhRVlIR-c

Some clips open minded people interested in this debate should view.

[juleswin]

I don't know if you are talking to me, but I provided factual arguments to why socialism is the cause.

You cannot seize private property on a mass scale and have a functioning economy. You are going to have capital flight out of the country. That happens every time. It happened in Zimbabwe. Price controls lead to shortages. It can't be any other way. It is non-debatable.

Those are the least free countries in the world. North Korea is 180 out of 180. Communism does not work. This is a settled issue.

Cliques? I like reading contrarian opinions. I like Zippyjuan's posts even if they sometimes are a little annoying. He makes me think and defend my view. What he doesn't do is try to justify Communism as a system. A reasonable person cannot hold that view.

Lots of countries confiscate private properties all the time. Saudi Arabia did it a few years back and nothing bad happened to their economy. The problem comes when that confiscation is followed by international sanctions. The difference between Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe is that one was sanctioned to death by the US and international community and the other was supported by same community. Look up "The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001". And believe me, if those sanctions are painless as some people on this thread are claiming, then the US and its allies wouldn't be doing it.

Communism does not work as good as capitalism but communism along with stifling sanctions definitely will not work at all. Switch communism with just about any economic system and the results will be the same. That too is settled.

I do not think you are part of the clique, when I see your post, I know u are actually going to try and debate me instead of replying with snark and name calling. The people I am talking about know exactly who they are.

[juleswin]

So according to your theory the US wasn't meddling in Venezuela until after Chavez was elected, then right after the election the US started meddling and that caused the economy to collapse? Chavez's massive confiscation of private businesses (and all sorts of other violations of private property rights) had nothing to do with it? C'mon man.

How do you know the US meddled more in those bad countries compared to good countries like Switzerland or Canada or Singapore or Hong Kong? And if US governmental meddling is SO BAD that it is THE determining factor in the health of an economy why isn't the US economy the WORST OF ALL???? After all I'm pretty sure the US government meddles a lot more in the US compared to Venezuela or North Korea.

My theory is that the US started meddling once Chavez started defying their orders. I am not sure when that exactly started but Chavez realized it and acted accordingly to avoid sabotage of the economy by US. The Venezuelan economy did not collapse during Chavez rule.

Lets see, Canada, Switzerland, Columbia, France, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Hong Kong are client/compliant/captured states while Venezuela, Russia, Syria, North Korea, Sudan are not. Common sense says that you don't treat your friends the same way you treat your enemies. This stiff ain't rocket science.

[Madison320]

My theory is that the US started meddling once Chavez started defying their orders. I am not sure when that exactly started but Chavez realized it and acted accordingly to avoid sabotage of the economy by US. The Venezuelan economy did not collapse during Chavez rule.



"Venezuela's Hugo Chavez tightens state control of food amid rocketing inflation and food shortages"

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/4938993/Venezuelas-Hugo-Chavez-tightens-state-control-of-food-amid-rocketing-inflation-and-food-shortages.html

[juleswin]

"Venezuela's Hugo Chavez tightens state control of food amid rocketing inflation and food shortages"

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/4938993/Venezuelas-Hugo-Chavez-tightens-state-control-of-food-amid-rocketing-inflation-and-food-shortages.html

So he was president from 1999 to 2013 and things started to go bad more than 3/4 way into his rule. I think he did quite well resisting the advances of the west. On this point, you are right and I was wrong.

[Krugminator2]

PLUS the US is no longer a capitalist country

Here's a great article about how Cuba has morphed into real capitalism.




Switch communism with just about any economic system and the results will be the same. That too is settled.




I don't have a response. I just felt like singling those comments out.

[juleswin]

I don't have a response. I just felt like singling those comments out.

I would add that the more open and free market a country is, the more likely it is to be taken over by bigger, organized cunning foreign agents. So I was mistaken to say that the result would be the same regardless of what economic system a country has.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r9UrC2uFfM&t=6s

One of James Corbett finest works. Very relevant to this discussion

[angelatc]

(Posts some scholarly analysis Youtube video with some laughable clips that make the claim that that Venezuela isn't *really* socialist ......)

Just another case of it not being done correctly?

Like I said, a socialism-denier.

I feel it important to point out that there weren't even any US sanctions on Venezuela until a couple of days ago. But I'm sure it's all the fault of the USA regardless.

[juleswin]

Just another case of it not being done correctly?

Like I said, a socialism-denier.

Venezuela just like most economies is a mixed economy and that was the point he was trying to make as opposed to the idiots who go around calling it a socialist paradise. Found this article from fox news.


CARACAS – CARACAS (AP) — It's President Hugo Chavez's biggest economic battle cry, and it's getting louder as Venezuela suffers a recession: "We're going to bury Venezuelan capitalism."

