You can research what the changes were but most importantly the national VZ oil company (that industry was nationalized there in 1975) called PDVSA had to be allowed to control shit (>50% ownership) and make good profits, and their autonomy was reined in by the Chavez regime.

Prior, in the late 80s/90's, much less left-wing (than Chavez) leaders of VZ had offered the oil to international drillers at a steeply reduced price (and an unregulated, globalist-led PDVSA was a big part of cutting those deals).

But eventually anger over these shitty extraction deals in the 1990's (shitty for the common people of the country) was a big part of what swept Chavez into power. Then he took control of PDVSA and told the globalists they would have to renegotiate deals that were better for the PEOPLE.

Note that a lot of these companies got billions back through arbitration in the years that followed. Not as much as they were CLAIMING they lost as result, but they were awarded solid dough, and Venezuela paid it.

These companies also had the option to remain in partnership with PDVSA, they just weren't going to make as MUCH money or have as MUCH control as they'd been contracted for. Most of them cut and run. They also WROTE OFF a shit-ton of their "losses".

In the end, it's probably cost Venezuela a shit-ton of money. Way more than they've made as a result of raising their cut, by losing all these investors. BUT, they still have the oil, so there's that.

It's pretty complicated. Miller must have explained to him with pictures.

oil extraction issues in the Middle East from at least the 1930's on to the present day. Once a political leader would gain strength around "getting a better deal" the oil companies and their respective bought and paid for governments would set out to destroy that leader any way possible. One of their favored methods was to form and arm terrorist groups and flood them with cash. Once that group would have success they would form another group to attack the first group. Lather, rinse and repeat. Especially a jumble when the US, Great Britain and France would all have various competing terrorist groups.

So now we have the "War on Terror" to supposedly protect ourselves from people who we taught that using terror to achieve goals is not only permissible but profitable as well. Bottom line is we created most of our own problems through unfettered greed and duplicity and we arrogantly thought we could control it all.

Sadam had to leave Iraq or he'd invade? Yeah, sure the dictator thing too.

our illegal invasion of Iraq.

Same shit, different decade.

End up on top of our oil anyways?

Clever robbery isn't it?

By the way, has anybody inventoried the gold reserves in Ft. Knox???

They already did that hit.

And trust me, there is nothing I can think of that has not already been thought
of by a band of ruthless psychopath criminals.

TSF learned that they have piles of metal and he was expecting to see lots of plastic doo-dads and cans of Krylon paint.

I have often said we will never forgive Cuba and then we went to Iraq all because they nationalized our oil companies. Human rights violations be damned, that is the real offense against the United States

You don't acquire oil and gas in a foreign country without significant negotiations, followed by the execution of some sort of exploration or purchase agreement. I guess we'll get the paperwork on "our oil," sometime after the Epstein files see the light of day...

to continue but they, in their overwhelming greed, declined. So now American soldiers will have to die for it.

...if U.S. military personnel start coming home in body bags, from a war in Venezuela. I can see it happening.

The most dangerous POS on planet Earth right now.

My neighbor should give me his new riding mower I like.

1. You go into your neighbor's yard and steal their lawnmower.

2. They come to your yard and take their lawnmower back.

3. You go on national TV screaming that THEY stole YOUR lawnmower and you demand that they give it back.

That's basically what the idiot Chump said last night.

History repeats.

There were a lot of Germans and German-speaking people living in Eastern Europe, including the Sudetenland but also many other areas. Hitler used the welfare and safety of those Germans as an excuse to invade and steal land from other European countries. In hindsight, most of them ended up dead or deported after the war anyway, so the "welfare and safety of Germans" was just a ruse.

Chump isn't even pretending this is about people, he's trying to start a new world war over oil ... and that's all they care about.

and steal land and resources.

The man is a grifting idiot.

I paid for it and I want it back!!!

US companies built some infrastructure so therefore we own the oil?

By that logic, if I shovel your driveway, I own your car. If I mow your lawn, I own your house.

Next up is Panama and the Panama Canal, (mostly) U.S.-built, and handed back over to Panama by Carter (a persona non grata for 45) almost 50 years ago.

He already broached that early on.

But ships got bigger and bigger so Panamá built a new set of larger locks to accommodate the new super-tankers.

The Canal treaty that President Carter signed guaranteed U.S. protection of the Canal. Of course, Trump doesn’t respect anything.

Great Britain had developed (and profited from) Iran's oil industry, then was cut out much like what Venezuela did. Britain hit Iran with sanctions which the USA joined, then Iran connected with the Soviet Union to rescue its economy. This was during the Cold War, so we conspired with Britain to support a coup that deposed Iran's democratic government, installing the autocratic repressive rule of the Shah.

Twenty five years later, the Iranian people rose up and kicked him out, following religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini in the Islamic Revolution.

That regime is still in power, an avowed enemy of the "Great Satan" America.

Unintended consequences are often the result when greed and hubris supercede our ostensible principles. We helped destroy a democracy, and spawned a theocracy antithetical to our national interests.

But NONE of that history comes close to matching the hubris, greed, incompetence, and sheer mendacity of the Trump administration.

We're racing at breakneck speed to transform America from the Shining City on the Hill (always more of an ideal than a reality) to the Late Great United States.

For any lurking Magats:
That means America will no longer be great, as a direct result of what your cult leader has done and is doing.