Part 1 of 2
What Really Happened in Venezuela, And Why It Matters
Economic Warning
Jan 4, 2026
If you turn on the news today, the story looks deceptively simple. Helicopters in Caracas. A president removed. Officials celebrating a decisive operation. But the events unfolding between the United States and Venezuela are not just about a single raid or a single leader. They reflect a deeper moment of stress in the global system — one where power, resources, and financial structures collide under pressure.
This analysis steps away from the spectacle. It does not focus on triumph or condemnation. Instead, it traces the sequence of decisions that led to this moment, the strategic calculations behind them, and the consequences that are already beginning to emerge.
For years, pressure was applied quietly. Sanctions hardened. Diplomatic channels narrowed. Financial systems shifted. Energy markets tightened. What appeared sudden was, in reality, the final move in a long process where negotiation gave way to enforcement and patience ran out.
We examine why this happened now, not earlier. Why Venezuela became a focal point at this stage. And why the operation raises questions that go far beyond Caracas — about international law, economic leverage, resource security, and the durability of the systems that have governed global trade for decades.
This report also looks ahead. At the reactions unfolding inside the United States, across Latin America, and among major global powers. At the risks of instability after regime removal. And at who ultimately bears the cost when political decisions intersect with financial reality.
This is not an argument for or against any government. It is an attempt to understand what this moment reveals about the world as it is — not as it is described in press briefings.
Because when diplomacy collapses, enforcement takes its place. And once that happens, uncertainty does not remain contained.
Stay informed. Stay critical
Transcript
Right now, across every news network, you're watching the same story on repeat. Special forces descending from
the sky. A Latin American president in handcuffs. Commentators praising tactical precision and strategic
brilliance. They want you focused on the spectacle, on the daring raid, on the military success. Because if you're
watching the helicopters, you're not watching the balance sheet. This wasn't regime change for democracy. This wasn't
about human rights violations or drug cartels. This was a debt collection operation with gunships. There's an old
rule in geopolitics that everyone pretends doesn't exist. You cannot sanction the countries that control your
vital resources. Not forever, not without consequences. For 23 years, the
United States tried to defy this rule. They sanctioned Venezuela. They froze assets. They recognized parallel
governments. They funded opposition movements. They did everything except the one thing they just did. until this
week when all of that collapsed in the most revealing way possible. On December 28th, Nicolas Maduro signed energy
agreements with China worth $18 billion. 2 days later, Jake Sullivan, the
national security adviser, quietly requested a meeting with Venezuelan officials in Panama not to threaten, not
to impose conditions to negotiate access to oil that Washington has spent two decades trying to destroy. What you're
witnessing is not diplomacy. its capitulation that got interrupted by helicopters and it reveals something
critical. When an empire loses control over resources, it once considered guaranteed. The collapse doesn't arrive
gradually. It arrives in cascade. Let me show you the numbers that explain why this happened now, why this week, why
this operation couldn't wait. Venezuela controls the largest certified oil reserves on the planet, 303.8 billion
barrels. Iran, its strategic ally, controls another 28.6 billion. Together,
they represent 32% of global proven reserves. And both have just formally
exited the financial system controlled by Washington. This is not theory. This week marks the breaking point where the
architecture that sustained American hijgemony for 80 years began its irreversible disintegration. But to
understand why American helicopters just landed in Caracus, you need to understand a problem that almost nobody
is talking about. The refinery mismatch. The media has been selling you a story for years. They told you the shale
revolution made America energy independent. They told you the United States is now the world's largest oil
producer and therefore doesn't need to care about the Middle East or Latin America anymore. This is a halftruth.
And in geopolitics, a halftruth is a full lie. The United States does produce
massive amounts of oil, but it produces light, sweet crude. It's like champagne.
Bubbly, light, expensive to extract, and not what American refineries were built to process. The problem is this. The
massive refineries in Texas and Louisiana, the industrial backbone of American energy, were built 50 years
ago. They were designed to process heavy, sour crude, the thick, sludge-like oil that comes from
Venezuela and the Middle East. America produces champagne, but its engines run on diesel. For decades, they solved this
by importing heavy crude from Saudi Arabia. But that relationship uh that relationship is effectively dead. Saudi
Arabia is no longer the gas station of the West. Riad is cutting production to keep prices high. They're joining
bricks. They're ignoring calls from Washington. The Saudi prince has made it very clear he's no longer interested in
being a vassal state. So the United States faced a mathematical problem. They were running out of the specific
type of oil needed to keep their refineries running at capacity. And worse, they had already played their
emergency card. Over the last two years, the administration drained the strategic petroleum reserve. The SPR is meant for
war. It's meant for national emergencies. It is not meant to buy votes by artificially lowering gas
prices before elections. Yet, they opened the taps. They flooded the market with millions of barrels to keep prices
down. Now the bill has come due. The SPR is at its lowest level since 1983. 351
million barrels. That's it. Under the Biden administration, 180 million barrels were released in
2022 alone to control prices after the Ukraine conflict started. Those barrels
have not been replaced. The International Energy Agency projects a deficit of 1.2 2 million barrels daily
for 2025 if tensions with Iran escalate and Russian sanctions remain in place.
So Washington looked at the map. They looked for heavy crude suppliers. Canada is already pumping at maximum capacity.
Russia is sanctioned and hostile. Saudi Arabia is uncooperative and pivoting toward Beijing. That left only one
option. The massive heavy crude fields of the Oronokco belt. Venezuela. Venezuela currently produces 780,000
barrels daily. Under Chinese technical management and Russian financial support, that production could reach 1.4
million barrels daily within 18 months. But here's the problem that triggered this entire operation. That oil is
already committed. China signed oil prepayment contracts with Venezuela worth 62 billion between 2007 and 2024.
Russia provided another 17 billion in credit lines backed by crude shipments. India, completely indifferent to
American sanctions, now imports 340,000 barrels daily of Venezuelan oil,
refineses it, and reexports it to Europe as Indian product. The United States
tried four strategies to break this encirclement. Every single one failed. The first strategy was maximum pressure
through sanctions. It failed because Venezuela developed export networks completely outside the swift banking
system. Ships with flags of convenience, payments in yuan, refineries in Malaysia, Washington discovered that
sanctioning paper doesn't stop oil molecules from moving. The second strategy was regime change through
proxies. They spent millions backing Juan Guyaido, recognizing him as the legitimate president, even though he
never controlled a single military barracks. By 2023, even the Venezuelan opposition had abandoned him. American
recognition became an international joke. The third strategy was diplomatic isolation. It failed because 134
countries never recognized Guyaido. Latin America, including Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, restored full
diplomatic relations with Caracus between 2022 and 2024, completely
ignoring Washington's objections. The fourth strategy was conditional licenses, allowing companies like
Chevron limited permission to operate in Venezuela, but with strings attached.
This is failing right now because Maduro learned the fundamental lesson. Never trust American concessions designed as
control levers. And then came the final trigger, the currency war. Intelligence
reports that mainstream media is conveniently ignoring suggested that Caracus was preparing what financial
analysts were calling a nuclear option. Venezuela was on the verge of officially integrating its energy sector into
China's crossber interbank payment system CIP. They were preparing to price
their entire reserve, the largest on earth, not in dollars but in a basket of currencies led by the UN and backed by
gold. If this had happened, it would have been a signal to the entire global south. It would have proven that you can
possess massive resource wealth outside the American banking system and survive. Washington saw this as an existential
threat. Let me explain why this matters so much. The American dollar is not backed by gold. It hasn't been since
1971. It's not backed by industrial productivity. The manufacturing base has
been hollowed out for decades. It's backed by one thing. An agreement made 50 years ago with Saudi Arabia. Oil must
be sold in dollars. This is the magic trick. Because every nation on Earth needs oil. Every nation needs dollars to
buy it. This creates permanent artificial demand for US currency. It allows the United States to print
trillions of dollars, export the inflation to the rest of the world, and never face the consequences. This system
is called the exorbitant privilege. It's the source of American prosperity for half a century. But recently, the magic
started to fade. In June 2024, the Saudi American petrod dollar agreement
formally expired. Saudi Arabia did not renew it. They now accept Chinese yuan for oil sales to China, their largest
customer. In November 2024, the United Arab Emirates processed $128 billion in
bilateral trade with China completely in yuan. Russia sells oil to India in
rupees and rubles. Iran sells to China in yuan. The dollar's share of global foreign exchange reserves fell from 71%
in 1999 to 58% in 2024. Each percentage point of decline represents
approximately 350 billion dollar in reduced demand for US Treasury bonds.
And this is where Venezuela became the red line. If Venezuela's oil disconnects
from the dollar, the demand for US Treasury bonds collapses further. Interest rates spike. The entire
debt-based economy of the West, which depends on cheap borrowing, implodes. So
Washington had a choice. Accept the new multipolar reality and negotiate as an equal partner or use the one asset they
still have in abundance. Military force. They chose the gun. The operation itself
was from a purely tactical standpoint extraordinary. And we need to acknowledge that because it tells us
something about what comes next. Dan Kaney, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a presentation after the
press conference. He said they'd been preparing for this for months. They rehearsed it. They had someone very
close to Maduro feeding them intelligence. They knew where he ate, what he ate, who he ate with, what pets
he had. They'd been waiting for the right weather conditions. For several days, the operation was ready to
execute, but weather kept delaying it. The minute conditions aligned, they moved. Helicopters came in. Electricity
was reportedly cut in key areas. Air defenses were neutralized. Delta Force
operatives, including, and Trump made a point of mentioning this, a 49-year-old operator extracted Maduro from his
residence. No American casualties. Maduro is now on a US warship heading to
New York to face a sealed indictment that's been waiting since 2020. Trump at the press conference couldn't contain
himself. He said, and I'm paraphrasing here, you're probably never going to get to see what I saw last night. It was
amazing. These guys were moving so fast. He was watching it in real time from Mara Lago like it was a reality TV show,
which in his mind it was. But here's where the spectacle ends and the consequences begin. Trump and Marco
Rubio were asked repeatedly at the press conference, who's going to run Venezuela now? How long will American forces be
there? What's the plan for governance? and they had no answer. Rubio went up
and gave a rambling speech about how uh you know when Trump says something he means it. You've got to take him at his
word. But there was no actual plan presented. Just vague references to these guys behind me running things,
gesturing to Pete Hegsth, Steven Miller, and others. These are not people who are going to sit in Caracus organizing
public infrastructure. Trump did say that American oil companies will go in and help Venezuela rebuild its energy
sector. He was very explicit about this. He said it's pathetic how much they've been producing given their reserves and
American companies will fix that. But here's the problem that anyone who studied postconlict reconstruction
understands immediately. Venezuela is not Panama. This is not 1989 when George
HW Bush sent forces in to remove General Noriega. Panama had 3 million people.
Venezuela has 30 million. Panama had a massive American military base in the
strategically vital Panama Canal. Venezuela has neither. More importantly, Maduro was not a personalist dictator.
This wasn't like removing Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi, where the entire state structure revolved around one
individual. Maduro rose within a system, the Chavista system, a network of
generals, intelligence chiefs, judiciary officials, and paramilitary groups called collectivos that control
everything from ports to food distribution. The defense minister is still in place. The interior minister,
Diosado Cabelloo, one of the most powerful figures in the regime, is still
there. The vice president, Deli Rodriguez, is still there. All of these people control pieces of the economy.
Venezuela has, and this is a critical detail, multiples more generals compared to the average soldier than anywhere
else on Earth. About 20 times as many as you would expect in a normal military
structure. Every general has a monopoly somewhere. They control mining concessions. They control ports. They
control oil distribution. The military doesn't just defend Venezuela. The military is the economy. So, what
happens now? Does the Nobel Prizewinning opposition leader Maria Corina Machado
come in and say, "I'm bringing transitional justice. I'm prosecuting the top figures in the Maduro regime."
If she does, every one of those generals is going to think, "Hold on. I own a mining concession. I don't trust Donald
Trump. I don't trust this amnesty. Why would I give up power and wealth and risk prosecution?" Either they cling to
power and try to cut some deal with Richard Grenell, Trump's envoy, to secure their assets, or they resist. And
if they resist, Trump has already signaled what comes next. At the press
conference, he said very clearly, "We had a second wave of attacks ready to
go." He repeated this multiple times. The message was obvious. Fall in line or we hit you again. But this is where the
operation tactically brilliant as it was becomes strategically catastrophic
because the rest of the world is watching. Every country in the global south from Nigeria to Brazil to
Indonesia is looking at Venezuela and thinking the same thing. If we refuse to
sell our resources in dollars, will they come for us next? This fear does not create loyalty. It creates an exodus.