Yet creating a socialist economy is one of Chavez's most elusive goals — a stark example of the disconnect between the president's rhetoric and the reality on the ground. In fact, the private sector still controls two-thirds of Venezuela's economy — the same as when Chavez was elected in 1998, according to estimates by the Central Bank.

The reasons are political and practical: Chavez knows most Venezuelans recoil from the idea of Cuban-style state control, and his government is far from being capable of taking over and running a majority of the economy.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/07/18/socialism-private-sector-dominates-venezuelan-economy-despite-chavez-crusade.html

Don't you think its a bit weird that a socialist country has 66% + of their economy still controlled by private sector? Sorry, I don't have some scholar analysis for you to read. All the stuff I get is from wikipedia, articles and videos from youtube.

[oyarde]

I am having a hard time believing a company should have been investing there in the first place . Too much risk . Poor decision making .

[Ender]

Just another case of it not being done correctly?

Like I said, a socialism-denier.

I feel it important to point out that there weren't even any US sanctions on Venezuela until a couple of days ago. But I'm sure it's all the fault of the USA regardless.


The whole problem is about countries with resources who defy the USG & try to get out from under the dollar. These countries are taken down, made to look as bad as possible, and a coup is used to usurp their government.

From Ron Paul:


Greenspan, in his first speech after leaving the Fed, said that gold prices were up because of concern about terrorism, and not because of monetary concerns or because he created too many dollars during his tenure. Gold has to be discredited and the dollar propped up. Even when the dollar comes under serious attack by market forces, the central banks and the IMF surely will do everything conceivable to soak up the dollars in hope of restoring stability. Eventually they will fail.

Most importantly, the dollar/oil relationship has to be maintained to keep the dollar as a preeminent currency. Any attack on this relationship will be forcefully challenged — as it already has been.

In November 2000 Saddam Hussein demanded Euros for his oil. His arrogance was a threat to the dollar; his lack of any military might was never a threat. At the first cabinet meeting with the new administration in 2001, as reported by Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, the major topic was how we would get rid of Saddam Hussein — though there was no evidence whatsoever he posed a threat to us. This deep concern for Saddam Hussein surprised and shocked O’Neill.

It now is common knowledge that the immediate reaction of the administration after 9/11 revolved around how they could connect Saddam Hussein to the attacks, to justify an invasion and overthrow of his government. Even with no evidence of any connection to 9/11, or evidence of weapons of mass destruction, public and congressional support was generated through distortions and flat out misrepresentation of the facts to justify overthrowing Saddam Hussein.

There was no public talk of removing Saddam Hussein because of his attack on the integrity of the dollar as a reserve currency by selling oil in Euros. Many believe this was the real reason for our obsession with Iraq. I doubt it was the only reason, but it may well have played a significant role in our motivation to wage war. Within a very short period after the military victory, all Iraqi oil sales were carried out in dollars. The Euro was abandoned.

In 2001, Venezuela’s ambassador to Russia spoke of Venezuela switching to the Euro for all their oil sales. Within a year there was a coup attempt against Chavez, reportedly with assistance from our CIA.

After these attempts to nudge the Euro toward replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency were met with resistance, the sharp fall of the dollar against the Euro was reversed. These events may well have played a significant role in maintaining dollar dominance.

It’s become clear the U.S. administration was sympathetic to those who plotted the overthrow of Chavez, and was embarrassed by its failure. The fact that Chavez was democratically elected had little influence on which side we supported.

Now, a new attempt is being made against the petrodollar system. Iran, another member of the “axis of evil,” has announced her plans to initiate an oil bourse in March of this year. Guess what, the oil sales will be priced Euros, not dollars.

Most Americans forget how our policies have systematically and needlessly antagonized the Iranians over the years. In 1953 the CIA helped overthrow a democratically elected president, Mohammed Mossadeqh, and install the authoritarian Shah, who was friendly to the U.S. friendly to the U.S.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2006/02/ron-paul/why-the-us-hates-iraq-iran-and-venezuela/

[Ender]

Just another case of it not being done correctly?

Like I said, a socialism-denier.

I feel it important to point out that there weren't even any US sanctions on Venezuela until a couple of days ago. But I'm sure it's all the fault of the USA regardless.


Venezuela has been sanctioned since at least 2015.

https://www.state.gov/e/eb/tfs/spi/venezuela/

This article written in Jan 2018 talks about Trump's sanctions in Aug 2017 & what more sanctions will do (have done, as of now).

Why More Sanctions Won’t Help Venezuela
The people, not the government, will pay the price.



During the first year of his administration, U.S. President Donald Trump has taken an increasingly hard line against the government of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. Washington has tightened sanctions on Caracas and even suggested a military intervention to remove the Venezuelan leader from office. Twelve months into Trump’s term, Maduro seems even more entrenched in power, and Venezuela’s opposition is more fractured than ever.

