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Oct 3, 2021 13 tweets 6 min read Read on X
[Thread] When we thought we had seen it all, @jguaido and his band of buffoons manage to surprise us. And not in a good way, of course. Oil giant ConocoPhillips just got the green light to enforce an $8.5B arbitration award because Guaidó's team... failed to show up in court Image
That's right, ladies and gentlemen. This ragtag circus troupe that Washington "recognizes" as the legitimate Vzlan govt (can anyone say this w/ a straight face?) failed to "plead or defend" itself for more than a year. Is it a case of criminal negligence or working for the enemy? Image
The background here is that disgraceful oil multinational ConocoPhillips won an $8.5 billion arbitration award for assets nationalized by the Hugo Chávez govt when the firm refused to comply with new legislation. Funny how these "tribunals" tend to rule in favor of corporations? Image
It's hardly the first of its kind. In other cases (one at least also involving CP), the Venezuelan gov't challenged the ruling, with some thrown out, others upheld, and others leading to reduced payouts. But in this case, the defense was in the hands of self-proclaimed Guaidó Image
ConocoPhillips moved to have the award enforced and the court approved given the "interim govt"'s no-show. "Vzla is neither an infant nor an incompetent person." Well... If we're talking about Guaidó and his troupe, it's both really. We need a new legal category: pliant US puppet ImageImage
Credit where credit is due: @frrodriguezc has done an invaluable job in bringing these documents to light. He rightfully asks, as we all do, "what's behind this decision to abandon the legal defense in the biggest arbitration award the country is facing?"
Given that the US-backed opposition allegedly struck a deal w/ ConocoPhillips on a $1.3B debt from another award (see thread for details), then very unconvincingly denied it, it's tempting to connect the dots. Was abandoning this defense the quid pro quo?
Our proverbial money is on this self-proclaimed monument to idiocy securing a golden parachute (ConocoPhillips board member?) once this pathetic charade comes to its inevitable, long-overdue end. But in the meantime, assets such as CITGO look as good as lost thanks to his antics Image
Even before this latest $8.5B golden ticket, there was already a queue of corporate vultures, some already trying to collect via a court-ordered sale of CITGO. These include Crystallex ($1.4B), ConocoPhillips ($1.3B), Rusoro Mining ($1.5B) and Owens-Illinois ($500M) Image
The awards are already worth more than the US-based Vzlan refiner, which has been imperiled by a unique mix of corruption, incompetence and conflict of interest. Opp-controlled CITGO has already hired JP Morgan to "consult" on dealing w/ creditors, so the writing's on the wall Image
The only thing standing in the way of the corporations right now is, remarkably, the US Treasury Dept, which has blocked the seizure of Vzlan assets w/o special permission to save US puppets from embarrassment. But there are hints that these protections may be lifted in 2022 Image
Some people have brought up that maybe the self-proclaimed "interim govt" ran out of money, as some pretend official recently asked for resources for defending assets. We're not buying it. There was money for a mercenary invasion but not to pay lawyers? presidenciave.com/parlamento/pro…
Venezuela's foreign assets are sure to be a hot topic in the coming months, w/ the (actual) government determined to fight for them, the opposition doing its best to lose them and the US stuck between serving corporations and protecting its puppets. Follow VA for coverage Image

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More from @venanalysis

Jul 23
🧵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 Image
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
Image
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 Image
Read 13 tweets
Nov 29, 2023
🧵🧵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) Image
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 Image
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 Image
Read 11 tweets
Sep 12, 2023
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 🧵 Image
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 Image
Read 20 tweets
Jul 25, 2023
🧵🧵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) Image
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
Image
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 Image
Read 13 tweets
Jun 9, 2023
🧵🧵🧵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! Image
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 Image
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 Image
Read 17 tweets
Jun 7, 2023
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

reuters.com/markets/commod…
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 Image
Read 5 tweets

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