"I'm wondering how Kry will be able to arrange financing to take care of the old debt if others think the same as you."

There are some on this board who have posted they felt, with the golden carrot of arbitration, that finding investors to pony up over 100 million would not be very hard. But I've been saying I think, especially with the global economy weakening every day, that finding someone to pay off that huge debt AND fund the arbitration will be very hard indeed.

And maybe I'm right. Maybe that's why the announcement of fresh money hasn't happened yet even though the search for that money started many months ago.

EZ is right. Ven's only real asset is oil. But when was the last time the World Bank confiscated something as mobile as oil?

It's one thing for the World Bank to freeze foreign-held cash/gold assets (that apparently Chavez might be looking to redistribute to Venezulean friendly countries) it's another thing to hijack oil tankers on the high seas so that KRY shareholders can get some percentage of a court-ordered award.

I think we have to be realistic here. It's fun for me to hope that on his death bed Chavez is informed the World Bank has taken 3 billion dollars of his oil tankers plus his Citgo stations just so that I can get back my double or triple my investment. But if Venezulean oil tankers started getting jacked by the World Court I think Chavez would go ballistic and send out his Navy for a little armada-style smack down.

That would be great for cable-news ratings but it ain't gonna happen.

Clearly Ven is in no hurry to pay off GRZ, KRY or anyone else, with or without Chavez in power. If Ven wanted Las Brisas or Las Cristinas legally they would have paid cash for those properties and shown the Yankees to the door. Instead they see those properties as being "stolen" by the evil capitalists who used those properties to raise money so they just took them back. Now the lawsuits have started and Ven knows they can wait it out.

With Las Brisas Ven knows GRZ has the money to take it to the end and Ven will probably offer a settlement but not until 2012 or later. With Las Cristinas Ven knows KRY is on the edge of bankruptcy and may not be a problem after the end of the year.

As always, I hope I'm wrong.

Cividale