Has Trump’s Venezuelan Oil Venture Failing?
There’s been uproar and condemnation aplenty over America’s sudden assault on the once enshrined concept of national sovereignty, overthrowing eight decades of rigidly enforced global order.
Almost 35 years ago, George Bush Senior ordered US troops to led a 42-nation strong United Nations force into Kuwait to defend the gulf state against an invasion by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Ostensibly, the frist Gulf War was all about protecting the concept of national sovereignty. In reality, it was all about oil.
Last weekend, Donald trump jettisoned that lofty ideal, justifying the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife on the grounds that Venezuela and its leadership posed an existential threat to US security.
While debate rages over the legality and the potential fallout from America’s incursion there’s been a quiet acceptance that, once again, it was all about oil.
The US president has done little to persuade anyone otherwise.
In addition to waxing lyrical over his brilliantly executed military operation, he’s boasted about the riches that he expects to flow from the Latin American country, money that he will personally control.
Venezuela’s interim leaders would turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil, he announced on Wednesday our time via social media, which the US would sell at market rates rather of the heavily discounted rate it has been offloading its energy.
“And that money will be controlled by me, as president of the United States of America, to ensure it is indeed used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the united States!” he said.
The not-so-subtle subtext is clear. America will become the global energy powerhouse. it’s already the world’s big