U.S. foreign policy toward Venezuela is premised on a series of misconceptions. Perhaps the most widespread and serious one is the idea that Venezuela is a totalitarian dictatorship. While Maduro has certainly done many things to undermine democracy, Venezuela is no North Korea.

Venezuela is not a tyrannical autocracy; it is a deeply divided and polarized society.Venezuela is not a tyrannical autocracy; it is a deeply divided and polarized society. Public opinion research shows strong and deep-seated support for Chavismo, the movement created by the late populist leader Hugo Chávez, among large swathes of the population. Many voters continue to credit Chavismo with redistributing the country’s oil wealth through its social programs and giving the poor a voice in Venezuelan politics. Around 25 percent of Venezuelans support Chávez’s successor, Maduro — a remarkably high number given the state of the economy — and about 50 percent believe that Chávez was a good president. Recent regional elections have shown that the government coalition is able to mobilize close to 6 million voters to support its candidates — nearly one-third of the country’s adult population, and more than enough to win a low-turnout election.

In addition to misreading the country’s political mood, American policymakers also seem convinced that the country’s authoritarian leader will only leave power by force. Economic sanctions are ostensibly intended to raise costs for the military and are expected to somehow spur a rebellion against Maduro. This misguided approach stems from a poor understanding of the government’s internal dynamics and an excessive faith in the effectiveness of sanctions as a tool for bringing about regime change.

Extensive academic research has shown that economic sanctions are rarely effective. When they work, it is because they offer the sanctioned regime incentives along with a way out by altering the conduct that led to the sanctions being imposed (such as the rollback of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for access to international trade). By contrast, the sanctions against Venezuela have backed the regime into a corner, increasing the costs that the government would face upon leaving power and raising the incentives for Maduro to dig in his heels.

An even more problematic idea driving current U.S. policy is the belief that financial sanctions can hurt the Venezuelan government without causing serious harm to ordinary Venezuelans. That’s impossible when 95 percent of Venezuela’s export revenue comes from oil sold by the state-owned oil company. Cutting off the government’s access to dollars will leave the economy without the hard currency needed to pay for imports of food and medicine. Starving the Venezuelan economy of its foreign currency earnings risks turning the country’s current humanitarian crisis into a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe.

That’s what began to happen in 2017. Last year, Venezuela’s export revenues rose from $28 to $32 billion, buoyed by the recovery in world oil prices. Under normal conditions, a rise in a country’s exports would leave it with more resources to pay for its imports. But in the Venezuelan case, imports fell by 31 percent during the same year. The reason is that the country lost access to international financial markets. Unable to roll over its debt, it was forced to build up huge external surpluses to continue servicing that debt in a desperate attempt to avoid a default. Meanwhile, creditors threatened to seize the Venezuelan government’s remaining revenue sources if the country defaulted, including refineries located abroad and payments for oil shipments.

U.S. economic sanctions have stopped Venezuela from issuing new debt and blocked attempts to restructure its existing debt obligations. Major financial institutions have delayed the processing of all financial transfers from Venezuelan entities, significantly hampering the ability of Venezuelan companies to do business in the United States. Even Citgo, a Venezuelan-owned subsidiary that owns 4 percent of the United States’ refining capacity, hasn’t been able to get U.S. financial institutions to issue routine trade credit since sanctions were imposed.

Ever since the Vietnam War, most American policymakers have understood that foreign policy is not just about outgunning your opponent but also about winning the hearts and minds of the people. But 56 percent of Venezuelans oppose U.S. financial sanctions; only 32 percent support them. When it comes to foreign military intervention in Venezuela, 57 percent of those surveyed were opposed, while 58 percent support dialogue between the government and the opposition — and 71 percent believe that those talks should focus on seeking solutions to the country’s economic problems.

[Swordsmyth]

Che is a good example of one of the worst effects of interfering in foreign countries, it gives them an excuse to pretend that foreign meddling is entirely responsible for their problems.

Communism is the primary factor in their troubles and outside interference just adds a little bit more.

[Ender]

Rozeff is always pretty much spot on.

Venezuelan Sanctions, U.S. Dominance and the Power Elite
Michael S. Rozeff


What are the real foreign policy objectives of the U.S. government? They are hidden under its rhetoric and propaganda. They are submerged and kept submerged by the media and even by academics and historians who study these matters. These objectives are certainly not well-understood by the broad public or accepted as the actual objectives. Outside commentators who do seek to articulate what these objectives are quite often disagree or emphasize different factors. Lacking insider knowledge of the real motives behind foreign policy actions, most outside commentators have to make do with educated guesses.

Consider an Executive Order issued by Obama on March 9, 2015 that sanctions seven Venezuelans. Nothing in it that explains the sanctions has any credibility. It is totally a fog of propaganda and diversion from the actual goals that are never mentioned. The first sentence in the Fact Sheet is simply ridiculous and a total fabrication that no sensible person can possibly believe:

“President Obama today issued a new Executive Order (E.O.) declaring a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.”

