[Thread] The "interim president" and the corporations
Self-proclaimed @jguaido, this worthless US puppet, has found himself in some hot water over the handling of Venezuelan assets that fell in his lap. We'll have a detailed report soon, but in the meantime here's the gist of it
This week, a document from a Delaware court said that the Guaidó "administration" had reached an agreement to pay oil giant ConocoPhillips $1.3 billion. The fact that this was not disclosed nor approved by his (make-believe, expired) parliament drew criticism on social media
The background is that ConocoPhillips was awarded $2B by an intl arbitration court, the Vzlan govt reached a settlement but couldn't deliver because of sanctions, so CP moved to seize Citgo shares (US-based oil subsidiary). And it's not the only one after Citgo (more below)
The natural Q is "how did Guaidó intend to pay this $1.3B"? One obvious guess is... Citgo shares. But worry not! It was all a misunderstanding. The self-proclaimed one and his team of top minds put out a statement saying this whole thing in the document is there "by mistake"
Let's play a game of "which is worse?"
- Guaidó & co. pledged to pay $1.3B, then lied about it
- Guaidó & co (whose lawyers had this info weeks before publication) failed to see a $1.3B pledge they didn't make
Credit to @frrodriguezc for his explanations and asking the right Qs
Let those who never unknowingly pledged to pay $1.3 billion dollars cast the first stone. Anyway, this court document has to do with Crystallex's similar bid to get its greedy corporate hands on Citgo shares. The mining giant also won a $1.4 billion intl arbitration award
Crystallex sent a letter to the US Treasury asking to seize Vzlan assets. US authorities denied the request yet pledged to revisit the stance in 2022. They say that's when Guaidó's Natl Assembly's term "expires". It really expired in Jan 2021 but US puppets just make up new rules
The ban on dealings w/ the defaulted PDVSA 2020 bond (it has Citgo as collateral) also expires in Jan 2022, so could the clock be ticking on Citgo? Between the pro-corporate "justice" handed by intl arbitration courts and the opposition's buffoonish antics, it doesn't look good
However, this is not all. The Guaidó camp recently and "quietly" dropped its opposition to the enforcement of yet another international arbitration award, this time $1.2 billion to fellow Canadian corporation Rusoro Mining. Another one lining up to seize Citgo?
To this we should add the recent scandal involving Monómeros (Vzlan agrochemical company in Colombia) which was seized by the Colombian government and Guaidó "thanked" them for it. After all, Duque outranks him in the puppet hierarchy
Whatever the case may be, opposition knives are out. The leadership of the (expired) opp-controlled Natl Assembly penned a letter to Colombia opposing the Monómeros move. But Guaidó and another idiot refused to sign. What was that bit about unity?
For the past 2 and a half years, the spectacular failure of the coup attempt has forced the US into the unusual position of opposing corporate efforts to seize Vzlan assets. Simply put, these offer the Guaidó band credibility and a huge piggy bank. But is that about to change?
Even Washington has put an expiration date on this circus known as the "interim govt." Reading the tea leaves, it's not far fetched to expect an effort from corporations, coordinating w/ the US, to plunder these assets as soon as possible so they don't return to the Vzlan state
As for Guaidó, because of this really indescribable decision to consider an Olympic-level moron as Venezuela's "legitimate leader," he's the one who can sign off on all these dealings. Shall we take bets on him ending up as a board member at ConocoPhillips or Crystallex?
🧵When it comes to reporting about Venezuela, there is no corporate outlet even remotely close to the level of dishonesty of the New York Times. Seriously, it's one piece of misrepresented bullsh*t after another. Follow this thread as we break it down
This is the piece:
The article is not to be taken seriously b/c it starts from a blatant lie. US "prodding" has nothing to do with Venezuela holding elections. It is dictated by the Constitution that they be held this year and they were never in doubt shorturl.at/LFusR
Anyone not high on Western exceptionalism would actually be ashamed of their government meddling in other countries' affairs. But alas, this is the NYT.
In corporate media spiel, "restoring democracy" just means a US puppet being back in the presidential palace
🧵🧵The border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana has flared up recently, leading to a war of words, increased military deployment and increasing signs of US intervention. We have prepared an infographic to explain the history and context of the controversy (thread)
The Essequibo Strip is a sparsely populated, 160,000 square km region spanning to the west of the Essequibo River. It has been the subject of centuries of dispute which, sadly, have never taken into account the indigenous population
Instead, it has always been pretty much about resources. Gold mining is what drove British expansion westward (more on this below), and the recent discoveries of massive oil deposits led to Venezuela and Guyana raising tensions too
About time... Spain's @el_pais reports that the $3 billion in frozen Vzlan assets will soon be released. This was agreed to between the Venezuelan govt and opposition last November! But this thread is to point out the dishonest b.s. from the Spanish establishment's mouthpiece 🧵
This is the article in question:
It essentially relies on anonymous sources who say that the funds will soon be released. El País then covers this fairly straightforward report in a cloak of lies and misconceptionsenglish.elpais.com/international/…
So it begins. How dare Maduro want to access Venezuelan funds? Then it's incredibly disingenuous and racist to claim the govt wants to fix schools/hospitals to "polish its image." If a western govt builds a hospital, it's laudable. If Vzla does it it's to fool voters. GTFOH
🧵🧵Worse than a broken clock... Even when it wants to state the obvious, in this case that sanctions are a terrible and wrong policy, the @nytimes remains fully draped in US exceptionalism. The corporate media are an active front of the US empire (thread)
The article in question () is instantly off to a bad start. We are supposed to agree that Iran and NK should not have nuclear weapons, unlike the only country to ever use them. And would they also call the Iraq war an "egregious violation of intl laws"? https://t.co/ElNZjjKTlTtinyurl.com/3rmur79p
The end of the first section shows that this editorial is really not going anywhere since it's based on the outrageously false premise that the US should have some kind of god-given ability to impose murderous sanctions on other nations when it so pleases
🧵🧵🧵We just came across an incredible piece from the Financial Times (not in a good way). It has a remarkable blend of fallacious arguments, outright lies, bias, and lack of standards. This is a long thread, so bear with us!
This is the article in question from @FT (tinyurl.com/y32pmvtk). You can tell from the off that you're in for a ride because it's based on this assumption that the West "presses for free and fair elections" when this in fact has happened less frequently than Yeti sightings
FT "journalists" must get a bonus for every use of the word "authoritarian." It's not often that a piece starts w/ an outright falsehood, b/c "democracy" never left Venezuela, only the US didn't like election results. But this apocalyptic tone is worthy of a good chuckle
The US-backed Venezuelan opposition, which runs an imaginary parliament, wants a US court to declare a Venezuelan bond as invalid to try and soften the disaster brought by their complete bundling when in charge of CITGO
The strategy haw few chances of success, for several reasons, not least of them that when this National Assembly was actually running it *did not* formally declare the bond issued by the Maduro govt as illegal. A US-backed group was not about to challenge financial investors
.@Reuters will not let a short, straightforward piece get in the way of some outrageous lying. US sanctions have been classified as "collective punishment" against the Vzlan population, and these stenographer clowns write "sanctions against the Maduro govt" #SanctionsKill