> Why do they need our permission? <
It’s because the United States thinks it’s the master of the universe. The Romans had that same kind of arrogant thinking. And we all know how that turned out.
Anyway, there was a new item out the other day that said the United States had given Bulgaria permission to buy Russian oil. I’m simply amazed by that. Evidently one sovereign country needs our permission to buy energy from another sovereign country.
Actually it’s more than that. US oil left Venezuela because Hugo kept changing the contracts after the fact, effectively seizing oil infrastructure after it was built for less than agreed. After this happened repeatedly, the oil companies finally just abandoned their investments and walked away.
So for them to go back and try it again, they must be getting some kind of assurances from the US that they will be compensated if and when it happens again. Or rather, the banks fronting the money have assurances they will be made whole when Maduro stiffs them on the payments.