Venezuelans have spoken

For $50 million they said come and get him
Must be some parties in the military bases
100,000 troops divide $50 Million up

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5 Benjamin’s each would go a long way in Venezuela today,

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Me no like you.

Me steal you.

And your wife.

Neanderthal politics at their best.

Sorry, second best.

Team America: World Police (2004) - IMDb

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Interesting that Trump said US oil majors will go in and rebuild the oil infrastructure to help supply Russia and China

Now that they can speak up a Journo has said they secretly collected the last ballot papers from the last Presidential election in Venezuela and said the opposition got in with 67% of the votes, but the dictator fixed that.

It’s a problem that’s faced all around the world.

It doesn’t matter who votes, or who they voted for… everything is decided by who counts the votes.

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He said US oil majors would go back into the VZ oil fields to repair the infrastructure (that was seized from them by the Chavez regime) in order to sell VZ oil on the open market, not specifically Russia and China.

First I would like to say the US bombing & kidnapping Venezuela’s president is illegal as heck in my book just like all the other coup de’tats we orchestrated. That’s something Congress is supposed to authorize. But oddly enough, I don’t have a problem with a lone snipers bullet accomplishing the same goal?

I was surprised my former employer from 19 yrs ago is still fighting for assets stolen by the Venezuela government in 2009. I have friends who were in Venezuela at the time & the company only managed to escape 1 boat out of 13. The company said they were worth $234M while the World Court only awarded them $43M. Venezuela never paid a penny. Once while in Business Class on a long flight I was next to a VP from Proctor & Gamble. He said he was in the last group to leave Venezuela when all their assets were stolen too. P&G never got their settlement money either. It’s not just big oil & gas who pulled the strings imo.

Quote from war battered General Smedley Butler:

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.”

https://jusmundi.com/en/document/other/en-tidewater-investment-srl-and-tidewater-caribe-c-a-v-bolivarian-republic-of-venezuela-notice-of-appeal-friday-1st-december-2023

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Russia does not import oil from Venezuela. They compete on the World market against Venezuela for market share.

Restoring Venezuela’s oil production to 3.5 million barrels a day (or much more with new technology) will reduce World oil prices, and Russia’s oil sales volume and income.

It would be much better to have China and India buying Venezuelan oil rather than Russian oil.

Looking at the comments that the Venezuelans are posting on social media, 99% say they are thrilled and grateful that that Trump removed Maduro.

It seems that about 40% of the US population loves and supports Trump, and another 40% hates and wants to depose Trump. The other 20% of us are in the sane middle ground.

While I am totally disgusted by Trump constantly sucking up to Putin and failing to fully support Ukraine in the war, I fully support deposing Maduro.

While I am pleased that Trump has stopped illegal immigration over the Southern Border, I am disgusted by the excessive and inhumane internal immigration enforcement by ICE.

Surely you do not believe any oil company is going to produce more oil to get the price down for any reason much less to punish Russia.That make no business sense for them. They owe allegiance to no nation as Exxon’s CEO explained to the US Congress many years ago. OPEC sure doesn’t want the price to go down either for obvious reasons. No this is just an attempt to gain favor from some major political contributors, again for obvious reasons,The US military works for the money men’s benefit and has for 100 years.

To be clear I hated Maduro but there were cheaper ways to remove him as Sand Pebble mentioned, if of course that was the sole intention and anyone with a brain knows it was not.

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I remember the Iraqis and Afghans being thrilled when Bush removed Saddam and the Taliban, too. Then they realized we had no actual workable plan for making things better for them afterward. I look forward to seeing how much better the current administration does at long term planning and organization now that we’re apparently back in the business of creating power vacuums. Surely we’ve learned our lesson. Surely.

As far as I understand it the Venezuela’s oil reserves are largely of "extra-heavy crude oil, which requires heating and/or injection of nafta to be able to pump it out of the ground.
It is not suitable for many (most?) refineries, while some may be “dependent” on this grade. (I.e. some along the GoM)
It might not be economical to produce this type of crude oil under certain market conditions.

Can someone here confirm or debunk the above?

There is an enormous difference between tribal Islamic countries that hate all infidels half a World away, and Catholic country next door.

Venezuela has a large expat population in the US, and the wealthy in Venezuela love to fly to Miami frequently to shop and play. In many ways, Miami is the social and economic capital of Latin America.

The US did a good job of nation building or rebuilding after WWII.

If the US can succeed again at nation building anywhere, it’s probably in oil rich Venezuela.

In some ways, nation building would be easier in Cuba. The population is only 1/3rd of Venezuela and Cuba is much closer, but Cuba has no wealth or economic potential other than tourism and agriculture.

I think the US stands a very good chance of helping Venezuela to become great again (as it was before Chavez), and rooting out Islamic terrorists, but the drug cartels will probably continue as before.

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From WaPo today:

Source: https://wapo.st/49fIlwY

  • If this was “a straightforward law enforcement operation”, why did it take “more than 150 aircrafts”, a large US Navy fleet and elite Commandos, to support the Federal Police that did the arresting?

  • What kind of jurisdiction does US Federal Police have to arrest a foreign person in a foreign country?

  • Even if there was/is a warrant of arrest, based on a US indictment, shouldn’t a request be sent to Venezuelan Authorities to arrest and extradite the accused person(s) to the US?

  • Doesn’t normal procedures per International Law apply for the US, only for everybody else?

Imagine if foreign police had arrested a US citizen on US soil, based on charges made in a foreign country. :enraged_face:

Dear Disgusted and Pleased,

Never forget that if you voted for and support those whose actions you find disgusting, you share responsibility for those actions.

But Maduro invited Trump.

English subtitles below translate his quote while stark music plays. “Come for me,” Maduro taunts while addressing a crowd. “I’m waiting for you here in Maraflores! Don’t take too long to arrive, coward!”

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There is obviously a very big difference between arresting a criminal drug dealing dictator running a lawless country without an effective judiciary, and arresting a random US citizen in the US.

Using the “cheaper” way would not have made millions for the US military industrial complex. Venezuelan crude is heavy sour crude oil that requires a lot of refining to be useful. Yes it is a good thing that Maduro is deposed. Overall this is short term money maker for US military industrial , and long term money maker for the petro-chem industry. The long term will require a lot of capital outlay for it to be profitable.

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Unfortunately it is profoundly unlikely that “helping Venezuelans to become great again” was ever and will ever be among the reasons for waging an unlawful war (remember Nuremberg) against another nation.