Let me show you what's already happening. At the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia in October 2024, Vladimir Putin
announced the development of bricks pay, a blockchainbased crossber payment system that completely bypasses the US
dollar. Brazil is already piloting it for agricultural trade. South Africa
processed its first diamond transaction in November. Iran and Russia are settling arm sales through it. Venezuela
has just applied for formal BRICS membership. If accepted, and it will be, its 303.8
billion barrels of oil reserves will be integrated into an economic architecture completely isolated from Washington. The
transition has already happened. The world simply hasn't realized it yet. China's official gold reserves increased
by 225 tons in 2023 alone. actual purchases are probably double that made
through Hong Kong imports that aren't fully reported. Russia was completely excluded from Swift in 2022. Their
response, build the financial message transfer system, now processing 30% of
Russian domestic payments and expanding to 159 financial institutions in 20
countries. China launched CES in 2015. As of early 2025, it connects 1,423
financial institutions in 109 countries. It processes $436 billion in daily
transactions completely outside dollar-based clearing systems. The BRICS expansion in 2023 added Saudi Arabia,
Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Ethiopia. That's 45% of the world's
population, 36% of global GDP in purchasing power parody terms, and
control of 72% of the planet's proven oil reserves. By attacking Venezuela to
secure its oil fields, the United States has proved exactly why the world needs an alternative system. They've validated
every speech Putin and Xiinping have ever made about American unilateralism and aggression before this operation.
Countries used the dollar because it was convenient, stable, and the infrastructure was already there. After
this operation, countries will dump the dollar because holding US assets now means you're vulnerable. It means your
sovereignty is conditional. The petro dollar is no longer a trade agreement. It's a hostage situation. Now, let's
talk about the legal dimension because this matters for what happens next. The operation was launched with no
congressional authorization. Congress was not consulted. In fact, congressional committees had called in
administration officials weeks earlier and asked directly, "Are you planning regime change in Venezuela?" They were
told, "No." Senators are now coming out saying they were lied to. Trump's defense delivered by Marco Rubio at the
press conference was that Congress leaks and couldn't be trusted with operational security. There was no consultation with
the United Nations. No Security Council resolution, no attempt to build international legitimacy. The
justification being used is that Venezuela represents a narco terrorist threat to the United States. That
Maduro's regime is flooding America with drugs and therefore this falls under national security emergency powers. Most
international law experts are calling this nonsense. Under the UN charter, you need either a security council
resolution or an imminent threat to justify military intervention in another sovereign state. Venezuela, a country of
30 million people located 3,500 kilometers from Florida, does not
represent an imminent threat. The legal argument is performative. But here's what's interesting. Trump doesn't care
about the legal argument, and he's not hiding that. At the press conference, he mentioned the Monroe Doctrine,
specifically the idea that the Western Hemisphere is America's sphere of influence. He even joked that some
people are now calling it the Donro doctrine, inserting his own name into it. This is 19th century thinking,
gunboat diplomacy, spheres of influence, the idea that might makes right. And the
message to the rest of Latin America was explicit. Trump was asked about Colombia. He said the Colombian
president, and I'm quoting here, needs to watch his ass because Colombia is flooding the United States with drugs.
He talked about Mexico, saying, "Claudia Shinbomb claims she runs Mexico, but actually the cartels run Mexico." The
implication was clear. Comply or you're next. He's not even pretending anymore. The mask of the liberal international
order, the rhetoric about democracy and human rights and rule of law, it's gone.
This is raw power politics, and the world is reacting accordingly. China issued a statement calling this a breach
of international law. Reckless and dangerous. Russia's foreign minister Lavough said the same. But here's what's
interesting. The statements feel muted, almost uh almost pro- fora. It's as if
they're going through the motions of condemnation without actually committing to any real push back. And that tells
you something. Russia and China are not willing to stand up for their proxies when the United States uses military
force. Venezuela was receiving support from both. China made massive loans.
Russia provided military cooperation and financial support. And yet, when American helicopters came, there was no
real response. This raises a critical question for the multipolar world order.
If the United States can still execute operations like this with impunity, how multipolar is the world really? But I
think that's the wrong lesson to draw. Because while China and Russia didn't intervene militarily, they don't need
to. The response isn't military, it's financial. Every country watching this
is accelerating their exit from dollar dependence. They're buying gold. They're joining CFS. They're negotiating
bilateral trade in local currencies. The response is structural, not tactical.
And that brings me to the biggest problem facing the United States right now, the day after. There are think tank
papers going back a decade about regime change scenarios in Venezuela.
Brookings, the American Enterprise Institute, dozens of war games and policy simulations. They all identify
the same challenges. First, what do you do with the former regime elements in Iraq? They disbanded the Bath party and
sacked everyone. That created a massive insurgency. If you prosecute too many Venezuelan generals and officials, you
create a resistance movement. But if you forgive them all and let them keep their mining concessions, 80% of Venezuelans
will say, "What the hell was the point?" Second, what do you do with the collectivos? These are the paramilitary
groups, maybe two to 300,000 people who control food distribution, neighborhood security, and have been armed for years.
They're not in the jungle. They're in urban centers. The playbook says you need to demobilize and disarm them. In
Colombia, they did this with 14,000 FARC fighters over years. In Venezuela,
you're talking about 300,000 people. The scale is completely different. Third,
infrastructure. Venezuela's oil industry has been destroyed by decades of
underinvestment and sanctions. Electricity is unreliable. Water systems
are failing. Getting oil production back to meaningful levels could take 5 to 10
years, even with American companies involved. Fourth, governance. who
actually runs the country? Trump was asked this directly at the press conference. He had no clear answer. He
gestured to the people standing behind him and said, "These guys will handle it, but Pete Hgsith, Marco Rubio, and
Steven Miller are not going to be administering Venezuelan public services." The assumption seems to be
that Maria Karina Machado and the opposition will take over, but she hasn't been mentioned prominently.
Trump's tone when referencing her was notably cool. And here's the detail that should terrify everyone. Trump mentioned
that Marco Rubio had been in contact with Deli Rodriguez, Maduro's vice president, who is part of the inner
circle of the regime. That suggests the United States might actually try to cut a deal with the existing power structure
minus Maduro. install a new face but keep the same system in place as long as
they agree to sell oil in dollars and allow American companies back in. If
that happens, this entire operation wasn't about liberating Venezuela. It
was about changing management. And here's why that might backfire spectacularly. Because if the generals
and the judiciary and the collectivos stay in power just under new branding, the Venezuelan people who celebrated
Maduro's removal are going to feel betrayed and rightfully so. You'll have massive protests. You'll have
resistance. You'll have instability that could last for years. And the United States has zero appetite for boots on
the ground long term. Trump has made that clear his entire political career. He doesn't want to occupy countries. So
you end up with the worst possible outcome. A power vacuum, competing factions, no legitimate governance, and
oil production that stays disrupted. Meanwhile, Trump will declare victory, hold a press conference showing footage
of the raid, and move on to the next headline. But the consequences will compound. Think about the signal this
sends to every other country with natural resources. If you're sitting in Riad right now watching this, what do
you conclude? You conclude that having oil reserves makes you a target. if you don't comply with Washington's demands.
So what do you do? You diversify. You move your wealth into assets the US military can't seize. Gold, UN, real
estate in neutral jurisdictions. You accelerate your entry into bricks. You build alternative payment systems. You
reduce your exposure to the American financial system as quickly as possible. The same calculation is happening in the
UAE, in Kazakhstan, in Nigeria, in Indonesia. Every oil producing nation is
watching and adjusting. Trump thinks he's securing American energy independence. What he's actually doing
is fragmenting the global energy market into blocks that trade outside the dollar system. And once that
fragmentation is complete, the United States loses its ability to print money without consequences. Let me show you
what that looks like in practical terms for Americans. Right now, you're paying $4.80 per gallon for gasoline in
California. That price is not determined by supply and demand. It's determined by geopolitical risk premiums. Futures
markets are pricing in the growing probability that the United States cannot secure reliable access to lowcost
energy in the next 24 months. Your heating bills this winter reflect the same calculation. American natural gas
trades at a 40% premium over European prices. Even though the US produces more
because Europe built LNG infrastructure that diversifies suppliers, the US is
trapped with domestic pipeline dependency while simultaneously sanctioning foreign producers who could
stabilize markets. Your purchasing power at the grocery store, each dollar buying
23% less than in 2020, is partially monetary inflation, yes, but it's also
the structural fracture of dollar-based supply chains. When Brazil trades soybeans with China and yuan, when
Russia sells fertilizer to India and rupes, when Saudi Arabia sells oil to Japan without touching dollar
denominated accounts, each of those transactions reduces demand for your currency. Demand reduction means
devaluation. Devaluation means your salary buys less, your retirement savings, if they're in traditional
treasury heavy index funds, are structurally exposed to the risk that foreign governments diversify away from
those same bonds. When China reduced Treasury holdings by $30 billion in a single quarter last year, bond yields
increased to attract replacement buyers. Higher bond yields mean lower bond valuations. Your retirement funds hold
those bonds. This is the hidden cost of what just happened in Venezuela. The
immediate spectacle is dramatic. The long-term financial consequences will be devastating. Now, there's an argument
some people will make. They'll say, "Look, Maduro was a terrible person. He rigged elections. He tortured opponents.
He destroyed the Venezuelan economy. The country went from the wealthiest in Latin America to one of the poorest. 8
million refugees fled. Getting rid of him is a good thing." And on a human level, yeah, Maduro was a disaster. No
question. But the problem with that argument is it confuses morality with strategy. Removing a bad leader through
military force, without a plan for what comes next, without regional support,
without legitimacy, creates worse problems than it solves. We've seen this pattern before. Iraq, Libya,
Afghanistan, every time the narrative was the same. This leader is terrible.
The people will welcome us. We'll install democracy. Everything will be fine. And every time it turned into a
disaster because toppling a government is the easy part. Building a functional
state is the hard part. And there's zero indication that the Trump administration
has thought beyond the raid itself. At the press conference, a reporter asked, "How long will American forces be in
Venezuela?" Trump's answer, "We're not worried about boots on the ground." That's not an answer. That's an evasion.
Because either you commit to long-term stabilization, which Trump has no interest in, or you leave quickly and
hope someone else figures it out. If you leave quickly, you get chaos. If you stay long-term, you get an occupation
that drains resources and becomes politically toxic domestically. There's no good option once you've launched the
operation without a plan. And that's the fundamental problem here. This wasn't a strategic decision. It was a reactive
one driven by panic over oil supplies and dollar hegemony. Let me tell you
what happens next. This is not speculation. This is pattern recognition based on how these situations have
unfolded historically. In the short term, oil markets will rally. Investors
will bet that Venezuelan production comes back online quickly under American management. Gas prices might drop
slightly. Wall Street will celebrate. Trump will declare victory. He'll hold rallies. He'll talk about American
strength and how he did what no other president could do. But within six months, the cracks will show. Venezuelan
production won't recover as quickly as promised because the infrastructure is in worse shape than anticipated. Because
the generals who controlled the oil sector are either in hiding or actively sabotaging operations. Because the
workers don't trust the new government, the collectivos will start low-level resistance. Not a full insurgency at
first, just enough disruption to make governance impossible. Targeted strikes, protests, sabotage. American oil
companies will start complaining that the security situation makes it impossible to operate. They'll demand
more protection. That means more American personnel on the ground, even if they're called contractors instead of
soldiers. Within a year, you'll have congressional hearings asking why billions in reconstruction aid are
disappearing with nothing to show for it, why oil production is still below expectations, why Venezuela is still
unstable. And Trump will do what he always does. Blame someone else. Blame the previous administration. Blame the
Venezuelan opposition for not being competent. Blame Europe for not contributing enough aid. But the damage
will be done not just in Venezuela, globally. Because every country that was on the fence about joining bricks will
now have made their decision. Every country that was considering pricing commodities in Guan will now have moved
forward. Every country that was debating whether to keep reserves and dollars will have diversified. The Venezuela
operation will be studied in the future, not as a triumph, but as the moment American unilateralism finally broke the
international order it claimed to uphold. And here's the deepest irony. Trump thinks he's demonstrating
strength. He thinks he's showing the world that America is back, that it can project power anywhere, that it doesn't
need to ask permission. But what he's actually demonstrating is desperation. A
truly powerful country doesn't need to invade to secure resources. It offers
the best trade deals, the best technology, the most stable currency. People want to trade with you because it
benefits them. When you have to use military force to secure access to oil,
when you have to threaten your neighbors, when you have to tear up the rule book and operate through pure coercion, that's not strength. That's
the behavior of a declining power that can no longer compete on merit. And the world sees that. China sees it. Russia
sees it. India sees it. Brazil sees it. Even allies like France and Germany see it, even if they won't say it publicly
yet. The Venezuela operation has accomplished the opposite of its intended goal. It was supposed to secure
American access to oil and reinforce dollar dominance. Instead, it has accelerated the global move away from
dollar dependence and proven that American power while still formidable militarily is strategically brittle. You
can win every tactical battle and still lose the war. So, where does this leave us? The helicopters have left Caracus.