One must understand that this language is contained in an official document issued by the White House. Nothing good can come out of a system that routinely pushes out fake ideas, falsehoods and fabrications like this. The results are cynical disregard for law, government secrecy, lack of government accountability, isolation of officials from voters, hubris among officials, hidden contempt for the public, distrust, and the encouragement for officials to employ power. Lies of this order and magnitude are poisonous.

The order goes on to list its moral goals of punishing various accused persons for their bad behavior:

“This new authority is aimed at persons involved in or responsible for the erosion of human rights guarantees, persecution of political opponents, curtailment of press freedoms, use of violence and human rights violations and abuses in response to antigovernment protests, and arbitrary arrest and detention of antigovernment protestors, as well as the significant public corruption by senior government officials in Venezuela.”

Nothing could sound more reasonable, and yet nothing is less credible than this declaration. Why? Because in countless other cases the U.S. not only turns a blind eye to the same sorts of goings-on but actually fully supports them. The U.S. is currently supporting Ukraine (the Kiev junta) while its security services and certain armed forces have been torturing prisoners that they have captured. The U.S. itself engaged in torture and has not yet punished those who were responsible for it. The U.S. has employed means of warfare that produced systematic human rights violations orders of magnitude worse than anything in Venezuela. The U.S. has supported death squads in Central America. The U.S. government does little to influence despicable behavior of local police and courts within this country. The U.S. has consistently supported Saudi Arabia and nearby states that both employ practices of the same kind condemned in this order and have supported ISIS terrorists. The Obama administration has been very tough on journalists and whistleblowers, thereby chilling press freedoms.

There has been marked instability in Venezuela and repression. Much worse repression is going on in Ukraine by its government, one that the U.S. supports and is assisting in its military efforts.

One can only reach the conclusion that the justifications in the executive order are phony.

This leaves us speculation as to what the real motives are. At the root of it is that the U.S. government is alarmed by the independence being exhibited by Venezuela and several other Latin American governments. Imperialism is a fundamental factor, and this requires a dominant U.S. position. There are political maneuvers in Venezuela and neighboring lands that tie directly to economic matters. For example, China has a presence in Venezuela that competes with American interests. Venezuela is a large oil producer. Venezuela is forming a Bank of the South in conjunction with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Ecuador. These political-economic moves remind one of the moves that were being made by Gaddafi and Libya prior to their destruction by U.S. and NATO forces.

Sanctions on Venezuelan officials are a warning. They are a slap on the wrist to warn the government of potential harsher measures. Human rights violations are a smokescreen. The real target is the government and the real objective is control of economic policies by the U.S. The U.S. does not want to see South American countries making links to such countries as China and Russia.

The U.S. policy in Ukraine and Middle East is the very same. It seeks to break down Russian influence on its periphery, including Ukraine. Condemnations of Putin and Russian aggression are propaganda smokescreens. In the Middle East, the U.S. wants to contain Iran. In the Far East, the U.S. wants to contain China. The U.S. seeks dominance in Central Asia too, as in Afghanistan.

8:54 am on March 14, 2015

[The Gold Standard]

Maybe the Venezuela is just more vulnerable to US meddling.

It is. Because they have no real economy of their own. Why would oil be the only thing holding up their economy? People there aren't capable of producing anything else? The inevitable failure of their socialist system made them easy prey for the U.S. government vultures.

Not all of the countries you listed have the same exact system as Venezuela, but they are all heavily centrally planned, and predictably, the more centrally planned they are, the weaker they are and more vulnerable to U.S. interference. You'll notice that Russia is in no danger of crumbling while Venezuela is just about a failed state and North Korea isn't much further ahead.

[juleswin]

It is. Because they have no real economy of their own. Why would oil be the only thing holding up their economy? People there aren't capable of producing anything else? The inevitable failure of their socialist system made them easy prey for the U.S. government vultures.

Not all of the countries you listed have the same exact system as Venezuela, but they are all heavily centrally planned, and predictably, the more centrally planned they are, the weaker they are and more vulnerable to U.S. interference. You'll notice that Russia is in no danger of crumbling while Venezuela is just about a failed state and North Korea isn't much further ahead.

You could say the same thing about other successful economies. Saudi Arabia, Honk Kong etc etc. Do you know that about 90% of GDP produced by the Hong Kong economy comes from the service sector? of that 90% service economy, Insurance/finance, public sector services and shipping dominates the sector. A smart man might ask, can Hong Kong not produce any other product outside the service industry?

I dunno, maybe it is something they are just really good at. I think the US minding its own business would be good for just about every economy even socialist leaning ones.

