Venezuela: What is this?

[Res Ipsa]

I doubt we'll know for a while what this thing is. If we're trying to scare off drug-selling Latin American presidents, why did Trump just pardon one that we actually convicted and imprisoned. If it's for regime change, why is the guy who won the last election not running the country. In fact, why is the Maduro regime still in power. If it's for oil, it's the equivalent of waging war to capture the world's supply of whale oil in the early 20th century. It's like everything the regime does -- it appears to be nothing more than the thrashings of an enormous, ignorant, senile id.

[Some Schmo]

It's like everything the regime does -- it appears to be nothing more than the thrashings of an enormous, ignorant, senile id.

Trump is just a writhing bundle of unresolved resentment. Nothing he does is rational. It's all unconsidered spasms.

It's quite the indictment of his supporters.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

OK, let's put some facts out there because all the little progressive men on this thread posted pretty pictures and lied over the past 24 hours all because they hate Trump and his administration.

Maduro was charged in the southern district of New York with narco terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine into the US, and weapons related offenses.

The original bounty on Maduros head was 15 million

The BIDEN ADMINISTRATION raised it to 25 million

The US does not recognize Maduro as a legitimate head of state so he does not get sovereign immunity protections.




And here's the most important part for all our marxist, progressive friends, even the Biden administration, didn't recognize maduro as a legitimate head of state. Since 2019, more than 50 countries included in the United States have refused to recognize maduro as Venezuela's head of state.


Both administrations said maduro was not the legitimate President. Both administrations took the position that maduro usurped power. Both administrations rejected the 2018 and 2024 elections as fraudulent, both administrations maintained sanctions, both administrations supported opposition democratic movements. And the biden administration did not reverse Trump's stance.

All true, yes.

So, riddle me this, galaxy brain: if Maduro's removal was effected because the U.S. did not recognize him as legitimate, why is the Trump regime not recognizing the opposition leader who actually won the election? Instead, the regime is recognizing Maduro's vice president, who is only in power because of the *same election the U.S. and "more than 50 countries" said was illegitimate. How does Maduro's VP have any more legitimacy than Maduro?

You won’t get an answer from that massive, pun absolutely intended, piece of crap so I’ll share this video that summarizes Dump’s intentions:

https://youtu.be/9Up4UhKlUvk?si=VnfRnc-dCdA4tXt8

Tl;dc - because of course you (3rd person) didn’t watch it. This whole kidnapping happened because Maduro didn’t accept lightened sanctions in exchange for American companies getting licenses to extract and refine their oil

but ThE PeOpLe ArE hApPy!!?! The “F” outta here with your 8-bit brain.

[Res Ipsa]

I had forgotten about those failed negotiations. Good catch, Doc.

I read a piece with another wrinkle — the move was needed to protect the trading of oil in US currency. It sounded plausible to me. ***Shrugs***

The same piece said that US proven reserves divided the current rate of production comes to around 11 years. And the price has to be high or those reserves shrink.

For Argentina, the same calculation yields about 130 years. And more of it is conventional oil, so pumping lots will drive the price down. And it’s heavier oil, so it matches better with US refineries. So, my money is on “it’s the oil.”

[Chap]

I had forgotten about those failed negotiations. Good catch, Doc.

I read a piece with another wrinkle — the move was needed to protect the trading of oil in US currency. It sounded plausible to me. ***Shrugs***

The same piece said that US proven reserves divided the current rate of production comes to around 11 years. And the price has to be high or those reserves shrink.

For Argentina, the same calculation yields about 130 years. And more of it is conventional oil, so pumping lots will drive the price down. And it’s heavier oil, so it matches better with US refineries. So, my money is on “it’s the oil.”

It is noticeable that US oil companies are not clapping and cheering at the prospect of being given the task of getting Venezuelan oil flowing in large quantities and making money therefrom. That may be because, as I heard an oil industry analyst explaining at some length in an interview on BBC radio, the financial investment required would be very large, and the time taken to begin to get a return on the investment rather long - considerably longer than Trump will remain in the White House. And then there is the question of how predictable the attitude of Venezuelan governments is, viewed over the next decade or so ...

Trump may be motivated by the idea of an oil bonanza. But what goes on in Trump's head often has little to do with the facts of the case.

[Jersey Girl]

CNN article. Check it out.

Big Oil doesn’t share Trump’s dream of making Venezuelan oil great again
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/05/business ... il-chevron

Excerpt

“The appetite for jumping into Venezuela right now is pretty low. We have no idea what the government there will look like,” one well-placed industry source told CNN on Monday. “The president’s desire is different than the industry’s. And the White House would have known that if they had communicated with the industry prior to the operation on Saturday.”