Maduro is on a warship heading to New York. The news cycle will move to the next crisis within days. Maybe it'll be
Greenland, maybe Canada, maybe something else Trump tweets at 3:00 in the morning. But the structural damage is
permanent. The trust that held the international system together for 80 years. The idea that there were rules,
that sovereignty mattered, that military force was a last resort, not a first option, that's gone. And you can't
rebuild trust with press releases. Countries will remember what happened here. They'll remember that when an
oilrich nation tried to trade outside the dollar system, American special forces came in the night and they'll act
accordingly. The petro dollar era is ending, not because of inflation or cryptocurrency or any of the things
financial commentators talk about. It's ending because the United States just demonstrated that the system is no
longer based on mutual benefit. It's based on coercion. And in the long run, coercion is more expensive than
cooperation. You can force compliance for a while, but eventually people find ways around you. They build alternative
systems. They form alliances. They root around the obstacle. That process has already started. Venezuela was just the
catalyst that made it undeniable. The empire is not collapsing in a dramatic explosion. It's eroding one decision at
a time, one ally at a time, one percentage point of reserve currency at a time. And the people making these
decisions, the ones standing at podiums celebrating tactical victories, they
either don't understand what they're doing or they don't care because the consequences won't hit until they're out
of office. But the consequences will hit. They always do. And when they do, when oil is priced in multiple
currencies, when treasury auctions start failing, when the dollar loses another
10 or 15 percentage points of reserve status, when inflation comes back with a
vengeance because there's no longer artificial demand for American currency. The people who will pay the price won't
be the generals or the politicians. It'll be the people watching this video, the people trying to pay rent, buy
groceries, save for retirement, and plan for a future that's becoming more uncertain by the day. That's the real
story behind the helicopters. That's what they don't want you focused on while you're watching the spectacle. The
operation in Venezuela wasn't about democracy. It wasn't about human rights. It wasn't even really about Maduro. It
was about a financial system that's dying and an empire that's willing to use violence to keep it on life support
for a few more years. But you can't stop structural change with helicopters. You can delay it. You can make it messier.
You can ensure that when it finally happens, it's more chaotic and more painful than it needed to be. But you
can't stop it. The world is reorganizing. New systems are being built. New alliances are forming. New
currencies are emerging. And the country that could have led that transition, that could have shaped it in a way that
preserved its influence and prosperity has instead chosen to fight it with
everything it has. That's the tragedy here. Not that change is coming. Change
was always coming. The tragedy is that it's going to be so much harder than it needed to be for everyone. Pay attention
to what happens next in Venezuela. Not the headlines, the details. Watch whether oil production actually
recovers. Watch whether American companies can operate safely. Watch whether the new government, whatever it
looks like, has any legitimacy with the Venezuelan people. Watch whether other Latin American countries fall in line or
start hedging their bets. Watch whether Saudi Arabia accelerates its bricks integration. Watch whether China
announces new commodity trading agreements in yuan. Those are the signals that matter because the
helicopters were just the opening scene. The real story is what comes after. And based on every historical precedent we
have, what comes after is going to be considerably more complicated than the people in charge are prepared to handle.
Part 2 Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down ...
Re: Part 2 Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down
by admin » Tue Jan 06, 2026 2:18 am
- admin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 39813
- Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:21 am
Re: Part 2 Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down
by admin » Wed Jan 07, 2026 12:18 am
Part 2 of 2
Why the Venezuela ‘Arrest’ Changes Everything
Economic Warning
Jan 5, 2026
If you turn on the television today, the story is being presented as something simple.
An arrest. A criminal in custody. A decisive operation executed with precision.
But what unfolded in Venezuela is not a law-enforcement story. It is a power story.
This analysis steps away from the official language and examines what actually happened — not through spectacle or celebration, but through structure. It traces how an operation described as an “arrest” required airstrikes, military assets, and the removal of a sitting government. And why that framing matters.
For years, pressure was applied quietly. Sanctions hardened. Diplomatic space narrowed. Financial systems shifted. Energy markets tightened. Venezuela did not suddenly become important — it became unavoidable. What appears abrupt is the final move in a long sequence where negotiation failed and enforcement replaced diplomacy.
This report examines why this happened now, and not earlier. Why oil, currency systems, and China sit at the center of the decision — even when the public justification keeps changing. And why the contradictions in official statements reveal more than the statements themselves.
It also looks ahead. At the legal implications of calling regime change “law enforcement.” At the international response as principles of sovereignty collide with power. And at the instability that follows when governments are removed without a clear plan for what comes next.
This is not an argument for or against any leader. It is an attempt to understand what this moment reveals about the world as it is — not as it is described in press conferences.
Because when legal language is stretched to justify force, the consequences do not stop at one country. And once that line is crossed, uncertainty does not remain contained.
Stay informed. Stay critical.
Transcript
They're calling it a law enforcement operation. That's the line. That's what
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday morning television. That's what
Attorney General Pam Bondi repeated at the press conference. That's the
official narrative being fed to you right now. This wasn't an invasion. This
was an arrest. Let me show you what an arrest looks like. An arrest is what
happens when FBI agents knock on a door with a warrant. An arrest is what
happens when federal marshals show up at an office building. An arrest might even
involve a tactical team if the target is dangerous and heavily armed. But here's
what an arrest doesn't look like. It doesn't involve air strikes on a foreign
capital. It doesn't involve aircraft carriers positioned off the coast. It doesn't
involve bombing government buildings and killing an unknown number of people,
including, according to reports, members of Maduro's security detail.
And it definitely doesn't end with the president of the United States
announcing, "We're going to run Venezuela."
So, let's stop pretending this was law enforcement because what happened
Saturday morning wasn't an arrest. It was regime change. And the reason
they're calling it something else is because regime change requires
congressional authorization. An arrest doesn't. This is linguistic
gymnastics designed to avoid the War Powers Act. And it's working because
most people won't look past the headline, but you're here because you do. So today, I'm going to walk you
through what really happened in Venezuela. Not the sanitized version,
not the talking points, the structural reality. I'm going to show you why the
official justifications keep shifting from drugs to democracy to oil and back
again. I'm going to show you the contradiction between what Trump says
out loud and what Rubio has to walk back an hour later. I'm going to show you why
this operation, regardless of how you feel about Maduro, represents something
far more dangerous than the capture of one man. Because this wasn't about
Nicholas Maduro. This was about barrels. This was about China and this was about
a system that's running out of leverage and resorting to force.
Let's start with the story they want you to believe. The narrative they're selling you. Saturday afternoon,
President Trump held a press conference at Mara Lago. He was flanked by Defense
Secretary Pete Hegath, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and CIA Director John
Ratcliffe. He announced that US forces had conducted what he called one of the
most stunning, effective, and powerful displays of American military might and
competence. No American casualties. Maduro captured. wife captured. Both on
their way to New York to face narco terrorism charges. The Justice
Department released a superseding indictment. The charges narotism
conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy,
possession of machine guns and destructive devices. The narrative.
Maduro ran a drug cartel. His regime flooded America with poison. Countless
Americans died. Justice had to be served. And so the United States
executed an arrest warrant with 150 aircraft launched from 20 bases
involving air strikes on Caracus. This is the framing. Drug lord,
international criminal, American justice. It's clean. It's simple. It's
emotionally satisfying. It's also completely incoherent the moment you
listen to what Trump says next. The contradiction Trump said out loud.
Because here's what Trump also said at that press conference. We're going to
run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious
transition. Run the country. Not assist, not advise.
Run. We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest
anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly
broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making
money for the country. And then this, we're going to be taking out a
tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground. And that wealth is going to the
people of Venezuela and people from outside of Venezuela
that used to be in Venezuela. And it goes also to the United States of
America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused us by that country.
Reimbursement for damages by taking their oil. Let me translate that for
you. The United States just invaded a sovereign nation, removed its
government, and announced it will extract that country's primary natural
resource as compensation for alleged wrongs. That's not law enforcement.
That's not even regime change in the traditional sense. That's asset seizure
at gunpoint. And Trump said it out loud on camera with no filter because Trump
doesn't do diplomatic language. He says what the operation is actually about.
Then 24 hours later, Marco Rubio goes on Sunday morning television and starts
walking it back. Rubio's cleanup operation. Rubio's job on Sunday was
damage control. Because Trump's bluntness created a problem. It made the
operation sound exactly like what it is, a resource grab disguised as law
enforcement. So Rubio goes on the shows and says, "No, no, we're not going to
govern Venezuela daytoday. We're not going to run the country. That's been
misunderstood." He says the US will simply enforce an oil blockade that Vice
President Deli Rodriguez and the existing government structures will
handle governance. That this isn't Iraq. This isn't Afghanistan.
This is the Western Hemisphere and it's different. He says we don't need their
oil. that Venezuela's oil production is so degraded it doesn't matter to global
markets. Except that's not what Trump said. Trump said US oil companies would
go in, rebuild the infrastructure, and extract wealth. Trump said the US would
run the country. Trump said the oil would flow to other countries and to the
United States. So, which is it? Is this a law enforcement operation that ends
with Maduro in a New York courtroom? Or is this a military intervention to
seize control of the largest proven oil reserves on the planet? Because it can't
be both. And the fact that the administration can't keep its story
straight for 24 hours tells you everything you need to know. They don't
have a coherent plan. They have a resource objective and a legal fig leaf.
And they're making up the justification as they go. Let's talk about the oil
because here's what this is really about. Venezuela sits on approximately
300 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. That's roughly 20% of the
world's total. It is the largest reserve on Earth. But Venezuela currently
produces less than 1 million barrels per day. That's less than 1% of global
production. Under Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro, the state-run oil
company Pavvesa collapsed. Infrastructure decayed. Investment
stopped. Skilled workers fled. Corruption ate the system from the
inside. In the early 2000s, Venezuela was producing over 3 million barrels a day.
Today, it's a fraction of that. So, why does the United States care about
Venezuelan oil if production is so low? Two reasons. First, Venezuelan crude is
heavy and sour. It's thick, high in sulfur, difficult to process. American
refineries on the Gulf Coast were specifically built to handle this type
of oil. It's ideal for producing diesel, which is in tight global supply and
critical for transportation, agriculture, and industry. the light
sweet crude that the US produces from shale, it doesn't work as well in those
refineries. You can't just swap one for the other without massive infrastructure changes.
So, the US needs heavy crude and for years it got that from Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela. But Saudi Arabia is no longer cooperating.
The kingdom is cutting production, keeping prices high, cozying up to
China, and joining bricks. The relationship is dead. This is linguistic
gymnastics designed to avoid the War Powers Act. And it's working because
most people won't look past the headline, but you're here because you do. So today, I'm going to walk you
through what really happened in Venezuela. Not the sanitized version,
not the talking points, the structural reality. I'm going to show you why the
official justifications keep shifting from drugs to democracy to oil and back
again. I'm going to show you the contradiction between what Trump says
out loud and what Rubio has to walk back an hour later. I'm going to show you why
this operation, regardless of how you feel about Maduro, represents something
far more dangerous than the capture of one man. Because this wasn't about
Nicholas Maduro. This was about barrels. This was about China and this was about
a system that's running out of leverage and resorting to force.