[The Gold Standard]

You could say the same thing about other successful economies. Saudi Arabia, Honk Kong etc etc. Do you know that about 90% of GDP produced by the Hong Kong economy comes from the service sector? of that 90% service economy, Insurance/finance, public sector services and shipping dominates the sector. A smart man might ask, can Hong Kong not produce any other product outside the service industry?

Hong Kong is among the most free economies in the world, so they've probably figured out that they can more efficiently offer those services in exchange for importing what they need. Saudi Arabia has a lot more oil than Venezuela and also gets billions of dollars from the U.S., otherwise they would probably have people starving to death all over the place too.


I think the US minding its own business would be good for just about every economy even socialist leaning ones.

Of course it would. I didn't suggest the U.S. should be involved at all. Those people would eventually get hungry enough to kill Maduro and figure something else out.

[juleswin]

Hong Kong is among the most free economies in the world, so they've probably figured out that they can more efficiently offer those services in exchange for importing what they need. Saudi Arabia has a lot more oil than Venezuela and also gets billions of dollars from the U.S., otherwise they would probably have people starving to death all over the place too.


Yea yea yea, I have heard all the hype about how free Honk Kong is, this is the same country where the govt owns all land and everyone is forced to rent or lease their land upon which every business is built from the govt. Imagine living in a place where you cannot own land. And the reason why I brought up Hong Kong is not for us to argue how free it is but to show that economies dominated by one sector business can still prosper. You said their problem was because their economy was highly dependent on other to thrive. Well, the same can be said for Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. Both countries can be easily devastated by a well placed sanction on either country.

Essentially, Venezuela could be Hong Kong tomorrow and would still be suffering if the US decides to attack. Also people tend to forget that Hong Kong enjoys military protection from US which enables then to survive without a military and concentrate more on their economy. On the other hand, Venezuela has to have a military and sleep with one eye open all the time. This is because the US and its hostile American captured neighbor govt will not pass on the opportunity to take it over.


Of course it would. I didn't suggest the U.S. should be involved at all. Those people would eventually get hungry enough to kill Maduro and figure something else out.

Well, they tried that method in a more socialist Libya and that day never came. The people loved Gaddafi even with the sanctions on the country, the US got so tired of waiting for the starving Libyans to kill Gaddafi that they used their Wahhabi henchmen to do the job.

[Danke]

Yea yea yea, I have heard all the hype about how free Honk Kong is, this is the same country where the govt owns all land and everyone is forced to rent or lease their land upon which every business is built from the govt. Imagine living in a place where you cannot own land.

Stop paying tribute to the state here and quickly find out who really owns the land.




Also people tend to forget that Hong Kong enjoys military protection from US...

Have you notified the People’s Liberation Army of this?

[The Gold Standard]

Yea yea yea, I have heard all the hype about how free Honk Kong is, this is the same country where the govt owns all land and everyone is forced to rent or lease their land upon which every business is built from the govt. Imagine living in a place where you cannot own land. And the reason why I brought up Hong Kong is not for us to argue how free it is but to show that economies dominated by one sector business can still prosper. You said their problem was because their economy was highly dependent on other to thrive. Well, the same can be said for Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. Both countries can be easily devastated by a well placed sanction on either country.

Essentially, Venezuela could be Hong Kong tomorrow and would still be suffering if the US decides to attack. Also people tend to forget that Hong Kong enjoys military protection from US which enables then to survive without a military and concentrate more on their economy. On the other hand, Venezuela has to have a military and sleep with one eye open all the time. This is because the US and its hostile American captured neighbor govt will not pass on the opportunity to take it over.


We live in a place where you can't own land. And I didn't say Hong Kong was a free economy. Just among the most free in the world. There are no free economies on Earth. And sure, sanctions would hurt them, but they would hurt us worse. Venezuela was dying long before any sanctions were put on them.

And I said no such thing about Venezuela's economy being too dependent on others to thrive. If they had a real economy, when they realized that oil revenues weren't going to be enough to feed everyone, other opportunities would have arisen. People would have planted more crops bringing down the price and increasing the supply of food. All of the things that happen when people voluntarily do business with each other. With a central planner, the money means nothing, the price means nothing, and they have no idea if they need to plant more crops or if it's more important to pump out more oil or what.

That's why socialism is impossible to sustain in the real world. It can last until the government squanders the resources to the point that the people can't survive any more. And that's why places like Saudi Arabia can hang on a while longer. They have more oil, and the United States subsidizes their economy anyway, just like European economies. When the U.S. can no longer afford to do that, those will spiral out of control too.



Well, they tried that method in a more socialist Libya and that day never came. The people loved Gaddafi even with the sanctions on the country, the US got so tired of waiting for the starving Libyans to kill Gaddafi that they used their Wahhabi henchmen to do the job.

I can tell how beloved he was by how fiercely they fought for their leader instead of fighting each other for control after he was dead. But of course they would prefer Gaddafi to the U.S. imposing a different dictator on them. I don't know what that has to do with Venezuela. I'm sure they would rather have the devil they know too.