“All of our oil companies are ready and willing to make big investments in Venezuela that will rebuild their oil infrastructure, which was destroyed by the illegitimate Maduro regime,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement to CNN. “American oil companies will do an incredible job for the people of Venezuela and will represent the United States well.”

[Jersey Girl]

Trump may be motivated by the idea of an oil bonanza. But what goes on in Trump's head often has little to do with the facts of the case.

I say he's also motivated by the appearance of strength and bravado.

[Chap]

Well, who'd have thunk it?


Trump suggests US taxpayers could reimburse oil firms for Venezuela investment
President says a ‘tremendous amount of money’ will need to be spent repairing country’s infrastructure

The Guardian, 6 January

TL;DR: It looks like some brave or foolhardy person has told Trump that, for the reasons outlined in my post above (hugely expensive, years to get a return, high risk of political interference before return starts to flow), US oil companies are very unlikely to think that pouring money into repairing Venezuela's oil producing infrastructure is an attractive investment proposition. But since Trump has said that the US will restart Venezuelan oil production, that's got to happen. So where oil companies fear to invest ... the money will come out of the pockets of US taxpayers, whether they like it or not.

Nice one, Donald!

Donald Trump has suggested US taxpayers could reimburse energy companies for repairing Venezuelan infrastructure for extracting and shipping oil.

Trump acknowledged that “a lot of money” would need to be spent to increase oil production in Venezuela after US forces ousted its leader, Nicolás Maduro, but suggested his government could pay oil companies to do the work.

“A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue,” the president said.

Dense, sticky and heavy: why Venezuelan crude oil appeals to US refineries

The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, reportedly plans to meet representatives of Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil at the Goldman Sachs Energy, Clean Tech & Utilities Conference in Miami later this week.

Representatives of Trump’s administration are planning to meet executives to discuss increasing Venezuelan production, Reuters reported.

The meetings are crucial to the Trump administration’s hopes of getting top oil companies back into the South American nation after its government, nearly two decades ago, took control of US-led energy operations there.

The three biggest US oil companies – Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron – have not yet had any conversations with the administration about Maduro’s removal, Reuters reported. This contradicted Trump’s statements over the weekend that he had already held meetings with “all” the US oil companies, before and since Maduro was seized.

“Nobody in those three companies has had conversations with the White House about operating in Venezuela, pre-removal or post-removal to this point,” one of the sources told Reuters.

The upcoming meetings will be crucial to the administration’s hopes to increase production and exports of heavy, unctuous crude from Venezuela, a former Opec nation that sits atop the world’s largest reserves and whose barrels can be processed by specially designed US refineries.

Achieving that goal will require years of work and billions of dollars of investment, analysts say.

Venezuela produces on average about 1.1m barrels of oil a day, down from the 3.5m barrels produced in 1999 before a government takeover of the domestic industry.

It is unclear which executives will be attending the upcoming meetings, and whether oil companies will be attending individually or collectively.

The White House did not comment on the meetings but said it believed the US oil industry was ready to move in to Venezuela.

“All of our oil companies are ready and willing to make big investments in Venezuela that will rebuild their oil infrastructure, which was destroyed by the illegitimate Maduro regime,” said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers.

Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips did not immediately respond to requests for comment to Reuters.

Asked if the administration had briefed any oil companies before the military operation, Trump said, “No. But we’ve been talking to the concept of, ‘what if we did it?’”

“The oil companies were absolutely aware that we were thinking about doing something,” Trump told NBC News. “But we didn’t tell them we were going to do it.”

He told NBC News it was “too soon” to say whether he had personally spoken to top executives at the three companies. “I speak to everybody,” he said.

Trump said hours after Maduro’s capture he expects the biggest US oil companies to spend billions of dollars increase Venezuela’s oil production, after it dropped to about a third of its peak over the past two decades because of underinvestment and sanctions.

But those plans will be hindered by lack of infrastructure, along with deep uncertainty over the country’s political future, legal framework and long-term US policy, according to industry analysts.

Chevron is the only US major operating in Venezuela’s oilfields. Exxon and ConocoPhillips operated in the country before their projects were nationalised by former president Hugo Chávez.

The S&P 500 energy index rose to its highest since March 2025 on Monday, as Exxon Mobil rose 2.2% and Chevron jumped 5.1%.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

America First! Make America Great Again!

Any of you idiot MAGAs figuring out the scam, yet?

[Some Schmo]

America First! Make America Great Again!

Any of you idiot MAGAs figuring out the scam, yet?

No. There aren't.

Maintaining idiocy is more important.