Venezuela Releases Imprisoned Americans After Talks With U.S.
Source: New York Times
Venezuela’s authoritarian government on Tuesday released at least two imprisoned Americans, an American official and Venezuelan human rights defenders said, a potential turning point in the Biden administration’s relationship with Russia’s staunchest ally in the Western Hemisphere. The release followed a rare trip by a high-level U.S. delegation to Venezuela over the weekend to meet with President Nicolás Maduro, part of a broader Biden administration agenda in autocratic countries that may be rethinking their ties with President Vladimir V. Putin in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The talks with Venezuela, which has enormous proven oil reserves, assumed new urgency after President Biden announced Tuesday that the United States would ban Russian oil and gas imports because of the invasion. That move is expected to further tighten the availability of crude oil on the global market, and could raise gas prices at a moment when inflation has climbed at its fastest pace in 40 years. “This is a step that we’re taking to inflict further pain on Putin, but there will be costs as well here in the United States,” Mr. Biden said of the ban on Russian oil.
American officials said that the prisoner release was not part of a deal with Venezuela to restart oil sales to the United States, which were banned under the Trump administration. For weeks, American business people who have worked in Venezuela have had back-channel discussions about resuming America’s oil trade with Mr. Maduro’s government.Venezuela could eventually help make up some of the shortfall caused by the ban on Russian oil. But industry experts warned that Venezuelan oil supplies would do little to tame American gas prices and inflation quickly.
Increasing the country’s production may take time after the years of mismanagement and underinvestment that have decimated the country’s energy sector. Prominent members of Congress have also come out against efforts to thaw relations with Mr. Maduro, whose government has been accused by the United Nations of systematic human rights violations.“Nicolás Maduro is a cancer to our hemisphere and we should not breathe new life into his reign of torture and murder,” Senator Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Monday in a statement.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/world/americas/venezuela-american-prisoner-release.html
This is some serious behind-the-scenes maneuvering here.
= new reply since forum marked as read
it sucks some of the nasty palms one must grease on the path to righteousness 
I knew they would be working to get back to it.
Near the bottom of the NYT article is this -
Selling directly to the United States would also allow Mr. Maduro to reap full profits from the highest oil prices in more than a decade, instead of selling the crude at deep discount to a network of middlemen used to bypass the U.S. ban, they said.
Before that ban, Venezuela exported most of its oil to the United States, whose Gulf refineries were built to process the country’s heavy crude.
Someone was waving some "g"s.
It most definitely is some serious maneuvering!
Venezuela: 2 US ‘mercenaries’ among those nabbed after raid
By SCOTT SMITH and JOSHUA GOODMAN
May 4, 2020
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said authorities arrested two U.S. citizens among a group of “mercenaries” on Monday, a day after a beach raid purportedly aimed at capturing the socialist leader that authorities say they foiled.
Maduro held up a pair of blue U.S. passports, reading off the names and birth dates on them in a nationwide broadcast on state television. He showed images of the fishing boats the alleged attackers rode in on and equipment like walkie-talkies and night-vision glasses collected in what Maduro called an “intense” couple of days. He blamed the attacks on the Trump administration and neighboring Colombia, both of which have denied involvement.
“The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid,” Maduro said, praising members of a fishing village for cornering one group in the sweep netting the “professional American mercenaries. Before dawn on Sunday, officials say the first attack started on a beach near Venezuela’s port city of La Guaira, when security forces made the first two arrests and killed eight others attempting to make a landing by speedboats.
. . .
The two U.S. citizens arrested Monday were identified as as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former U.S. special forces soldiers. Florida-based ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau said earlier Monday that he was working with the two men in a mission intending to detain Maduro and “liberate” Venezuela. Goudreau has claimed responsibility for the operation.
More:
https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-ap-top-news-venezuela-international-news-television-fb3b0e84b1d58cb876fd38c7a9493fd5
And especially since I found this from last year -
Aruba looks towards long-idled oil refinery, as tourism drop pummels economy
By Luc Cohen
SAN NICOLAS, Aruba, April 19 (Reuters) - A collapse in tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic has sent Aruba toward one of the world's biggest economic contractions, prompting the island to try to diversify beyond its sun and sand image, namely by restarting a long-idled oil refinery. Assistance from the Netherlands helped the Caribbean island finance a stimulus program, blunting the impact of the economy's 25.5% contraction on workers and businesses in 2020. That downturn was behind only Libya, Maldives and Venezuela, International Monetary Fund (IMF) data show.
But those subsidies led to an increase in Aruba's fiscal deficit to 17% of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the IMF, prompting some experts and residents to argue the island should diversify its economy to ensure the government can balance its budget without Dutch assistance. The 67% drop in tourism arrivals was devastating for small businesses like Aruba Bob Snorkeling, which used to run multiple tours a day before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
"When COVID came around, they just came crashing down to once a day, once or twice a week, and then to nothing at all," said instructor and part-owner Jesus Maduro, 30, while sipping coffee under the shade of solar panels in the company's tree-filled backyard. But the company kept up rent and electricity payments thanks to quarterly 4,000 florin ($2,247.19) subsidies from the government. Such payments helped keep company closures below 2019 levels, said Martijn Balkestein, executive director of Aruba's Chamber of Commerce.
As a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Aruba is receiving assistance from Amsterdam. The Netherlands has agreed to cover Aruba's financing needs during the pandemic contingent on economic reforms, such as cuts in public sector salaries implemented last year. But Dutch officials have said they ultimately expect Aruba, as well as other constituent Caribbean islands Curacao and Sint Maarten - which are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands but have autonomy over domestic affairs - to be self-reliant.
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/aruba-looks-towards-long-idled-oil-refinery-tourism-drop-pummels-economy-2021-04-19/
It would not be surprising to see the refinery in Aruba that the article mentions was considering restarting, would be something that got fast-tracked, considering you have this fact -
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=33732
The Netherlands has probably already started making some phone calls and whatnot as one of the biggest importers of Russian oil/gas behind China and alongside Germany.
In fact, I just found this more recent chart -
(graphic from and article here - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/russia-oil-uk-ban-ukraine-b2031228.html)
trusted Chavez more than this guy... but an opportunity opened up to get oil back in supply (at least in terms of calming the legit futures traders vs the speculators who are gouging). And it's not for us but for Europe who has pinned most of their energy needs to Russia and are now in a bind.
And that would parallel this Venezuela effort would be what is going on with respect to negotiations with Iran and getting their agreement back in place, and that would probably mean the potential for getting their oil back into circulation.
It normally would be a tall order to "turn" Putin-supporting heads of state but the $$$$ is too tempting and a brand new marketplace has just opened up.
I also noticed that OPEC has seemingly been left out of these discussions.
And they effectively "ignored OPEC" as they dumped oil onto the market for a couple months (and I still post this image) -
This is how one peels away countries to stroke their self-interests.