Let's start with the story they want you to believe. The narrative they're selling you. Saturday afternoon,
President Trump held a press conference at Mara Lago. He was flanked by Defense
Secretary Pete Hegsath, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and CIA Director John
Ratcliffe. He announced that US forces had conducted what he called one of the
most stunning, effective, and powerful displays of American military might and
competence. No American casualties. Maduro captured. wife captured both on
their way to New York to face narco terrorism charges. The Justice
Department released a superseding indictment. The charges narotism
conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy,
possession of machine guns and destructive devices. The narrative.
Maduro ran a drug cartel. His regime flooded America with poison. Countless
Americans died. Justice had to be served. And so the United States
executed an arrest warrant with 150 aircraft launched from 20 bases
involving air strikes on Caracus. This is the framing. Drug lord,
international criminal, American justice. It's clean. It's simple. It's
emotionally satisfying. It's also completely incoherent the moment you
listen to what Trump says next. The contradiction Trump said out loud.
Because here's what Trump also said at that press conference. We're going to
run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious
transition. Run the country. Not assist, not advise.
Run. We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest
anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly
broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.
And then this, we're going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of
the ground. And that wealth is going to the people of Venezuela
and people from outside of Venezuela that used to be in Venezuela. And it
goes also to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for
the damages caused us by that country. Reimbursement for damages by taking
their oil. Let me translate that for you. The United States just invaded a
sovereign nation, removed its government, and announced it will
extract that country's primary natural resource as compensation for alleged
wrongs. That's not law enforcement. That's not even regime change in the
traditional sense. That's asset seizure at gunpoint. And Trump said it out loud
on camera with no filter because Trump doesn't do diplomatic language. He says
what the operation is actually about. Then 24 hours later, Marco Rubio goes on
Sunday morning television and starts walking it back. Rubio's cleanup
operation. Rubio's job on Sunday was damage control. Because Trump's
bluntness created a problem. It made the operation sound exactly like what it is,
a resource grab disguised as law enforcement. So Rubio goes on the shows
and says, "No, no, we're not going to govern Venezuela daytoday. We're not
going to run the country." That's been misunderstood. He says the US will
simply enforce an oil blockade that Vice President Deli Rodriguez and
the existing government structures will handle governance. That this isn't Iraq.
This isn't Afghanistan. This is the Western Hemisphere and it's
different. He says we don't need their oil. that Venezuela's oil production is
so degraded it doesn't matter to global markets.
Except that's not what Trump said. Trump said US oil companies would go in,
rebuild the infrastructure, and extract wealth. Trump said the US would run the
country. Trump said the oil would flow to other countries and to the United
States. So which is it? Is this a law
enforcement operation that ends with Maduro in a New York courtroom?
Or is this a military intervention to seize control of the largest proven oil
reserves on the planet? because it can't be both. And the fact
that the administration can't keep its story straight for 24 hours tells you
everything you need to know. They don't have a coherent plan. They have a
resource objective and a legal fig leaf and they're making up the justification
as they go. Let's talk about the oil because here's what this is really
about. Venezuela sits on approximately 300 billion barrels of proven oil
reserves. That's roughly 20% of the world's total. It is the largest reserve
on Earth. But Venezuela currently produces less than 1 million barrels per
day. That's less than 1% of global production. Under Ugo Chavez
and Nicholas Maduro, the state-run oil company Pavvesa collapsed.
Infrastructure decayed. Investment stopped. Skilled workers fled.
Corruption ate the system from the inside. In the early 2000s, Venezuela was
producing over 3 million barrels a day. Today, it's a fraction of that. So, why
does the United States care about Venezuelan oil if production is so low?
Two reasons. First, Venezuelan crude is heavy and sour. It's thick, high in
sulfur, difficult to process. American refineries on the Gulf Coast were
specifically built to handle this type of oil. It's ideal for producing diesel,
which is in tight global supply and critical for transportation,
agriculture, and industry. the light sweet crude that the US produces from
shale, it doesn't work as well in those refineries.
You can't just swap one for the other without massive infrastructure changes.
So the US needs heavy crude and for years it got that from Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela. But Saudi Arabia is no longer cooperating.
The kingdom is cutting production, keeping prices high, cozying up to
China, and joining bricks. The relationship is dead. That leaves
Venezuela. But Venezuela under Maduro wasn't selling to the United States. It
was selling to China at steep discounts through a shadow fleet of tankers.
designed to evade sanctions. So, the United States had a problem. It needed
Venezuela's oil, but it couldn't buy it because Maduro wouldn't sell to
Washington, and sanctions prevented legal transactions.
The solution? remove Maduro, install a government that will sell,
rebuild the infrastructure with American oil companies, lock Venezuela back into
the dollar system, and make sure China doesn't get the oil. That's the
calculation, not drugs, not democracy, barrels, and
leverage. But there's a second reason, and this one is even more important. The
China problem. Venezuela isn't just about oil for the United States. It's
about oil for China. China is the world's largest oil importer. It needs
massive quantities of energy to run its industrial economy. And for years, China
has been systematically building relationships with oil producing nations
to secure supply. Venezuela is one of China's key partners. China has invested
billions in Venezuelan infrastructure, taken oil at discounted rates, and
provided financial lifelines when US sanctions choked the regime. But here's
what really terrified Washington. Venezuela was preparing to fully
integrate its energy sector into China's crossborder interbank payment system,
SIPs. That's China's alternative to the Swift banking system. And Venezuela
wasn't just going to use SIPs for transactions. According to multiple
reports, Caracus was preparing to price its oil in a basket of currencies led by
the yuan and backed by gold. If that had happened, China could buy Venezuelan oil
without using US dollars, which means China wouldn't need to hold dollars,
which means demand for the dollar drops, which means the value of the dollar
falls, which means the cost of servicing US debt skyrockets. The entire American
financial system is built on the assumption that the world needs dollars
to buy oil. It's called the petrod dollar system. It was formalized in 1974
with Saudi Arabia and it's been the foundation of US economic dominance ever
since. But that system is dying. Saudi Arabia refused to renew its exclusive
dollar agreement. Brics nations are trading energy in yuan, rupees and local
currencies. The dollar's monopoly is evaporating.
And if Venezuela, the country with the largest oil reserves on earth, publicly
abandons the dollar and prices its oil in yuan,
that's a signal to every other oil producing nation. It says you can
survive outside the American system. Washington couldn't allow that. So they
removed the government. This wasn't about Nicholas Maduro. This was about preventing China from securing a massive
energy supply outside the dollar system. This was about maintaining control over
a resource that if properly developed could shift the global energy balance.
Trump said it himself, though not in these terms. He said the US would sell
Venezuelan oil to other countries. He said American companies would rebuild
the infrastructure. He said the oil would be reimbursement for damages.
Translation, we're taking the oil, we're deciding who gets it, and we're pricing
it in dollars. That's not law enforcement. That's economic warfare
disguised as justice. The legal fiction. Now, let's talk about the legal
framework or complete lack thereof. The operation was not authorized by
Congress. There was no declaration of war. There was no authorization for use
of military force. The gang of eight, the congressional leadership who are
supposed to be briefed on sensitive operations were informed after the
strikes had already begun. This violates the War Powers Act, which requires the
president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to
military action. But the administration is arguing this wasn't military action.
It was law enforcement. Maduro has been under federal indictment since 2020 on
narot terrorism charges. The administration says it was simply
executing an arrest warrant. The fact that executing the warrant required air
strikes, aircraft carriers, and a military assault on a foreign capital
irrelevant. According to the legal theory, this is absurd. But it's also
clever because if you call it an arrest, you don't need congressional approval.
You don't trigger the War Powers Act. You bypass the entire constitutional
framework designed to prevent unilateral executive military action. And here's
the thing, it's going to work because Congress isn't going to do anything.
Republicans will support it. Democrats will condemn it. but won't block
funding. And by the time any legal challenge works its way through the courts, the operation will be complete.
This is how the rule of law dies. Not in one dramatic moment. In a thousand
procedural workarounds that render constitutional constraints meaningless.
But the legal fiction doesn't just apply to US law. It applies to international
law as well. Under the United Nations Charter, military intervention in
another sovereign state without Security Council authorization or an imminent
threat of attack is prohibited. This is foundational. This is the principle that
supposedly governs international relations. The US just violated it
publicly, brazenly. And when other countries objected, Brazil, Colombia,
Mexico, Russia, China, the response was essentially, "So what?" Because the
United States holds veto power at the Security Council, any resolution
condemning the action will be blocked. The International Court of Justice has
no jurisdiction. The Organization of American States is
divided and powerless. So functionally there is no enforcement
mechanism. The US can do this because it has the military power to do it and no
one can stop them. This is what the collapse of the
rules-based international order looks like. Not an invasion by a rival power,
an abandonment by the hegeimon itself. And here's the hypocrisy that makes it
even worse, the moral collapse. For years, the United States condemned
Russia for violating Ukraine's sovereignty. sanctions, condemnation,
isolation. The entire Western world rallied around the principle that
borders matter, that sovereignty is sacred, that military aggression cannot
be tolerated. And now, less than three years later, the United States conducts
air strikes on Venezuela, removes its government, and announces it will quote,
"Run the country and extract its oil." The justification:
Maduro is a criminal. He traffs drugs. He's a dictator. He stole American
assets. Fine. Maybe all of that is true. But
Russia made similar arguments about Ukraine, corruption, NATO expansion,
ethnic Russians under threat, protection of Russian speakers. The West rejected
those arguments. The West said sovereignty is non-negotiable.
The West said you can't invade a country no matter the justification.
And yet here we are. Now, I'm not equating the two situations. Venezuela
and Ukraine are different. Maduro and Zalinski are different, but the
principle is the same. Either sovereignty matters or it doesn't. And
what the United States just demonstrated is that sovereignty only matters when
it's convenient. When it's your ally, borders are sacred. When it's your
target, borders are irrelevant. This destroys credibility. Every country
watching, especially in the global south, is seeing this. They're seeing
that the rules apply selectively. That the international order is just a cover
for American interests. That treaties, agreements, and norms mean nothing when
power is at stake. And once that credibility is gone, it doesn't come
back. You can't lecture China about Taiwan after invading Venezuela.
You can't condemn Russia in Ukraine after conducting air strikes in Caracus.
The moral authority is gone. And without moral authority, all that's left is
force. and force historically has a shelf life. The Honduras contradiction.
And speaking of hypocrisy, let's talk about Honduras. On December 20th, just two weeks before
the Venezuela operation, President Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Hernandez was the former president of Honduras. He had been convicted in a US
federal court on drug trafficking charges. The evidence showed he
facilitated cocaine shipments through Honduras in exchange for millions of
dollars in bribes. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Trump pardoned him.
The justification, Hernandez was a US ally. He cooperated on immigration. He
helped stop caravans at the southern border. So, let me get this straight. The United
States just launched a military operation to arrest Maduro for drug
trafficking. But two weeks earlier, it pardoned a convicted drug trafficker because he was
politically useful. This isn't about drugs. This isn't about
justice. This is about who serves American interests and who doesn't.
Hernandez was useful, so he got a pardon. Madura was an obstacle, so he
got air strikes. The pattern is clear. And once you see it, you can't unsee it.
So where does this leave Venezuela? Trump says the US will run the country
until a transition can take place, but he hasn't said who will lead that
transition. He hasn't said how long the US will stay. He hasn't said what
success looks like. He mentioned Vice President Deli Rodriguez. He said Rubio
spoke with her. He said she would be sworn in and work with the US on a
transition. But Rodriguez appeared on Venezuelan state television demanding Maduro's
immediate release. She called the strikes a criminal act. She declared
herself the interim president and claimed continuity of government. So,
she's not cooperating, at least not publicly. Then there's the
opposition. Maria Corina Machado, the Nobel Peace Prizewinning opposition leader, posted that the hour of freedom
has arrived. She called on Edmundo Gonzalez, the opposition figure widely
regarded as the legitimate winner of the 2024 election, to assume the presidency.
