Making people suffer through corporate and state-initiated economic warfare

Vs.



i posted the other day on exxon's move to freeze $12B of venezuela's assets via court orders obtained in britain, the netherlands, and the netherlands antilles, and also via a pending court action in the u.s... my point was that those assets belong to the PEOPLE of venezuela... they do not belong to hugo chávez nor do they belong to pdv (petróleos de venezuela s.a.), the state-owned oil company... exxon has declared economic WAR on the people of venezuela much as israel has done with gaza... given that the prime responsibility of the head of a sovereign nation is to his people, chávez has responded... unfortunately, his response stoops to the same low level as exxon, although i honestly don't see any other viable options...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez yesterday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States if ExxonMobil pursues international court orders it has obtained against billions of dollars of Venezuelan state assets in a contract dispute.

"If you end up freezing [Venezuelan assets] and it harms us, we're going to harm you," Chavez said in his weekly radio and television show. "Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger."

Venezuela sells about 1.3 million barrels a day of oil to the United States, making it the fourth-largest source, at 14 percent, of U.S. petroleum imports.

naturally, those who worship at the twin altars of greed and power are thrilled at exxon's move...

"Hugo Chávez foolishly thought he could get away with it," said Fadel Gheit, oil analyst at Oppenheimer & Sons. "You just cannot go unilaterally and confiscate assets at will like that especially when your largest customer is the government of the company you're seizing assets from. Obviously Exxon is going to have the last laugh."

i'm so glad he thinks exxon will be laughing... israel must be positively doubled over now that egypt has re-sealed the border wall...

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In an Israeli-style move, Exxon, the most profitable company ever, freezes $12B belonging to Venezuela's people

vs.


lovely...

Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) has won court orders freezing up to $12 billion in Venezuelan assets around the world as it fights for compensation for operations lost to President Hugo Chavez's nationalization drive.

The largest U.S. company sought the asset freeze to guarantee repayment should it win arbitration over the Cerro Negro heavy oil project.

The move is the boldest challenge yet by an international oil major against any of the governments around the world that have moved to increase their holds on natural resources as energy and commodity prices have soared.

"To me it sounds like a very aggressive tactic," said Stephen Zamora, professor of international law at the University of Houston Law Center.

"I can't really say that I'm aware this has been used in other investment disputes. They may be trying to get the government to settle."

Exxon -- which last week posted the largest ever year's profit by a U.S. company -- said on Thursday it has received court orders in Britain, the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles each freezing up to $12 billion in assets of Venezuela state oil firm PDVSA. An Exxon spokeswoman said the total that could be frozen worldwide was $12 billion.

[...]

The move underscores Exxon's reputation for toughness in dealing with foes as varied as governments and fishermen, as it has been willing to wage prolonged legal battles to defend its interests around the world.

you need to read this carefully... besides the "nobody fucks with us" game that exxon's playing, the $12B that's being frozen DOESN'T just belong to the state-owned oil company, it belongs to the venezuelan PEOPLE... these are precisely the assets that chávez has pledged to help his people escape from poverty... of course exxon knows this and is engaging in this unprecedented move for precisely the same reasons that israel is blockading gaza - to stir up unrest among the people such that they will be more inclined to overthrow their government...

and why...? because, in exxon's world, the first duty of the president of a sovereign nation is to protect businesses, corporations, the holders of capital, and the owners of private property... the people of the country need to accept their role as secondary and subservient to those interests... in fact, insuring that ALL of a country's resources are devoted to serving those interests is the lesson that exxon is attempting to force mr. chávez to learn... putting a fine point on it, the insatiable desire for power and money knows no bounds...

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A tale of three countries

yes, i'll admit... my sense of humor is more than slightly twisted and sometimes the temptations of subtle ironies are simply too powerful for me to resist...

i arrived back in buenos aires a week ago today after having been gone for four months... as i expected, the tires on my poor bicycle - bicicleta (bee-see-CLAY-ta, or BEE-see as the locals call them) - were both flat... on tuesday, i walked it over to the ypf service station (pronounced ee-pay-EF-ay) to use their air hose... (ypf is the former state-owned argentina petroleum company, now owned by spain's repsolypf...) their service wasn't working, so i walked the bike further down the avenue to the petrobras station... (Petróleo Brasileiro S/A - Petrobras - is the state-owned oil company of brasil...) the air pump at petrobras didn't work either, and the two attendants hanging around the gas pump islands were competing with each other to see who could go the longest without looking at me...

feeling a little deflated myself, i went back to the house, where later i talked with my landlady... she reminded me that there was another service station just a few blocks in the other direction... she thought it was a shell station, but i knew just where she was talking about and remembered that it was a pdv station... (pdv is Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., and i'm sure you can already see where i'm going with this...) i walked the bike over there yesterday, and, yes, the air pump worked perfectly and there was also an attendant, a pleasant old man, who stood by just in case i needed any help...

so, there you have it... venezuela came through to save the day... do you suppose there's a message here somewhere...?



p.s. i neglected to mention that compressed air service, along with water, at all service stations in argentina is still FREE, which makes it all the more annoying when i pull in to a u.s. service station and note the increasingly rising prices at those goddam coin-operated machines that SELL AIR...

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