Chapter 845 - 789: Trade Preparations
Venezuela and Cuba, these two American countries long subject to United States sanctions, possess natural geographical advantages...
The per capita natural gas and oil reserves in Venezuela exceed 150,000 dollars, ranking among the top twenty globally.
Meanwhile, Cuba boasts the highest nickel reserves in the world, with per capita mineral resource value reaching 23,000 dollars.
In terms of per capita resource levels, these two surpass East by a wide margin.
Many people in the past even believed that Venezuela was the most likely country to achieve socialism.
Unfortunately, the sanctions from the United States led to a great depression in these two nations, with shortages in foreign exchange making domestic goods extremely scarce, and the purchasing power of currency in people's hands fell to a very low level.
Actually, Cuba is in a better position; its abundant natural resources along with tourism and nickel exports help maintain basic national stability, although foreign exchange is still severely lacking, the life for the domestic populace isn't particularly difficult.
But Venezuela is different; the domestic commodity gap reached 80%, supermarket shelves have been long empty, leading to situations where even having money can't buy you anything, now their impoverished population has reached over 45%.
The blockade by the United States has pushed two would-be prosperous nations into an abyss...
And Venezuela itself didn't help matters, as they forcibly pushed for oil industry nationalization without clear prior calculations...
Although ultimately successful, they found the extraction cost for Venezuela's ultra-heavy crude far exceeded expectations, compounded by inadequate extraction and refining technology, further increasing costs.
In the end, combined with welfare promises to its citizens, the selling price per barrel of crude oil had to reach over 80 dollars to sustain high welfare and achieve profitability.
Why is Shah the richest one with just a piece of cloth on their head?
It's because their total production cost for crude oil is only 10 dollars per barrel, and their energy economy's break-even point is approximately 25 dollars, which means regardless of international oil price fluctuations, as long as it's maintained above 25 dollars, they profit.
The United States claims to control global energy, but their domestic shale oil industry never developed, and that's because the economic break-even point for shale oil is at 70 dollars...
Currently, international oil price fluctuations are intense, with the average crude oil price around 45 dollars; economically speaking, the extraction of Venezuela and United States shale oil results in losses!
Mountain Eagle wants to do gray business, so he surely can't calculate economic accounts with Venezuela, because selling is a loss—selling even less is a greater loss.
This broken place has virtually no domestic industry, 80% of goods need to be imported; Mountain Eagle aims to exchange industrial goods for energy, and instead of using formal channels, he plans half-underground bartering for settlement.
To accomplish this, someone needs to explore the path first, and the best candidate lies within the family list of Arctic Fox...
The renowned 'Hunter Training Camp' is located in Venezuela, where for over a decade, a large number of mercenaries were exported.
Among the sacrificed Arctic Fox members was a Venezuelan, and due to the existence of 'pension', that family's life wasn't great, but in Venezuela, it was quite respectable.
Mountain Eagle never contacted those people, but Blood Fox knew and understood them...
Thus, after Mountain Eagle roughly finalized his preliminary idea, he finally walked out of the wooden cabin and found Blood Fox...
Blood Fox was also busy and frantic; the farce he orchestrated and directed sent Xiao Wan and the others to Razer's hometown, naturally making camp manpower insufficient...
Mountain Eagle proactively took over handling food-related issues, leaving other trivial matters to Blood Fox, that old thing.
He transported prisoners held in Anchorage to the Brown Bear Camp and concentrated them in a large warehouse.
Currently, the number of prisoners managed at Brown Bear Camp reached 215; even if General Sid defected with remaining troops, they still needed to manage 183 prisoners.
Blood Fox had to categorize and manage these guys according to attribution, then film videos to record confessions individually and upload these videos to the dark web, demanding 'war compensation' from their bosses.
This compensation isn't a ransom—just the money to save lives; to obtain freedom for these people requires another price point.
In the past month or so, the undercurrents flowed through the entire Americas region's underworld, all stirred up by Blood Fox in secret; he mobilized all his connections as per Mountain Eagle's needs, and spread the battle in Alaska...
And 'war compensation' is the catalyst for spreading the word!
Already famous for orchestrating the Snowden issue and pushing the US and Russian Intelligence Agencies to negotiate in Los Angeles, Mountain Eagle truly achieved a renowned standing this time...
Most middle and lower level members of the underworld don't know the Edward Foundation, but almost everyone knows the Sinaloa Group and European arms tycoon Alex Vincent...
Now Blood Fox publicly released hostage footage and openly carried out extortion, even declaring harsh retaliation, which made everyone reconsider Mountain Eagle.
