The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that two Canadian mining companies have spent 15 years seeking billions of dollars in reparations from Venezuela for the gold deposits that its former president, Hugo Chávez, seized from them after nationalizing the industry. The Globe's Rita Trichur writes that they are now on the cusp of victory after a lengthy legal conflict. Crystallex International and Rusoro Mining and 14 other companies have claims collectively worth more than $20.58-billion (U.S.). Their case hinges on a related U.S.-court-ordered sale of Venezuela-state-owned CITGO Petroleum. Houston-based CITGO is the fifth-largest U.S. oil refiner. CITGO's pending purchase by Amber Energy, a unit of hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, is expected to be one of the largest U.S. court-ordered foreign-asset sales. It is owned by Venezuela's state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, which is under sanctions by Washington and allegedly implicated in the narco-terrorism case against former president Nicolas Maduro. Amber's $5.9-billion (U.S.) bid for CITGO was blessed by a U.S. judge in late November. Another Toronto Stock Exchange-listed mining company, Gold Reserve, is a rival bidder for CITGO.