[juleswin]

Stop paying tribute to the state here and quickly find out who really owns the land.

True, also a quick way to find out who really owns most of the guns. Psst, its still the govt



Have you notified the People’s Liberation Army of this?

Thanks for the correction, but my point is still valid, they are protected for free from outside aggression and hence need no standing army. Socialist leaning Venezuela is not so lucky.

[juleswin]

We live in a place where you can't own land. And I didn't say Hong Kong was a free economy. Just among the most free in the world. There are no free economies on Earth. And sure, sanctions would hurt them, but they would hurt us worse. Venezuela was dying long before any sanctions were put on them.

I don't know where u live but I can own property in the part of the US, yes you are made to pay property taxes but your lease/rent cannot be revoked if you pay the property tax. That is really different from rent/leasing land. I think the US has been attacking the Venezuelan people long before their economy collapsed. I don't have proof so please don't ask me to produce one, its a hunch.


And I said no such thing about Venezuela's economy being too dependent on others to thrive. If they had a real economy, when they realized that oil revenues weren't going to be enough to feed everyone, other opportunities would have arisen. People would have planted more crops bringing down the price and increasing the supply of food. All of the things that happen when people voluntarily do business with each other. With a central planner, the money means nothing, the price means nothing, and they have no idea if they need to plant more crops or if it's more important to pump out more oil or what.

I thought my the term "real economy" that was what you meant. And yea, maybe they could have started producing enough food to feed their economy but maybe its taking them a while to get there and maybe sanctions hurt with that effort. Nobody could tell what could have happened if the all powerful US weren't trying to undermine the country.

Btw, Hitler was a very good city planner who brought Germany out of a deep deep hyperinflation recession. So don't tell me a city planner couldn't have worked things out.


That's why socialism is impossible to sustain in the real world. It can last until the government squanders the resources to the point that the people can't survive any more. And that's why places like Saudi Arabia can hang on a while longer. They have more oil, and the United States subsidizes their economy anyway, just like European economies. When the U.S. can no longer afford to do that, those will spiral out of control too.

The US subsidizes the Saudi economy? how is that? if anything, it is the other way around. The Saudis subsidize the US economy in exchange for ability to buy US weapons and military know how to they use to subjugate their people and neighbours. Mixed economies like you have in Venezuela is actually very sustainable regardless of whatever some people will like to tell you. It just gets a hard time with sanctions and sabotage in place


I can tell how beloved he was by how fiercely they fought for their leader instead of fighting each other for control after he was dead. But of course they would prefer Gaddafi to the U.S. imposing a different dictator on them. I don't know what that has to do with Venezuela. I'm sure they would rather have the devil they know too.

They fought valiantly for 8 months until they couldn't fight anymore. The people who were used to attack the country were mainly foreigners from neighbouring countries and a few local opportunist looking to be king. And yes, these people are in every country, it doesn't matter how nice, fair and how just Gaddafi ruled, there would always be people trying to take power from him.

[Swordsmyth]

A court in Aruba lifted liens on two oil cargoes that ConocoPhillips put in place in an effort to collect its $2 billion arbitration award, Reuters reported May 23. The court said that the oil cargoes did not belong to Venezeula's state-owned energy company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), but to Citgo Petroleum Corp., it's U.S. refining subsidiary.

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situation-report/aruba-court-lifts-conocophillips-liens-venezuelan-oil

[enhanced_deficit]

No one said making Peace in the world was going to be easy.

[Swordsmyth]

Crisis-hit cash-strapped Venezuela has stopped payments due to the overseas arm of India’s top oil explorer for a joint Venezuelan project, which has resulted in the Latin American country piling debt of US$444 million (https://in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-ongc/venezuela-halts-payments-to-ongc-san-cristobal-imperiled-idINKCN1IW2P9) to the Indian company.
ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas unit of India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), holds 40 percent in the San Cristobal energy project in Venezuela, while state firm PDVSA owns the remaining 60 percent.
“They paid us three installments and have not paid any money for more than six months,” OVL’s managing director Narendra Verma said at a news conference.
According to OVL, Venezuela’s PDVSA has not paid dividends from the project to the Indian firm between 2009 and 2013 (https://www.firstpost.com/business/cash-strapped-venezuela-stops-payments-of-oil-dues-to-ongc-videsh-leading-to-450-million-pile-up-4491401.html), while no dividends have been declared after that.
In November 2016, the Indian company signed a deal with PDVSA for the Venezuelan firm to clear the sum it owes in installments.
“We received three installments totaling $88 million but subsequent ones have stopped,” Verma told reporters.
“We want them to honour the agreement (to pay past dues) as the financing of the project is linked to that. Otherwise, the project will die,” the manager said.
As part of the ‘payment in installments deal’ from 2016, OVL agreed to help PDVSA to raise US$318 million financing for the San Cristobal project, while the Venezuelan company agreed to supply 17,000 bpd of crude oil in order to repay the US$537 million owed to OVL.
“We are telling them to allot oil for us in lieu of the dues,” OVL’s Verma said on Thursday.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Venezuela-Stops-Oil-Project-Payment-To-Indian-Firm-Owes-444M.html