Gonzalez is currently in exile in Spain. So, you have competing claims. Rodriguez
says she's in charge. Machado says Gonzalez should be in charge. The US
says it will run things until a transition happens. And the military, no
unified statement. Some units loyal to the old regime. others waiting to see
which way the wind blows. This is a power vacuum. And power vacuums don't
stay empty. History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes. We've seen this before. Iraq,
Libya, Afghanistan. In each case, the initial military
operation succeeded. The target was removed. celebrations in the streets,
declarations of liberation, and then chaos. In Iraq, the removal of
Saddam Hussein led to a sectarian civil war that killed hundreds of thousands
and created ISIS. In Libya, the removal of Gaddafi led to a failed state, open
slave markets, and a refugee crisis that destabilized Europe. In Afghanistan, the
removal of the Taliban led to 20 years of war, trillions of dollars spent, and
the Taliban back in power anyway. The pattern is consistent. It's easy to
remove a government. It's extraordinarily difficult to build a stable one. And the Trump administration
has no plan. Trump says the US will run Venezuela, but he hasn't said how. He
says oil companies will invest billions, but he hasn't secured commitments. He
says there will be a transition, but he hasn't identified who will lead it. This
is regime change on vibes, and vibes don't govern countries. Venezuela is not
a blank slate. It's a country of 30 million people with deep political
divisions, a collapsed economy, broken institutions,
and competing power centers. The opposition is fragmented.
The military is uncertain. The general population is exhausted and
skeptical. Rebuilding will take years. It will take massive investment.
It will require political legitimacy that a USbacked government may not have.
And if it goes wrong, if Venezuela descends into civil conflict, if the
humanitarian crisis explodes, if the oil doesn't flow, then what? The
administration hasn't answered that question because they're not thinking
that far ahead. They're thinking about the press conference, the photo op, the immediate
political win, not the decade of consequences.
So, let's be clear about what this operation was.
This wasn't about democracy. If it were, the US wouldn't have
pardoned Hernandez two weeks ago. This wasn't about drugs. If it were, the
focus would be on demand reduction, not regime change. This wasn't even really
about Nicholas Maduro. He's been in power for over a decade. If removing him
were the priority, it would have happened years ago. This was about oil.
This was about China. This was about a financial system that's losing its grip
and resorting to force to maintain control. The United States needed
Venezuela's oil back in the dollar system. It needed to prevent China from
securing an independent energy supply. It needed to send a message to every
other resourcerrich nation. You will sell to us. You will price in dollars or
we will come for you. That's the calculation. Brutal, cynical, effective in the short
term, but in the long term, this accelerates exactly what it was meant to
prevent. Because every country in the global south is watching and they're not
seeing strength, they're seeing desperation. They're seeing a hegeimon that can't
compete economically. So it competes militarily. And that doesn't inspire
loyalty. It inspires fear. And fear drives countries to hedge, to diversify,
to reduce their dependence on a system that might invade them if they step out
of line. Brazil is watching, Indonesia is watching, Nigeria is watching, and
they're all asking the same question. If we refuse to sell our resources in
dollars, are we next? This operation was supposed to secure
American dominance. Instead, it's accelerating the very multi-polar shift
it was designed to prevent. So, I'll leave you with this. The United States
just conducted air strikes on a sovereign nation. It removed a head of
state. It announced it will run the country and extract its oil as
reimbursement. It did this without congressional authorization,
without a declaration of war, without international legitimacy.
And it justified it by calling it law enforcement.
Now ask yourself, if another country did this, if China bombed a neighboring
capital, removed its government and announced it would extract resources as
compensation. What would we call it? We call it imperialism.
We call it aggression. We call it a violation of every principle the
international order claims to uphold. But when the United States does it, we
call it justice. Are we still the country we claim to be? Or have we
become exactly what we used to oppose? That's the question this operation
forces us to ask. And the answer increasingly is uncomfortable.
Why the Venezuela ‘Arrest’ Changes Everything
Economic Warning
Jan 5, 2026
"This is economic Warfare disguised as Justice."
If you turn on the television today, the story is being presented as something simple.
An arrest. A criminal in custody. A decisive operation executed with precision.
But what unfolded in Venezuela is not a law-enforcement story. It is a power story.
This analysis steps away from the official language and examines what actually happened — not through spectacle or celebration, but through structure. It traces how an operation described as an “arrest” required airstrikes, military assets, and the removal of a sitting government. And why that framing matters.
For years, pressure was applied quietly. Sanctions hardened. Diplomatic space narrowed. Financial systems shifted. Energy markets tightened. Venezuela did not suddenly become important — it became unavoidable. What appears abrupt is the final move in a long sequence where negotiation failed and enforcement replaced diplomacy.
This report examines why this happened now, and not earlier. Why oil, currency systems, and China sit at the center of the decision — even when the public justification keeps changing. And why the contradictions in official statements reveal more than the statements themselves.
It also looks ahead. At the legal implications of calling regime change “law enforcement.” At the international response as principles of sovereignty collide with power. And at the instability that follows when governments are removed without a clear plan for what comes next.
This is not an argument for or against any leader. It is an attempt to understand what this moment reveals about the world as it is — not as it is described in press conferences.
Because when legal language is stretched to justify force, the consequences do not stop at one country. And once that line is crossed, uncertainty does not remain contained.
Stay informed. Stay critical.
Transcript
They're calling it a law enforcement operation. That's the line. That's what
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday morning television. That's what
Attorney General Pam Bondi repeated at the press conference. That's the
official narrative being fed to you right now. This wasn't an invasion. This
was an arrest. Let me show you what an arrest looks like. An arrest is what
happens when FBI agents knock on a door with a warrant. An arrest is what
happens when federal marshals show up at an office building. An arrest might even
involve a tactical team if the target is dangerous and heavily armed. But here's
what an arrest doesn't look like. It doesn't involve air strikes on a foreign
capital. It doesn't involve aircraft carriers positioned off the coast. It doesn't
involve bombing government buildings and killing an unknown number of people,
including, according to reports, members of Maduro's security detail.
And it definitely doesn't end with the president of the United States
announcing, "We're going to run Venezuela."
So, let's stop pretending this was law enforcement because what happened
Saturday morning wasn't an arrest. It was regime change. And the reason
they're calling it something else is because regime change requires
congressional authorization. An arrest doesn't. This is linguistic
gymnastics designed to avoid the War Powers Act. And it's working because
most people won't look past the headline, but you're here because you do. So today, I'm going to walk you
through what really happened in Venezuela. Not the sanitized version,
not the talking points, the structural reality. I'm going to show you why the
official justifications keep shifting from drugs to democracy to oil and back
again. I'm going to show you the contradiction between what Trump says
out loud and what Rubio has to walk back an hour later. I'm going to show you why
this operation, regardless of how you feel about Maduro, represents something
far more dangerous than the capture of one man. Because this wasn't about
Nicholas Maduro. This was about barrels. This was about China and this was about
a system that's running out of leverage and resorting to force.
Let's start with the story they want you to believe. The narrative they're selling you. Saturday afternoon,
President Trump held a press conference at Mara Lago. He was flanked by Defense
Secretary Pete Hegath, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and CIA Director John
Ratcliffe. He announced that US forces had conducted what he called one of the
most stunning, effective, and powerful displays of American military might and
competence. No American casualties. Maduro captured. wife captured. Both on
their way to New York to face narco terrorism charges. The Justice
Department released a superseding indictment. The charges narotism
conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy,
possession of machine guns and destructive devices. The narrative.
Maduro ran a drug cartel. His regime flooded America with poison. Countless
Americans died. Justice had to be served. And so the United States
executed an arrest warrant with 150 aircraft launched from 20 bases
involving air strikes on Caracus. This is the framing. Drug lord,
international criminal, American justice. It's clean. It's simple. It's
emotionally satisfying. It's also completely incoherent the moment you
listen to what Trump says next. The contradiction Trump said out loud.
Because here's what Trump also said at that press conference. We're going to
run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious
transition. Run the country. Not assist, not advise.
Run. We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest
anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly
broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making
money for the country. And then this, we're going to be taking out a
tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground. And that wealth is going to the
people of Venezuela and people from outside of Venezuela
that used to be in Venezuela. And it goes also to the United States of
America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused us by that country.
Reimbursement for damages by taking their oil. Let me translate that for
you. The United States just invaded a sovereign nation, removed its
government, and announced it will extract that country's primary natural
resource as compensation for alleged wrongs. That's not law enforcement.
That's not even regime change in the traditional sense. That's asset seizure
at gunpoint. And Trump said it out loud on camera with no filter because Trump
doesn't do diplomatic language. He says what the operation is actually about.
Then 24 hours later, Marco Rubio goes on Sunday morning television and starts
walking it back. Rubio's cleanup operation. Rubio's job on Sunday was
damage control. Because Trump's bluntness created a problem. It made the
operation sound exactly like what it is, a resource grab disguised as law
enforcement. So Rubio goes on the shows and says, "No, no, we're not going to
govern Venezuela daytoday. We're not going to run the country. That's been
misunderstood." He says the US will simply enforce an oil blockade that Vice
President Deli Rodriguez and the existing government structures will
handle governance. That this isn't Iraq. This isn't Afghanistan.
This is the Western Hemisphere and it's different. He says we don't need their
oil. that Venezuela's oil production is so degraded it doesn't matter to global
markets. Except that's not what Trump said. Trump said US oil companies would
go in, rebuild the infrastructure, and extract wealth. Trump said the US would
run the country. Trump said the oil would flow to other countries and to the
United States. So, which is it? Is this a law enforcement operation that ends
with Maduro in a New York courtroom? Or is this a military intervention to
seize control of the largest proven oil reserves on the planet? Because it can't
be both. And the fact that the administration can't keep its story
straight for 24 hours tells you everything you need to know. They don't
have a coherent plan. They have a resource objective and a legal fig leaf.
And they're making up the justification as they go. Let's talk about the oil
because here's what this is really about. Venezuela sits on approximately
300 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. That's roughly 20% of the
world's total. It is the largest reserve on Earth. But Venezuela currently
produces less than 1 million barrels per day. That's less than 1% of global
production. Under Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro, the state-run oil
company Pavvesa collapsed. Infrastructure decayed. Investment
stopped. Skilled workers fled. Corruption ate the system from the
inside. In the early 2000s, Venezuela was producing over 3 million barrels a day.
Today, it's a fraction of that. So, why does the United States care about
Venezuelan oil if production is so low? Two reasons. First, Venezuelan crude is
heavy and sour. It's thick, high in sulfur, difficult to process. American
refineries on the Gulf Coast were specifically built to handle this type
of oil. It's ideal for producing diesel, which is in tight global supply and
critical for transportation, agriculture, and industry. the light
sweet crude that the US produces from shale, it doesn't work as well in those
refineries. You can't just swap one for the other without massive infrastructure changes.
So, the US needs heavy crude and for years it got that from Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela. But Saudi Arabia is no longer cooperating.
The kingdom is cutting production, keeping prices high, cozying up to
China, and joining bricks. The relationship is dead. This is linguistic
gymnastics designed to avoid the War Powers Act. And it's working because
most people won't look past the headline, but you're here because you do. So today, I'm going to walk you
through what really happened in Venezuela. Not the sanitized version,
not the talking points, the structural reality. I'm going to show you why the
official justifications keep shifting from drugs to democracy to oil and back
again. I'm going to show you the contradiction between what Trump says
out loud and what Rubio has to walk back an hour later. I'm going to show you why
this operation, regardless of how you feel about Maduro, represents something
far more dangerous than the capture of one man. Because this wasn't about
Nicholas Maduro. This was about barrels. This was about China and this was about
a system that's running out of leverage and resorting to force.
Let's start with the story they want you to believe. The narrative they're selling you. Saturday afternoon,
President Trump held a press conference at Mara Lago. He was flanked by Defense
Secretary Pete Hegsath, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and CIA Director John
Ratcliffe. He announced that US forces had conducted what he called one of the
most stunning, effective, and powerful displays of American military might and
competence. No American casualties. Maduro captured. wife captured both on
their way to New York to face narco terrorism charges. The Justice
Department released a superseding indictment. The charges narotism
conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy,
possession of machine guns and destructive devices. The narrative.
Maduro ran a drug cartel. His regime flooded America with poison. Countless
Americans died. Justice had to be served. And so the United States
executed an arrest warrant with 150 aircraft launched from 20 bases
involving air strikes on Caracus. This is the framing. Drug lord,
international criminal, American justice. It's clean. It's simple. It's
emotionally satisfying. It's also completely incoherent the moment you
listen to what Trump says next. The contradiction Trump said out loud.
Because here's what Trump also said at that press conference. We're going to
run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious
transition. Run the country. Not assist, not advise.
Run. We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest
anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly
broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.
