Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a dictatorship, the money goes to the dictator and his friends.
Talking about Venezuela, US or both?
In the US the money mostly goes to AI companies it seems.
Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
51–60 of 111 posts
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's really absurd how well the Maduros kidnapping plan worked. Without even changing the party in power, Trump can pretend Venezuela is reformed and do all of the economic normalization a liberal president never would have gotten away with. But the back-to-back policy disasters are otherwise a good reminder that a broken clock is only right twice a day.
> economic normalization You mean the looting
Well what would you do if someone owed you 240b? Debt collectors don't exist where you come from?
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#53That's it? That's only like 3 months of OpenAI/Anthropic
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#54This seems really about handing Venezuela back to Western oil companies, apparently by legitimizing the oil company claims and putting Venezuala in their power as their bankrupt debtors. How does all this help the Venezualan people? How is it a good deal for them? Venezuala likely should default on much of the debt and finance themselves through their own oil. Financial Times: [0]
“Investors have previously estimated that Venezuela also owes $30bn-$50bn to oil companies and trade creditors for unpaid invoices and more than $20bn in legal claims awarded to companies after Chávez’s regime expropriated their property.
Venezuela has also been estimated to owe $10bn-$20bn to China in debts that Caracas previously paid from oil exports but is believed to have stopped servicing, about $6bn to Russia, and $4bn to development banks”
But notice that one of the first acts of the new government was to pass laws handing Venezuala's most valuable asset by far, their oil, to foreign companies. Imagine the US, Russia, Norway, or Saudia Arabia doing that. Even if that wasn't a politically disasterous idea - one with a proven track record worldwide - it's hardly the top need of the Venezualan people. They don't seem to be people served by the new government - the Venezualans aren't the people who put the government in power, for one thing.
Control over countries and their oil, including via debt, an old, well-established strategy, long used by the West. It's been abandoned until Trump has seemingly returned to it - as if the oil companies are hoping to relive their most powerful era.
Notice also that Trump's attacks have been on the leading oil producing countries outside US influence: Venezuala and Iran, and Nigeria. (Yes, the first two are also long-term political enemies - you might consider that the oil, inability of US to control them, and enemy status might not be coincidental.)
[0] https://www.ft.com/content/b7f25ca2-827c-40f9-ab1a-57067d8ec... - quote stolen from another comment
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's really absurd how well the Maduros kidnapping plan worked. Without even changing the party in power, Trump can pretend Venezuela is reformed and do all of the economic normalization a liberal president never would have gotten away with. But the back-to-back policy disasters are otherwise a good reminder that a broken clock is only right twice a day.
> It's really absurd how well the Maduros kidnapping plan worked. It's almost like people currently in the white house know what they're doing, right? Who would have thought! /s
The current admin has been embarrassingly bad at wielding the awesome powers of the US in a meaningful way.
Of course the US are the all-powerful juggernaut with many levers to pull to use their power. Winning battles is easy. Winning the metaphorical war is harder.
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#56That's it? That's only like 3 months of OpenAI/Anthropic
Venezuela's GDP (ie. it's yearly economic production) is around $111B.
This is a very large debt load and extremely difficult to pay off.
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's way too early to declare total victory. US also swiftly deposed Chavez, but Chavismo came roaring back. Maduro himself is unlikely to escape his abduction, but the actual power structures and grassroots opposition to Washington's totalitarianism remains across LatAm.
you can talk about "opposition still remains" as much as you want, but it's the right wing leaders who are winning elections
I'm not talking about elections that far right lunatics* allegedly win by 1%. I'm talking about what happens after.
* Colombia's new guy boasted of strapping fireworks to cats, and married his wife when she turned 18 and he was almost 30.
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#58This seems really about handing Venezuela back to Western oil companies, apparently by legitimizing the oil company claims and putting Venezuala in their power as their bankrupt debtors. How does all this help the Venezualan people? How is it a good deal for them? Venezuala likely should default on much of the debt and finance themselves through their own oil. Financial Times: [0] “Investors have previously estimated…
> handing Venezuela back to Western oil companies...
Before the 2018 sanctions and after the American expropriation in the 2000s, the biggest foreign players in Venezuela's ONG industry were Spanish (Reposol), Indian (ONGC, Indian Oil, Oil India, Reliance), Chinese (Sinopec, CNPC), and Russian (Rosneft).
The Spanish and Indian players kept operations at a minimum during the sanctions regime, but quickly scaled up after Maduro was captured.
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Listen Citizen, how else do you expect to soften Cuba up for democratic liberation? An ICE officer has been dispatched to your location
Cuba just...gave up last week[1]. Wasn't even above-the-fold news. There'd be no point in any kind of boots on the ground invasion when they just did the thing that the invasion would've tried to accomplish. [1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/cuba-passes-sweeping-free...
That assumes the point of invading Cuba is to do liberal market reforms. If the goal is either to expropriate resources or just throw chum to the Florida voters in an election year then it's still on the table.
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like him or hate him, Venezuela has been quite literally a fabulous win.
Fabulous win in what ways, and for who? I'm genuinely asking, as I haven't followed the country much. From what I have read the same corrupt repressive regime, the one that ran the country into the ground, is still in place while the democratic opposition that had shown some life in recent years has gone silent.
Yeah, but did you considered that democracy was never a goal? Republican party is in full swing to destroy American democracy, why would they seek to create one in Venezuela?
Bribes and oil were the goal. Consolidation of allied dictator was goal. That worked.