[Swordsmyth]

Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA has told eight foreign clients (https://www.platts.com/latest-news/oil/caracas-venezuela/pdvsa-tells-crude-buyers-it-cannot-meet-full-21057038) it will be unable to supply the contracted volumes of crude oil, a company employee told S&P Platts.
"Among the affected clients due to the low availability of crude to export are Nynas, Tipco, Chevron, CNPC, Reliance, Conoco, Valero, and Lukoil, which will partially receive the volumes established by the contracts," the person said.
The amount the company will not be able to supply is close to half of the total committed volumes of this grade, Merey 16, for June. It only has 578,000 bpd of the grade available, while the total contracted volume is 1.271 million barrels daily. PDVSA’s total crude commitments for the month stand at 1.495 million bpd, but it only has 694,000 bpd available.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Venezuelas-PDVSA-Fails-To-Meet-Oil-Supply-Obligations.html

[Swordsmyth]

Venezuela might have to declare force majeure on its oil exports as production plunges and its ports are unable to ship enough crude. The ongoing meltdown in Venezuela’s oil sector could tighten the oil market more than expected.
Reuters reported (https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL2N1T728R) Tuesday that Venezuela is considering declaring force majeure, a legal declaration made in extraordinary circumstances to basically get out of contractual obligations. In other words, Venezuela’s PDVSA is essentially prepared to say that it can’t supply the oil that it promised.


It is no surprise that Venezuela has fallen short on the shipments it has promised, but the figures are staggering. In April, Venezuela only shipped 1.49 million barrels per day of oil and fuels, or 665,000 bpd below what it had contracted, according to Reuters. That means that some customers are missing out on cargo. For instance, in April, PDVSA shorted its subsidiary Citgo nearly all of what it had promised – 273,000 bpd.
The problems for Venezuela continue to mount, and the news that it is considering force majeure points to a more catastrophic decline in production and exports. PDVSA "in the best case only has about 695,000 b/d of crude supply available for export in June," a marketing division executive within the company told Argus Media (https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/1693228-pdv-considers-force-majeure-on-oil-exports).

“[PDVSA] has a critical structural problem that cannot be fixed in a few weeks or even a few months, because the core problem is that Venezuela's crude production has dropped far beneath the volumes we are contracted to deliver,” a company executive told Argus. “We simply aren't producing enough crude, and we don't have the cash flow to compensate by purchasing crude from third parties to meet our supply commitments. Our greatest operational concern right now is that production continues to fall and our export supply volumes also will continue to decline as a result.”
As a result, the force majeure on shipments seems unavoidable, unless that is, customers simply take a haircut and accept lower volumes. A PDVSA source told Argus Media that companies that don’t accept lower volumes could see all of their shipments suspended. That sounds like a threat, but it is PDVSA that is in the state of crisis, not buyers from China, India or the U.S.

Customers are already reporting problems with shipments. A Japanese trading house told S&P Global Platts (https://www.platts.com/latest-news/oil/tokyo/japanese-companies-face-difficulty-lifting-venezuelan-26969380) this week that it has been unable to load up on Venezuelan oil under a loan-for-oil deal. "There is no cargo made available to lift," said the source.
Several diplomats from China and India told Argus that refiners from their countries are looking elsewhere for oil shipments in the months ahead, on the expectation that cargoes from Venezuela continue to decline. Independent refiners from China are looking at heavy crude sources such as Mexico’s Maya, Colombia’s Castilla, and Canada’s Cold Lake Blend, according to S&P Global Platts (https://www.platts.com/latest-news/oil/singapore/china-independents-look-for-other-crude-oil-grades-26969014).

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Venezuelas-Oil-Meltdown-Defies-Belief.html

[Swordsmyth]