And then this, we're going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of
the ground. And that wealth is going to the people of Venezuela
and people from outside of Venezuela that used to be in Venezuela. And it
goes also to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for
the damages caused us by that country. Reimbursement for damages by taking
their oil. Let me translate that for you. The United States just invaded a
sovereign nation, removed its government, and announced it will
extract that country's primary natural resource as compensation for alleged
wrongs. That's not law enforcement. That's not even regime change in the
traditional sense. That's asset seizure at gunpoint. And Trump said it out loud
on camera with no filter because Trump doesn't do diplomatic language. He says
what the operation is actually about. Then 24 hours later, Marco Rubio goes on
Sunday morning television and starts walking it back. Rubio's cleanup
operation. Rubio's job on Sunday was damage control. Because Trump's
bluntness created a problem. It made the operation sound exactly like what it is,
a resource grab disguised as law enforcement. So Rubio goes on the shows
and says, "No, no, we're not going to govern Venezuela daytoday. We're not
going to run the country." That's been misunderstood. He says the US will
simply enforce an oil blockade that Vice President Deli Rodriguez and
the existing government structures will handle governance. That this isn't Iraq.
This isn't Afghanistan. This is the Western Hemisphere and it's
different. He says we don't need their oil. that Venezuela's oil production is
so degraded it doesn't matter to global markets.
Except that's not what Trump said. Trump said US oil companies would go in,
rebuild the infrastructure, and extract wealth. Trump said the US would run the
country. Trump said the oil would flow to other countries and to the United
States. So which is it? Is this a law
enforcement operation that ends with Maduro in a New York courtroom?
Or is this a military intervention to seize control of the largest proven oil
reserves on the planet? because it can't be both. And the fact
that the administration can't keep its story straight for 24 hours tells you
everything you need to know. They don't have a coherent plan. They have a
resource objective and a legal fig leaf and they're making up the justification
as they go. Let's talk about the oil because here's what this is really
about. Venezuela sits on approximately 300 billion barrels of proven oil
reserves. That's roughly 20% of the world's total. It is the largest reserve
on Earth. But Venezuela currently produces less than 1 million barrels per
day. That's less than 1% of global production. Under Ugo Chavez
and Nicholas Maduro, the state-run oil company Pavvesa collapsed.
Infrastructure decayed. Investment stopped. Skilled workers fled.
Corruption ate the system from the inside. In the early 2000s, Venezuela was
producing over 3 million barrels a day. Today, it's a fraction of that. So, why
does the United States care about Venezuelan oil if production is so low?
Two reasons. First, Venezuelan crude is heavy and sour. It's thick, high in
sulfur, difficult to process. American refineries on the Gulf Coast were
specifically built to handle this type of oil. It's ideal for producing diesel,
which is in tight global supply and critical for transportation,
agriculture, and industry. the light sweet crude that the US produces from
shale, it doesn't work as well in those refineries.
You can't just swap one for the other without massive infrastructure changes.
So the US needs heavy crude and for years it got that from Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela. But Saudi Arabia is no longer cooperating.
The kingdom is cutting production, keeping prices high, cozying up to
China, and joining bricks. The relationship is dead. That leaves
Venezuela. But Venezuela under Maduro wasn't selling to the United States. It
was selling to China at steep discounts through a shadow fleet of tankers.
designed to evade sanctions. So, the United States had a problem. It needed
Venezuela's oil, but it couldn't buy it because Maduro wouldn't sell to
Washington, and sanctions prevented legal transactions.
The solution? remove Maduro, install a government that will sell,
rebuild the infrastructure with American oil companies, lock Venezuela back into
the dollar system, and make sure China doesn't get the oil. That's the
calculation, not drugs, not democracy, barrels, and
leverage. But there's a second reason, and this one is even more important. The
China problem. Venezuela isn't just about oil for the United States. It's
about oil for China. China is the world's largest oil importer. It needs
massive quantities of energy to run its industrial economy. And for years, China
has been systematically building relationships with oil producing nations
to secure supply. Venezuela is one of China's key partners. China has invested
billions in Venezuelan infrastructure, taken oil at discounted rates, and
provided financial lifelines when US sanctions choked the regime. But here's
what really terrified Washington. Venezuela was preparing to fully
integrate its energy sector into China's crossborder interbank payment system,
SIPs. That's China's alternative to the Swift banking system. And Venezuela
wasn't just going to use SIPs for transactions. According to multiple
reports, Caracus was preparing to price its oil in a basket of currencies led by
the yuan and backed by gold. If that had happened, China could buy Venezuelan oil
without using US dollars, which means China wouldn't need to hold dollars,
which means demand for the dollar drops, which means the value of the dollar
falls, which means the cost of servicing US debt skyrockets. The entire American
financial system is built on the assumption that the world needs dollars
to buy oil. It's called the petrod dollar system. It was formalized in 1974
with Saudi Arabia and it's been the foundation of US economic dominance ever
since. But that system is dying. Saudi Arabia refused to renew its exclusive
dollar agreement. Brics nations are trading energy in yuan, rupees and local
currencies. The dollar's monopoly is evaporating.
And if Venezuela, the country with the largest oil reserves on earth, publicly
abandons the dollar and prices its oil in yuan,
that's a signal to every other oil producing nation. It says you can
survive outside the American system. Washington couldn't allow that. So they
removed the government. This wasn't about Nicholas Maduro. This was about preventing China from securing a massive
energy supply outside the dollar system. This was about maintaining control over
a resource that if properly developed could shift the global energy balance.
Trump said it himself, though not in these terms. He said the US would sell
Venezuelan oil to other countries. He said American companies would rebuild
the infrastructure. He said the oil would be reimbursement for damages.
Translation, we're taking the oil, we're deciding who gets it, and we're pricing
it in dollars. That's not law enforcement. That's economic warfare
disguised as justice. The legal fiction. Now, let's talk about the legal
framework or complete lack thereof. The operation was not authorized by
Congress. There was no declaration of war. There was no authorization for use
of military force. The gang of eight, the congressional leadership who are
supposed to be briefed on sensitive operations were informed after the
strikes had already begun. This violates the War Powers Act, which requires the
president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to
military action. But the administration is arguing this wasn't military action.
It was law enforcement. Maduro has been under federal indictment since 2020 on
narot terrorism charges. The administration says it was simply
executing an arrest warrant. The fact that executing the warrant required air
strikes, aircraft carriers, and a military assault on a foreign capital
irrelevant. According to the legal theory, this is absurd. But it's also
clever because if you call it an arrest, you don't need congressional approval.
You don't trigger the War Powers Act. You bypass the entire constitutional
framework designed to prevent unilateral executive military action. And here's
the thing, it's going to work because Congress isn't going to do anything.
Republicans will support it. Democrats will condemn it. but won't block
funding. And by the time any legal challenge works its way through the courts, the operation will be complete.
This is how the rule of law dies. Not in one dramatic moment. In a thousand
procedural workarounds that render constitutional constraints meaningless.
But the legal fiction doesn't just apply to US law. It applies to international
law as well. Under the United Nations Charter, military intervention in
another sovereign state without Security Council authorization or an imminent
threat of attack is prohibited. This is foundational. This is the principle that
supposedly governs international relations. The US just violated it
publicly, brazenly. And when other countries objected, Brazil, Colombia,
Mexico, Russia, China, the response was essentially, "So what?" Because the
United States holds veto power at the Security Council, any resolution
condemning the action will be blocked. The International Court of Justice has
no jurisdiction. The Organization of American States is
divided and powerless. So functionally there is no enforcement
mechanism. The US can do this because it has the military power to do it and no
one can stop them. This is what the collapse of the
rules-based international order looks like. Not an invasion by a rival power,
an abandonment by the hegeimon itself. And here's the hypocrisy that makes it
even worse, the moral collapse. For years, the United States condemned
Russia for violating Ukraine's sovereignty. sanctions, condemnation,
isolation. The entire Western world rallied around the principle that
borders matter, that sovereignty is sacred, that military aggression cannot
be tolerated. And now, less than three years later, the United States conducts
air strikes on Venezuela, removes its government, and announces it will quote,
"Run the country and extract its oil." The justification:
Maduro is a criminal. He traffs drugs. He's a dictator. He stole American
assets. Fine. Maybe all of that is true. But
Russia made similar arguments about Ukraine, corruption, NATO expansion,
ethnic Russians under threat, protection of Russian speakers. The West rejected
those arguments. The West said sovereignty is non-negotiable.
The West said you can't invade a country no matter the justification.
And yet here we are. Now, I'm not equating the two situations. Venezuela
and Ukraine are different. Maduro and Zalinski are different, but the
principle is the same. Either sovereignty matters or it doesn't. And
what the United States just demonstrated is that sovereignty only matters when
it's convenient. When it's your ally, borders are sacred. When it's your
target, borders are irrelevant. This destroys credibility. Every country
watching, especially in the global south, is seeing this. They're seeing
that the rules apply selectively. That the international order is just a cover
for American interests. That treaties, agreements, and norms mean nothing when
power is at stake. And once that credibility is gone, it doesn't come
back. You can't lecture China about Taiwan after invading Venezuela.
You can't condemn Russia in Ukraine after conducting air strikes in Caracus.
The moral authority is gone. And without moral authority, all that's left is
force. and force historically has a shelf life. The Honduras contradiction.
And speaking of hypocrisy, let's talk about Honduras. On December 20th, just two weeks before
the Venezuela operation, President Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Hernandez was the former president of Honduras. He had been convicted in a US
federal court on drug trafficking charges. The evidence showed he
facilitated cocaine shipments through Honduras in exchange for millions of
dollars in bribes. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Trump pardoned him.
The justification, Hernandez was a US ally. He cooperated on immigration. He
helped stop caravans at the southern border. So, let me get this straight. The United
States just launched a military operation to arrest Maduro for drug
trafficking. But two weeks earlier, it pardoned a convicted drug trafficker because he was
politically useful. This isn't about drugs. This isn't about
justice. This is about who serves American interests and who doesn't.
Hernandez was useful, so he got a pardon. Madura was an obstacle, so he
got air strikes. The pattern is clear. And once you see it, you can't unsee it.
So where does this leave Venezuela? Trump says the US will run the country
until a transition can take place, but he hasn't said who will lead that
transition. He hasn't said how long the US will stay. He hasn't said what
success looks like. He mentioned Vice President Deli Rodriguez. He said Rubio
spoke with her. He said she would be sworn in and work with the US on a
transition. But Rodriguez appeared on Venezuelan state television demanding Maduro's
immediate release. She called the strikes a criminal act. She declared
herself the interim president and claimed continuity of government. So,
she's not cooperating, at least not publicly. Then there's the
opposition. Maria Corina Machado, the Nobel Peace Prizewinning opposition leader, posted that the hour of freedom
has arrived. She called on Edmundo Gonzalez, the opposition figure widely
regarded as the legitimate winner of the 2024 election, to assume the presidency.
Gonzalez is currently in exile in Spain. So, you have competing claims. Rodriguez
says she's in charge. Machado says Gonzalez should be in charge. The US
says it will run things until a transition happens. And the military, no
unified statement. Some units loyal to the old regime. others waiting to see
which way the wind blows. This is a power vacuum. And power vacuums don't
stay empty. History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes. We've seen this before. Iraq,
Libya, Afghanistan. In each case, the initial military
operation succeeded. The target was removed. celebrations in the streets,
declarations of liberation, and then chaos. In Iraq, the removal of
Saddam Hussein led to a sectarian civil war that killed hundreds of thousands
and created ISIS. In Libya, the removal of Gaddafi led to a failed state, open
slave markets, and a refugee crisis that destabilized Europe. In Afghanistan, the
removal of the Taliban led to 20 years of war, trillions of dollars spent, and
the Taliban back in power anyway. The pattern is consistent. It's easy to
remove a government. It's extraordinarily difficult to build a stable one. And the Trump administration
has no plan. Trump says the US will run Venezuela, but he hasn't said how. He
says oil companies will invest billions, but he hasn't secured commitments. He
says there will be a transition, but he hasn't identified who will lead it. This
is regime change on vibes, and vibes don't govern countries. Venezuela is not
a blank slate. It's a country of 30 million people with deep political
divisions, a collapsed economy, broken institutions,
and competing power centers. The opposition is fragmented.
The military is uncertain. The general population is exhausted and
skeptical. Rebuilding will take years. It will take massive investment.
