When is somebody going to shut down both of those criminal organizations, WB and EM?

Maduro doesn't pay his bills...except when he gets threatened by the Chinese. Then he'll cough up some oil.

The history of what Exxon has done to countries in SA is appalling.
The distruction and pollution is horrific.
I'd tell em to F**k off.

VZ needs their money, technology and expertise. There are good reasons VZ's oil production has been steadily declining.

In this twisted world, a country is "fined" by some global capitalist self-appointed body for taking back their own resources on their own land, after being pillaged for decades by multinational corporations that were defended by foreign money, influence, and covert operations.

Its like the school bully that beats up and steals a weaker student's lunch every day. Eventually the student grows up and tells the bully that its his own lunch and he can't have it anymore. So the school tells the student, that if he now wants to keep his own lunch he's going to have to pay a "fine" to the bully.

VZ desperately needs help from the large oil companies to modernize their oil infrastructure and develop new sources. Their oil production has been steadily declining for a decade and the decline in oil revenue is killing their economy.

I wouldn't trust that government enough to invest billions of dollars.

No wonder they won't appeal. $1.6 billion compared to $10 billion. I'm sure Exxon overstated the value but still a nice settlement.

However, I doubt they ever pay.

...for Exxon to declare war over.

The headline and some of the comments are obscuring that. Read the story.

"The Tribunal has found that the expropriation was conducted in accordance with due process, that it was not carried out contrary to undertakings given to the claimants in this respect and that the claimant have not established that the offers made by Venezuela were incompatible with the 'just' compensation requirement of (...) the Bilateral Investment Treaty," ICSID said on its website.