ConocoPhillips has won a court ruling allowing it to depose Citgo, the U.S. unit of troubled Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, Reuters reports (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-conocophillips-citgo-assets/conoco-to-depose-citgo-in-hunt-for-pdvsas-caribbean-assets-idUSKBN1JV34N?rpc=401&). The move is part of Conoco’s offensive against PDVSA in a bid to enforce a court ruling that awarded it US$2 billion in compensation for the forced nationalization of company assets in Venezuela.
So far, as part of the effort to enforce the ruling, Conoco has seized a number of PDVSA assets in the Caribbean, adding to the company’s already substantial woes and trouble with fulfilling its export contracts. With oil production at the lowest in decades and with no cash to increase it, PDVSA is struggling, and Conoco is not pulling any punches.
The U.S. supermajor has alleged that PDVSA has transferred crude oil and oil products from a refinery and a storage facility in Curacao to Citgo in an attempt to prevent Conoco from seizing it, as it seized other assets and oil inventory in the Caribbean. It also claimed that PDVSA had told Citgo to claim ownership of several cargos docked at Aruba to avoid having them seized by Conoco.
Assets already seized by the supermajor include (https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Conoco-Proceeds-With-More-PDVSA-Asset-Seizures.html) a 10-million-barrel storage facility on the island of Bonair, fuel inventories on Curacao, and two tankers in Aruba, one carrying 500,000 barrels of oil and the other with 300,000 barrels of jet fuel.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Conoco-Hunts-Down-Citgo-For-PDVSA-Deposition.html

[Swordsmyth]

PDVSA settled (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-conocophillips-pdvsa/conocophillips-settles-with-venezuelas-pdvsa-to-recover-2-billion-idUSKCN1L517X) with ConocoPhillips on Monday over an outstanding debt issue, a move that the Venezuelan oil company surely hopes will give it some breathing room even as the nation continues to crumble.
Earlier this year, Conoco won an international arbitration award resulting from the 2007 assets seizure by Venezuela. Conoco quickly moved to lay claim to PDVSA’s refining assets in the Dutch Caribbean, a devastating blow to Venezuela that compounded fiscal and operational problems. Without the processing facilities on the islands of Curacao and Aruba, PDVSA’s oil exports plunged deeper in the second quarter.
Venezuela’s revolutionary government has made it a point of pride to resist outside pressure, which makes the latest settlement all the more remarkable. PDVSA has agreed to pay ConocoPhillips an initial $500 million within 90 days, which will then be followed by quarterly payments over the next four and a half years.
The fact that PDVSA agreed to the settlement is a testament to how much of a crisis the company (and ultimately the Venezuelan government) finds itself in, and how important those Caribbean assets are to ongoing operations. Venezuela’s oil production continues to decline. In July, output fell to just 1.278 million barrels per day (mb/d), down 500,000 bpd from the fourth quarter of last year and down nearly 1 mb/d from two years ago. A growing number of analysts see output dipping below the 1-million-barrel-per-day mark by the end of 2018.
The deal comes as the U.S.-based subsidiary of PDVSA, Citgo, is also in the spotlight. A recent court ruling in a separate case exposed Citgo to asset seizure. Canadian miner Crystallex won a case just this month against PDVSA, arguing that Citgo, as a subsidiary of PDVSA, was essentially the same company as PDVSA, which means that Citgo was eligible for asset seizure. A U.S. federal judge agreed (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-pdvsa-crystallex/venezuelas-pdvsa-appealing-crystallex-court-ruling-court-document-idUSKBN1KY024), putting Citgo in jeopardy (https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Venezuelas-Key-Refineries-At-Risk-Of-Seizure.html). Citgo is appealing the decision.
PDVSA’s settlement with Conoco could get the American oil company of its back, so long as payments are forthcoming. That could potentially relieve some operational pressure. Presumably, PDVSA could regain control of the facilities on the Caribbean, which should allow for oil exports to resume at higher levels.

But the settlement does not mean that PDVSA is out of the woods, by any means. First, the payments will be painful and hard to meet. The $2 billion that PDVSA owes ConocoPhillips amounts to about a quarter of the cash reserves that Venezuela’s central bank still has left. If the Venezuelan oil company fails to meet the terms of the settlement, Conoco “can resume global enforcement actions,” Daren Beaudo, a Conoco spokesman, told Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-20/conocophillips-to-recover-2-billion-in-settlement-with-pdvsa) in an email.
Second, it does little to assuage the long line of creditors who are not part of the deal. Indeed, they could begin to fight for the remaining crumbs as the country falls apart.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/PDVSA-Settles-With-ConocoPhillips-In-Desperate-Bid-to-Stop-Decline.html

[oyarde]

I have been waiting for Danke to fly me to Bonair . I have a few things stashed there I probably ought to pick up .

[nbhadja]

Venezuela just like most economies is a mixed economy and that was the point he was trying to make as opposed to the idiots who go around calling it a socialist paradise. Found this article from fox news.



http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/07/18/socialism-private-sector-dominates-venezuelan-economy-despite-chavez-crusade.html

Don't you think its a bit weird that a socialist country has 66% + of their economy still controlled by private sector? Sorry, I don't have some scholar analysis for you to read. All the stuff I get is from wikipedia, articles and videos from youtube.

Don't you ever get tired of being wrong? These "private" companies are private in name only. They are forced by the oppressive and large government to run their business the way the government wants. They can't even set their own prices thanks to price controls.

You should move to your socialist utopia of Venezuela.