How Trump Plans to Recover Billions Venezuela Owes the US
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela. Venezuela owes American oil companies an estimated $10–12 billion in international arbitration awards stemming from Hugo Chávez’s 2007 nationalization of the country’s oil industry. That year, Chávez ordered foreign firms to convert their holdings into joint ventures in which the state-owned oil company PDVSA would hold at least a 60 percent stake or leave the country