It did not take chavez—the would-be monkey king of Venezuela—long to blame the US for his devastating loss against Exxon-Mobil in European courts, which resulted in $12 billion in Venezuelan assets being frozen. He is just borrowing another page from the castro, Inc. play book: Blame all your failures and missteps on the US. In his usual, and by now worn out routine on his weekly radio and TV show, “Hello, President Monkey Boy,” chavez once again does his best King Kong imitation and pounds his fists on his chest.
“If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we’re going to harm you,” Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, “Hello,
PresidentMonkey Boy.” “Do you know how? We aren’t going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger.”
Chavez has repeatedly threatened to cut off oil shipments to the United States, which is Venezuela’s No. 1 client, if Washington tries to oust him. Chavez’s warnings on Sunday appeared to extend that threat to attempts by oil companies to challenge his government’s nationalization drive through lawsuits.
“I speak to the U.S. empire, because that’s the master: continue and you will see that we won’t send one drop of oil to the empire of the United States,” Chavez said Sunday.
Reading about threats—again—without any action to back it up begs the question: Is chavez just aping (pun intended) what he hears the human world leaders say on that magical box in his office that has all the moving pictures inside? Considering his past record of much talk and no action on this issue, one of his trainers should inform him that he is only making himself look dumber, if that were at all possible.
Then again, this could be the time that chavez is really going to get back at the American imperialistas. And if that be the case, I guess the US will just have to find a replacement for the 4th biggest importer of crude oil. I wonder how difficult that is going to be.
I am sure it will be much harder on the US losing it’s 4th oil importer than it will be on Venezuela losing its #1 customer. At least by chimp logic it is.
porfavor eso le roza lo’ cojones a este paiz. We’ll wipe him out if he tries anything funny.
Woohoo! Send him a postcard- Anwar here we come!!
I was talking about this yesterday to a friend and my husband.
You know what? I want to see him do it. To see if he has the balls to call the bluff and lose billions of dollars more. We can get by w/o his oil, probably suffering an increase in the cost. But him? Like you say Alberto, he’ll lose his top customer.
Has anyone studied the impact if we lost access to that oil? How it will impact the current cost of oil? How quickly would that loss of Venezuelan oil be absorbed by other purchasers of oils, ie. India, China, and European states? Does ANWAR replace the reserves we would be losing under this scenario? More data is needed to take an informed position. Until we have answers to these kinds of questions, we should be cautious, IMHO.
Another clarification, the judge’s order was to freeze UP to 12 billion in PDVSA assets, not that actually that amount was held up. The news reports that actually only 300 million is being held up at this time.
Regardless of how chavez’s threat to cut off oil to the US would affect us if he were to follow through (highly unlikely due to his history of hollow threats), the US cannot allow itself to be held hostage by a tyrant who refuses to obey international laws. The reality is that whatever negative effect such an embargo would have on us you can multiply them by 100 when it comes to the harm he will do to the Venezuelan economy.
But all of this is just idle talk on our part because as dumb and irrational as chavez could be, I would be surprised if he cut off his number one customer, which would effectively cut off the spigot of cash he’s been spending like a drunk college student in a strip bar all these years.
In terms of the dollar amount awarded to Exxon-Mobil, you can play semantics all you want with it, but the bottom line is that the judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff. Whether it’s $12 billion or $1, chavez lost and international law won. He will have to pay Exxon-Mobil for the assets he stole, whatever they’re worth, up to $12 billion.
And there is nothing that bothers a thief more than to have to pay for something—especially something they already stole.
Are you sure its a 12 billion judgment? The news reports that an injunction was issued freezing up to 12 billion in pdvsa assets. There is a difference between the two legal instruments. The case is not resolved yet but still pending in the courts. The injunction was issued to ensure the plaintiffs could recover if they win the litigation. Chavez is bitching is if pdvsa loses and has to pay such a judgment, then he would cut off oil sales to the U.S. Again, IMHO, more data is needed to make a determination of what this means for us in America. I certainly would not anymore energy instability for us here at home. We better have options.
And sadly, we are all held hostage to oil. Our economy is held hostage to it and to who produces it. Until we break the grip oil has on energy production, we are in for this and more.
Gabriel:
No matter how you parse the words, chavez lost and justice won. The only thing left to resolve in the case is having the final settlement amount decided by either arbitration or by a court.
And stop being such a worry wart; chavez does not have the testicular fortitude to cut off his biggest source of income. What would be left for him to steal in Venezuela if he cut off the biggest source of cash the country has?
Now if you’re so worried about the US’s dependence on foreign oil, you can always ride to work on your bicycle and convert your home to solar power. Otherwise, you are part of the problem.
I am not disputing whether Chavez won or lost. He lost. He deserved to for his nationalization fiasco. The issue is will he respect international law? Will he actually go through with his threat? My questions go to more consideration as to the consequences of disruptions or spike increases in the cost of oil on our economy. Are there not poor people here in the U.S. dependent on subsidized oil from Venezuela from pdvsa? Cutting off that oil will hurt those people.
The demand for oil has never been higher. There will be others to buy that oil if I am not mistaken.
And yes, foreign dependence on oil is a prime reason for many problems we are facing in our economy. And btw I do ride my bicycle when I can, my heart and waistline appreciate that, and I look forward to the day when all houses that are built are truly energy efficient, ie., use solar panels where it can help reduce the cost of energy. And I drive a hybrid fyi – I do not spend more than 30 dollars to fill my tank and get well over 40 plus miles per gallon. I recommend hybrid vehicles to everyone.
Gabriel:
Ed Begley Jr. and Daryll Hannah would be proud of you. So it doesn’t surprise me that one of your worries is not so much the total disregard for international law chavez has shown, but more for the propaganda oil he has sent the US to score points with the US’s enemies.
Beware of despots bearing gifts.
As devastating as it would be to our economy it would be worse for HUGO! You see the crap that Venezuela pulls out from the ground is of such poor quality that we do a great deal of his refining – he does not have the capacity to do so. He has tried to diversify with a deal but that won’t help for the time being.
I’m not a “green” kind of guy but let’s face it – we need to make a quantum leap in technology to get off of fossil fuels. A great deal of the world’s problems stem from inept, corrupt governments blessed (cursed) with crude. We stop paying for that crap and the Soviets (I mean Russians) have to play nice, the Islamists have no arms, Hamas has to make peace, HUGO! goes under, Nigeria settles down and we can focus on our problems at home and larger more ominous threats.
As Chavez disrespects international law, so goes his credibility and that of Venezuela too.
Are you concerned about the impact of a loss in the oil supply to our country?
The Cardinal makes a good point. Instability, heightened tensions all feed to higher oil prices and the producers do laugh their way to the bank. Gary Kasparov made this observation on Bill Maher in the fall concerning Russia and how it plays off the tensions to exact higher prices. Putin locked him up recently. We need to find an energy solution. Oil dependency is a real problem.
Gabriel:
The premise behind my post was not to bemoan America’s dependency on foreign oil. My point was how chavez uses the same tactics as the vile castro dictatorship: blame the US for all its ills–make hollow threats against the US.
Your points are very interesting and timely, but have nothing to do with my post.
El Burro is a come mierda. Oil is a comodity that is bought and sold on the open market. If he stops sales, we’ll get it on the open market. And he’ll have to take his heavy crude much furhter to China to get it refined which is a much more expensive endeavor.
what a bumbaclot he is