Posted on 08/04/2011 7:41:41 AM PDT by bananaman22
If Cuba's Fidel Castro is America's favorite Latin American bête noire, then Venezuela's Hugo Chavez qualifies as Washington's reigning Prince of Darkness.
In 1960, Fidel Castro nationalized US business interests without compensation, bringing down on impoverished benighted country 51 years of sanctions that continue to the present day.
Similarly, four years ago Chavez completed the nationalization of foreign oil interests, transferring their shares to the state-owned petroleum company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., more commonly referred to by its acronym PDVSA.
The screaming was heard echoing through the boardrooms and canyons of Wall Street. Now the picture appears to be shifting, as Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters this week, “We’ve never said we wouldn’t pay” the two U.S. multinational corporations Exxon-Mobil and Conoco-Phillips, “the only two that didn’t accept our laws and didn’t accept (the terms of a compensation deal for confiscated assets) and took the dispute to the World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID.”
As Ramirez is also the president of PDVSA, his comments should not be taken lightly. Ramirez added that the arbitration processes “are moving forward and we have to defend ourselves because those mechanisms are so perverse that if you don’t show up they execute you.”
Venezuela’s oil industry had been under private control until 1974, when Venezuela nationalized it, setting up PDVSA. Venezuela’s oil production is centered in the Orinoco Oil Belt, which analysts believe contains the world’s largest reserves of extra-heavy oil, with an estimated 300 billion recoverable barrels. Full article at: Venezuela to Compensate American Oil Companies for Nationalization?
Uh oh...And we have to do what??? Something isn’t right.
They nationalized but we STILL buy from them.
PDVSA owns several refineries and a major brand name in the US.
I remember when Chile nationalized General Tire’s plants, paying them $1 per plant. Allende was looking pretty good until the machinery started to wear out. They then tried to buy spare parts from the US manufacturer, who told them to take a hike. The result: Millions of tons of rust as the plants disintegrated over time. I think something similar is happening to Hugo Goofball now.
I'd bet on it, but I wouldn't walk in there with an army of Angels. One thing breaks, one refinery explosion and you know who is going to get blamed.
Let them fix their own.
I hope you’re right, but he has VERY deep pockets and he will be desperate to get things back on line. I fear the big money involved will entice someone to go in and fix things.
The amount, to be negotiated by the Department of State, will be forwarded by wire to the Obama 2012 Campaign.
These companies should go to federal court and sue for CITGO’s assets as compensation for their losses to Chavez.
A wise man once told me, “The money isn’t worth anything if you don’t live to cash the check.”
All these clever globalists putting their eggs in the basket of China and India... They all risk losing their assets to state confiscation.
Since we no longer have a constitution and the rule of Chavez style Marxists appeals to the public, I guess the same is true here.
Chavez is trying to get into heaven now.
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