This process overlapped with several Sinaloa high-level related shootings in Mexico, keeping Mountain Eagle scrutinized on the forefront continuously.
When Mountain Eagle found Blood Fox, the old guy was making phone calls in his container room...
"You did a great job, I've already contacted 'Mission Must Achieve' company, you can take their plane to Sonora State tonight, there are a few targets you need to deal with there..."
"..."
"Rest assured, I've arranged a safe house; someone will send the target's location and habits to you at that time.
Kid, this is business. If you want to make money, then risk is something you should bear!"
"......"
Saying that, Blood Fox saw Mountain Eagle who had come looking for him. After hanging up the phone, he checked the laptop in front of him and then took off his reading glasses, saying to Mountain Eagle, "Do you have something to talk about?"
Mountain Eagle heard the unhappy tone in Blood Fox's voice and smiled, saying, "Of course I have something to talk about with you...
I won't be leaving Alaska for the next few months, but business outside can't stop, so I want you to mobilize the Arctic Fox descendants in Venezuela. I have a plan to exchange goods for crude oil, can you send it to them? I want to know if my plan might be feasible..."
Blood Fox listened, painfully pinched his nose, and said, "Exchanging goods for energy? Venezuela?"
Saying that, he vigorously rubbed his numb old face, drank a cup of now-cold coffee in one gulp, and helplessly said, "Mountain Eagle, we have a lot of things to deal with. Do you really think you have the energy to pay attention to so many things and problems?"
Mountain Eagle sat opposite Blood Fox, nodded, and said, "The matters in Alaska need to be wrapped up, but outside business can't stop.
As for Venezuela, it's just an intention for now. Whether it can succeed still requires more information and investigation, most importantly depending on the capabilities of those in charge.
I'll be departing for El Salvador in June. I need to get a detailed assessment before June.
This will determine my next steps..."
Blood Fox listened and rubbed his temples in distress…
This old guy has impressive abilities. Although he doesn't know much about trade, he understands Mountain Eagle's current industry layout and the reasons why he's doing this...
Just like playing chess, Mountain Eagle takes a piece from the opponent and while maintaining his territory, also plans to expand more territories…
Always thinking two steps ahead, completing the layout before the opponent notices.
This overly tight expansion pace was a bit hard for Blood Fox to keep up with.
After hesitating for a few minutes, Blood Fox sighed and said, "I'll contact Ricardo's family, but I can't guarantee the outcome?
The situation in Venezuela is extremely bad, money alone won't open avenues there."
Mountain Eagle nodded indifferently, saying, "I'm not in a hurry, just giving it a try. There are many people in Chavez's faction. As long as we can find a lead, the trade might become possible.
In fact, Venezuela's demand is rigid, and I can switch targets anytime."
This is something Blood Fox doesn't need Mountain Eagle to remind him of. As an old KGB, he knows better than anyone how to find politicians to collaborate with...
Blood Fox jotted down Mountain Eagle's requirements in his notebook, then flipped a few pages forward, and said, "You've been busy these past few days, State Police's Redick called several times and you didn't pick up, so he called Old Ruby...
You need to pay attention, the FBI hasn't given up the investigation!"
Mountain Eagle was stunned for a moment, glancing outside...
The heavy snow had stopped, but the temperature in Central Alaska had dropped to more than forty degrees below zero, with nighttime temperatures reaching around fifty below.
In this situation, the FBI still doesn't give up. This isn't the style of old America civil servants?
Just as Mountain Eagle frowned, Blood Fox smiled and said, "You need to think of a way. If the FBI clings on, Brown Bear Camp will have a hard time in the future.
You need to find a way to divert their attention and also deflect responsibility...
This shouldn't be difficult for you!"
Mountain Eagle listened, nodded slightly, then smiled and said, "That ghost woman Daria has been avoiding me recently. Did she ask you to pass on these words to me?"
Blood Fox sighed and said, "Daria is also thinking for you. You've docked her salary this year; there's no need to scold her every time you meet...
I'm already in my sixties, this high-intensity work is getting to be a bit much for me. Let Daria come and take over some of the work; having her spin between the warehouse and kitchen all day isn't right either.
She's been punished for so many days, it's about time!"
Saying that, Blood Fox looked at the playful expression in Mountain Eagle's eyes and lamented, "OK, I promise, I'll never interfere in your household affairs again...
Daria told me that a woman named Kate called her, tentatively inquiring about what happened in Alaska. She thinks this Kate might be the key to solving the FBI issue…"
After hearing this, Mountain Eagle thought for a moment with a frown, then nodded slightly and said, "Kate from the Bangkok Group...
This ghost woman came to me herself, which means I have something she wants now!
This gets interesting!"