It will require political legitimacy that a USbacked government may not have.
And if it goes wrong, if Venezuela descends into civil conflict, if the
humanitarian crisis explodes, if the oil doesn't flow, then what? The
administration hasn't answered that question because they're not thinking
that far ahead. They're thinking about the press conference, the photo op, the immediate
political win, not the decade of consequences.
So, let's be clear about what this operation was.
This wasn't about democracy. If it were, the US wouldn't have
pardoned Hernandez two weeks ago. This wasn't about drugs. If it were, the
focus would be on demand reduction, not regime change. This wasn't even really
about Nicholas Maduro. He's been in power for over a decade. If removing him
were the priority, it would have happened years ago. This was about oil.
This was about China. This was about a financial system that's losing its grip
and resorting to force to maintain control. The United States needed
Venezuela's oil back in the dollar system. It needed to prevent China from
securing an independent energy supply. It needed to send a message to every
other resourcerrich nation. You will sell to us. You will price in dollars or
we will come for you. That's the calculation. Brutal, cynical, effective in the short
term, but in the long term, this accelerates exactly what it was meant to
prevent. Because every country in the global south is watching and they're not
seeing strength, they're seeing desperation. They're seeing a hegeimon that can't
compete economically. So it competes militarily. And that doesn't inspire
loyalty. It inspires fear. And fear drives countries to hedge, to diversify,
to reduce their dependence on a system that might invade them if they step out
of line. Brazil is watching, Indonesia is watching, Nigeria is watching, and
they're all asking the same question. If we refuse to sell our resources in
dollars, are we next? This operation was supposed to secure
American dominance. Instead, it's accelerating the very multi-polar shift
it was designed to prevent. So, I'll leave you with this. The United States
just conducted air strikes on a sovereign nation. It removed a head of
state. It announced it will run the country and extract its oil as
reimbursement. It did this without congressional authorization,
without a declaration of war, without international legitimacy.
And it justified it by calling it law enforcement.
Now ask yourself, if another country did this, if China bombed a neighboring
capital, removed its government and announced it would extract resources as
compensation. What would we call it? We call it imperialism.
We call it aggression. We call it a violation of every principle the
international order claims to uphold. But when the United States does it, we
call it justice. Are we still the country we claim to be? Or have we
become exactly what we used to oppose? That's the question this operation
forces us to ask. And the answer increasingly is uncomfortable.
- admin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 39813
- Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:21 am
Re: Part 2 Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down
by admin » Wed Jan 07, 2026 12:24 am
Trump White House Launches Stunning January 6 Website Trashing ‘Violent’ Capitol Police
by Sean James
Mediaite
Jan 6th, 2026, 1:52 pm
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trump ... ol-police/
[x]
(Photo Credit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/j6/)
President Donald Trump’s White House launched a website dedicated to the January 6 Capitol Riot on Tuesday that said the Democrats “staged the real insurrection” and claimed Capitol Police escalated the mayhem.
Its debut coincides with the five year anniversary of the riot.
The key section of the website blames Democrats — and specifically, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — for making the riot into a much bigger deal than it actually was. It also falsely claimed that the Democrats rigged the 2020 election before asserting that they led a witch hunt against Trump and his supporters in the aftermath of the riot.
Here is that section:
The website put the “real insurrection” comment in bold, as seen above.
It also included a timeline at the bottom of the page. One section blamed the cops for the riot getting out of control.
“Video evidence shows officers inexplicably removing barricades, opening Capitol doors, and even waving attendees inside the building—actions that facilitated entry—while simultaneously deploying violent force against others,” the website said. “These inconsistent and provocative tactics turned a peaceful demonstration into chaos.”
The timeline had another chapter that said Trump delivered a “powerful speech” urging his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make their voices heard” earlier in the day.
That segment continued, “He stresses the need to fight for the country through strength and determination, explicitly calling for peaceful protest. The crowd responds with massive enthusiasm.”
Other sections on the timeline include: President Trump Urges Calm, Leaked Pelosi Video Reveals Security Lapses, Ashli Babbitt Murdered in Cold Blood, Mike Pence Refuses to Act.
There is also a section of the site ripping the BBC for its “doctored” footage of Trump’s 1/6 speech.
You can view the website yourself by clicking here.
by Sean James
Mediaite
Jan 6th, 2026, 1:52 pm
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trump ... ol-police/
[x]
(Photo Credit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/j6/)
President Donald Trump’s White House launched a website dedicated to the January 6 Capitol Riot on Tuesday that said the Democrats “staged the real insurrection” and claimed Capitol Police escalated the mayhem.
Its debut coincides with the five year anniversary of the riot.
The key section of the website blames Democrats — and specifically, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — for making the riot into a much bigger deal than it actually was. It also falsely claimed that the Democrats rigged the 2020 election before asserting that they led a witch hunt against Trump and his supporters in the aftermath of the riot.
Here is that section:
The Democrats masterfully reversed reality after January 6, branding peaceful patriotic protesters as “insurrectionists” and framing the event as a violent coup attempt orchestrated by Trump—despite no evidence of armed rebellion or intent to overthrow the government.
In truth, it was the Democrats who staged the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election, ignoring widespread irregularities, and weaponizing federal agencies to hunt down dissenters, all while Pelosi’s own security lapses invited the chaos they later exploited to seize and consolidate power.
This gaslighting narrative allowed them to persecute innocent Americans, silence opposition, and distract from their own role in undermining democracy.
The website put the “real insurrection” comment in bold, as seen above.
It also included a timeline at the bottom of the page. One section blamed the cops for the riot getting out of control.
“Video evidence shows officers inexplicably removing barricades, opening Capitol doors, and even waving attendees inside the building—actions that facilitated entry—while simultaneously deploying violent force against others,” the website said. “These inconsistent and provocative tactics turned a peaceful demonstration into chaos.”
The timeline had another chapter that said Trump delivered a “powerful speech” urging his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make their voices heard” earlier in the day.
That segment continued, “He stresses the need to fight for the country through strength and determination, explicitly calling for peaceful protest. The crowd responds with massive enthusiasm.”
Other sections on the timeline include: President Trump Urges Calm, Leaked Pelosi Video Reveals Security Lapses, Ashli Babbitt Murdered in Cold Blood, Mike Pence Refuses to Act.
There is also a section of the site ripping the BBC for its “doctored” footage of Trump’s 1/6 speech.
You can view the website yourself by clicking here.
- admin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 39813
- Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:21 am
Re: Part 2 Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down
by admin » Wed Jan 07, 2026 2:46 am
Why Venezuela Is About More Than an ‘Arrest’ - And What Comes Next
Economic Warning
Jan 6, 2026
The headlines have already moved on.
A president in custody. Airstrikes completed. Press conferences concluded.
But what unfolded in Venezuela is not a courtroom story. It is a systems story.
This analysis steps away from the spectacle and looks at what actually happened — not through personalities or politics, but through structure. It traces how an operation framed as enforcement sits inside a much larger strategy involving resources, trade routes, and the control of economic systems that shape global power.
For years, pressure was applied quietly. Sanctions hardened. Financial channels narrowed. Energy markets shifted. China’s economic footprint expanded across South America. Venezuela did not suddenly become important — it became unavoidable. What appears abrupt is the final move in a long sequence where negotiation gave way to force and market logic replaced diplomacy.
This report examines why this happened now, not earlier. Why oil denomination, currency systems, and China’s role in the hemisphere sit at the center of the decision — even when official explanations keep changing. And why the contradictions between public statements reveal more than the statements themselves.
It also looks ahead. At what happens when control replaces cooperation. At the instability that follows when governments are removed without a clear economic endgame. And at the risks markets are quietly absorbing as optimism collides with historical precedent.
This is not an argument for or against any leader. It is an attempt to understand what this moment reveals about the world as it is — not as it is presented in press briefings.
Because when power is exercised through economic containment rather than diplomacy, the consequences do not stay confined to one country. And once supply lines, currencies, and sovereignty become instruments of strategy, uncertainty becomes the new global constant.
Transcript
The headlines have moved on. Maduro is
in New York. The air strikes are over.
The press conferences are done. But the
real story is just beginning. Because
what happened in Venezuela is part of
something bigger. Greenland, the Panama
Canal, Canada, Venezuela. These aren't
separate conversations. They're
connected by one strategic logic that
most analysts are missing. This isn't
about one man in handcuffs. It's about
securing resources, controlling trade
routes, and positioning for what comes
next. The administration calls it
national security. Others call it
economic containment. But whatever you
call it, the mechanics are the same.
Control the supply lines, control the
pricing systems, and deny competitors
access. Today I'm going to walk you
through the economic logic behind what's
unfolding across the Western Hemisphere.
Not the politics, not the personalities,
but the structural moves that are
reshaping energy markets and global
positioning. Three things matter right
now. Oil reserves and who controls them.
Currency flows and what system prices
them. and China's expanding economic
footprint in regions the United States
considers strategic. Let me show you
what's actually happening. South America
as an economic battlefield.
Here's what most coverage is missing.
Venezuela didn't happen in isolation.
It's one move in a continental economic
contest that's been building for two
decades. China Latin America trade hit
518
billion dollar in 2024.
That's not a typo. Over half a trillion
dollar and it's growing at roughly 30%
annually.
20 years ago, China accounted for less
than 2% of Latin America's exports.
Today, China is South America's largest
trading partner. Brazil trades more with
China than with the United States. So
does Peru. So does Chile. Ecuador just
signed a free trade agreement with
Beijing in 2024. Nicaragua did the same.
22 out of 33 Latin American and
Caribbean nations have joined China's
Belt and Road Initiative. This isn't
just trade statistics. This is
infrastructure. China now owns or
operates major ports in Peru, Brazil,
Panama, and Ecuador. The port of Chankai
in Peru, which just opened, is designed
to handle exports from six South
American countries directly to Asia,
cutting the United States out of the
supply chain entirely.
So when you hear about Venezuela,
understand the context. The United
States is watching its historical sphere
of influence shift economically toward
Beijing. And that shift isn't abstract.
Its ports, railroads, energy contracts,
and payment systems. Secretary of State
Marco Rubio's portfolio is Latin
America. That's his focus. That's his
expertise. And his strategic goal is
clear. reassert American economic
leverage in the hemisphere without full
military occupation. Venezuela is the
signal. It says if you move too far
toward China, if you threaten
dollar-based energy pricing, if you
become a node in Beijing's supply chain,
there are consequences. This isn't
regime change in the traditional sense.
This is market rebalancing through
force. The oil denomination question.
Now, let's talk about what this is
really about. Not oil volume, oil
denomination.
Venezuela has the largest proven oil
reserves on Earth, roughly 300 billion
barrels, but production has collapsed.
Under Maduro, output fell from over
three million barrels per day to less
than 1 million. Infrastructure decayed.
Investments stopped. Skilled workers
fled. So if Venezuela isn't producing
much oil, why does it matter
strategically? Because it's not about
current production. It's about future
control. Here's the mechanics. For 50
years, global oil has been priced in US
dollars. This system, called the petro
dollar, creates automatic demand for
American currency. Every country that
needs oil needs dollars to buy it. That
demand allows the United States to
borrow cheaply, print money without
immediate inflation consequences,
and finance its debt at lower interest
rates than economic fundamentals would
otherwise allow. But that system is
fracturing.
Saudi Arabia refused to renew its
exclusive dollar agreement.
BRICS nations Brazil, Russia, India,
China, South Africa are increasingly
settling energy trades in local
currencies or yuan. And Venezuela,
according to multiple reports, was
preparing to fully integrate its energy
sector into China's crossborder
interbank payment system and price its
oil in a basket of currencies led by the
yuan. If that had happened, China could
buy Venezuelan oil without holding
dollars. If China doesn't need to hold
dollars, demand for US currency drops.
If demand drops, the dollar's value
falls. If the dollar falls, the cost of
servicing American debt skyrockets. This
is the threat. Not that Venezuela would
sell a million barrels a day to China,
but that Venezuela sitting on 300
billion barrels would prove you can
price oil outside the dollar system and
survive. That's the President Washington
couldn't allow. So, they removed the
government. Trump said it explicitly at
his press conference. He said US oil
companies would go in, rebuild the
infrastructure, and extract wealth. He
said the oil would go to other countries
and to the United States as quote
reimbursement for damages. Rubio walked
it back the next day, said the US
doesn't need Venezuelan oil, said this
is about governance, not resources. But
the contradiction tells you everything.
Trump says what the operation is about.
Rubio manages the diplomatic fallout.
The reality is somewhere in between. The
United States doesn't need Venezuelan
oil today, but it needs control over
that oil. It needs to ensure those
reserves stay denominated in dollars. It
needs to prevent China from securing an
independent energy supply outside the
American financial system. This wasn't
about liberating Venezuela. This was
about locking it back into the dollar
framework, positioning for what comes
next. Now, here's the layer most
analysts are ignoring. This isn't just
about today's oil market. This is about
prewar positioning. I'm not saying war
with China is imminent. I'm saying the
United States is consolidating its
hemisphere in case that conflict comes.
Look at the pattern. pressure on Canada
over trade, rhetoric about Greenland and
its mineral resources, renewed focus on
the Panama Canal and who controls
shipping lanes, and now direct
intervention in Venezuela. These moves
share a common logic. Secure the
backyard, control critical supply lines,
deny adversaries access to resources and
infrastructure in the Western
Hemisphere. Before you fight a pure
power, you secure your rear. You make
sure your energy is reliable, your trade
routes are protected, and your neighbors
aren't providing strategic depth to your
opponent. Venezuela fits that calculus.
It's not about fighting the Duro. It's
about ensuring that if tensions with
China escalate, South America's largest
oil reserves don't become a Chinese
energy lifeline. This is strategic
husbandry.
securing resources, locking in
contracts, controlling insurance and
shipping frameworks before they're
needed in a crisis. The domestic
political framing is different. Of
course, the administration talks about
the Monroe Doctrine, about national
security, about defending the
hemisphere. That language resonates with
American voters. It sounds decisive,
strong, protective, but the underlying
strategy is economic containment,
preventing China from securing
independent access to critical resources
and using military force to enforce that
containment when economic pressure
fails.
What happens to prices and markets?
So, what does this mean for actual
markets, for oil prices, for gasoline at
the pump? In the short term, not much.
Venezuela's current production is so
low, less than 1 million barrels per
day, that removing it from global
supply, doesn't move prices. OPEC has
spare capacity. US shale can ramp up.
The market absorbs the disruption. But
markets don't just react to current
supply. They react to expectations.
And the expectation here is that US oil
companies will eventually go into
Venezuela, rebuild the infrastructure,
and bring production back online. If
that happens, if Venezuela's output
returns to 3 million barrels per day
over the next decade, that's significant
additional supply. Heavy crude
compatible with Gulf Coast refineries
priced in dollars. Energy stocks have
already started pricing in that
scenario. expectations of contract
resets,
sanctions easing for select operators,
preferential access for American firms.
But here's the risk. Rebuilding
Venezuelan oil infrastructure will take
years and tens of billions of dollars,
and it requires political stability. If
Venezuela descends into internal
conflict, if the transition government
lacks legitimacy, if resistance
movements disrupt operations,
none of that investment happens. So
markets are betting on a bestcase
scenario, smooth transition, cooperative
government, rapid infrastructure
rebuilding. That's optimistic for
consumers. Gasoline prices won't drop
immediately. Retail prices lag crude
markets by weeks or months and regional
impacts vary. GF coast refineries
benefit first. Other regions see smaller
effects. The psychological impact might
be bigger than the economic one. the
perception of energy security, of
American control over supply, of reduced
dependence on Middle Eastern oil. That
perception shapes policy debates and
voter sentiment, even if the actual
price change is minimal.
Europe and financial pressure.
Now, let's talk about Europe's role.
Because while military action happened
in Venezuela,
financial pressure is happening in
European capitals.
European governments have frozen
Venezuelan government assets. Banks have
been told to scrutinize transactions.
Insurers are reviewing coverage for
Venezuelan linked shipping.
This creates choke points that go beyond
the military operation.
If you can't insure a tanker, you can't
move oil. If you can't clear payments
through European banks, you can't settle
contracts.
If your assets are frozen in London or
Frankfurt, you lose liquidity. This is
how modern economic warfare works. The
United States provides the military
pressure. Europe provides the financial
isolation. Together, they create a
system where resistance becomes
economically unsustainable.
For Venezuelan elites, this is a crisis.
Their wealth is tied up in foreign
accounts, real estate in Miami and
Madrid, investments in international
markets. If those assets are frozen or
seized, their ability to operate
politically collapses. This gives the
United States negotiation leverage, not
just with Maduro's inner circle, but
with whoever comes next. The message is
clear. Cooperate and your assets are
safe. Resist and you're financially
isolated. The endgame, nobody's
answering. So, here's the question that
should be dominating analysis, but
isn't. Who actually governs Venezuela?
Now, Trump said the US would quote run
the country. Rubio said no. existing
structures will handle day-to-day
governance.
Vice President Deli Rodriguez appeared
on state TV claiming she's still in
charge.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado
says Edmundo Gonzalez should assume the
presidency.
There's no clarity and that's a problem
because governance isn't speeches, it's
enforcement.
It's who signs contracts, who collects
revenue, who controls security forces,
who guarantees legal frameworks for
investment.
Right now, nobody has clear answers. And
that uncertainty freezes everything. Oil
companies won't invest billions without
knowing who they're negotiating with.
International banks won't clear payments
without legal clarity. Shipping firms
won't move cargo without insurance
guarantees.
So you have three possible paths
forward. Path one, controlled
transition. The US brokers a deal with
remnants of the existing government and
the opposition. A transitional authority
is established.
Oil contracts are renegotiated.
Revenue flows are restructured.
This is the bestcase scenario. It
requires cooperation from multiple
factions and years of institution
building.
Path two, fragmentation.
The government fractures.
Regional power centers emerge. Some
areas controlled by military units loyal
to the old regime, others by opposition
groups, others by criminal networks that
fill the vacuum.
Oil production stays disrupted.
Investment doesn't happen. The
humanitarian crisis worsens.
This is the Iraq Libya scenario. Path
three, economic counter pressure.
China doesn't accept the outcome.
Beijing continues buying oil through
shadow tankers, provides financial
support to resistance elements, uses its
leverage in other Latin American
countries to isolate USbacked
structures, turns Venezuela into a
long-term economic battleground.
This is the great power competition
scenario. None of these paths are clean.
None of them resolve quickly, and the
Trump administration hasn't articulated
which one they're pursuing or how they
plan to navigate the complexity.
This is highstakes economic maneuvering
without a clear endgame, and that's
dangerous.
what this means moving forward.
Let me bring this back to what matters
for understanding the bigger picture.
The Venezuela operation wasn't about
Maduro. It was about control over energy
resources, maintaining dollar-based
pricing systems, and countering China's
economic expansion in the Western
Hemisphere.
Greenland, Panama, Canada, Venezuela,
they're all connected. They're all part
of a strategic consolidation of the
hemisphere's resources and trade routes.
The administration calls this national
security. Critics call it overreach. But
the economic logic is consistent. Secure
supply lines, control pricing
mechanisms, deny competitors access.
Whether this strategy succeeds depends
on variables nobody can predict. Can
Venezuela be stabilized? Will oil
companies invest? How will China
respond? Can the US maintain legitimacy
in the region while using military
force? Markets are pricing in the
optimistic scenario that Venezuelan oil
comes back online, priced in dollars,
flowing to American refineries and
allied nations. But history suggests
caution. Iraq was supposed to be quick.
Libya was supposed to stabilize.
Afghanistan was supposed to transition
smoothly. Removing governments is easy.
Building functioning states is
extraordinarily difficult. And the
question nobody in Washington seems to
be asking is what happens if this
doesn't work? What happens if Venezuela
fragments? If oil production stays
disrupted, if China doubles down on
alternative supply chains, if other
Latin American nations decide the risk
of working with the United States is too
high, those are the questions that will
determine whether this operation was a
strategic success or an expensive
mistake. And right now, we're too early
in the process to know. What we can say
is this. The economic contest for South
America is no longer background noise.
It's front and center. And the stakes
are oil dollars and global positioning.
That's the story. Not the arrest, not
the press conference. The reshaping of
economic power in the Western
Hemisphere.
Economic Warning
Jan 6, 2026
The headlines have already moved on.
A president in custody. Airstrikes completed. Press conferences concluded.
But what unfolded in Venezuela is not a courtroom story. It is a systems story.
This analysis steps away from the spectacle and looks at what actually happened — not through personalities or politics, but through structure. It traces how an operation framed as enforcement sits inside a much larger strategy involving resources, trade routes, and the control of economic systems that shape global power.
For years, pressure was applied quietly. Sanctions hardened. Financial channels narrowed. Energy markets shifted. China’s economic footprint expanded across South America. Venezuela did not suddenly become important — it became unavoidable. What appears abrupt is the final move in a long sequence where negotiation gave way to force and market logic replaced diplomacy.
This report examines why this happened now, not earlier. Why oil denomination, currency systems, and China’s role in the hemisphere sit at the center of the decision — even when official explanations keep changing. And why the contradictions between public statements reveal more than the statements themselves.
It also looks ahead. At what happens when control replaces cooperation. At the instability that follows when governments are removed without a clear economic endgame. And at the risks markets are quietly absorbing as optimism collides with historical precedent.
This is not an argument for or against any leader. It is an attempt to understand what this moment reveals about the world as it is — not as it is presented in press briefings.
Because when power is exercised through economic containment rather than diplomacy, the consequences do not stay confined to one country. And once supply lines, currencies, and sovereignty become instruments of strategy, uncertainty becomes the new global constant.
Transcript
The headlines have moved on. Maduro is
in New York. The air strikes are over.
The press conferences are done. But the
real story is just beginning. Because
what happened in Venezuela is part of
something bigger. Greenland, the Panama
Canal, Canada, Venezuela. These aren't
separate conversations. They're
connected by one strategic logic that
most analysts are missing. This isn't
about one man in handcuffs. It's about
securing resources, controlling trade
routes, and positioning for what comes
next. The administration calls it
national security. Others call it
economic containment. But whatever you
call it, the mechanics are the same.
Control the supply lines, control the
pricing systems, and deny competitors
access. Today I'm going to walk you
through the economic logic behind what's
unfolding across the Western Hemisphere.
Not the politics, not the personalities,
but the structural moves that are
reshaping energy markets and global
positioning. Three things matter right
now. Oil reserves and who controls them.
Currency flows and what system prices
them. and China's expanding economic
footprint in regions the United States
considers strategic. Let me show you
what's actually happening. South America
as an economic battlefield.
Here's what most coverage is missing.
Venezuela didn't happen in isolation.
It's one move in a continental economic
contest that's been building for two
decades. China Latin America trade hit
518
billion dollar in 2024.
That's not a typo. Over half a trillion
dollar and it's growing at roughly 30%
annually.
20 years ago, China accounted for less
than 2% of Latin America's exports.
Today, China is South America's largest
trading partner. Brazil trades more with
China than with the United States. So
does Peru. So does Chile. Ecuador just
signed a free trade agreement with
Beijing in 2024. Nicaragua did the same.
22 out of 33 Latin American and
Caribbean nations have joined China's
Belt and Road Initiative. This isn't
just trade statistics. This is
infrastructure. China now owns or
operates major ports in Peru, Brazil,
Panama, and Ecuador. The port of Chankai
in Peru, which just opened, is designed
to handle exports from six South
American countries directly to Asia,
cutting the United States out of the
supply chain entirely.
So when you hear about Venezuela,
understand the context. The United
States is watching its historical sphere
of influence shift economically toward
Beijing. And that shift isn't abstract.
Its ports, railroads, energy contracts,
and payment systems. Secretary of State
Marco Rubio's portfolio is Latin
America. That's his focus. That's his
expertise. And his strategic goal is
clear. reassert American economic
leverage in the hemisphere without full
military occupation. Venezuela is the
signal. It says if you move too far
toward China, if you threaten
dollar-based energy pricing, if you
become a node in Beijing's supply chain,
there are consequences. This isn't
regime change in the traditional sense.
This is market rebalancing through
force. The oil denomination question.
Now, let's talk about what this is
really about. Not oil volume, oil
denomination.
Venezuela has the largest proven oil
reserves on Earth, roughly 300 billion
barrels, but production has collapsed.
Under Maduro, output fell from over
three million barrels per day to less
than 1 million. Infrastructure decayed.
Investments stopped. Skilled workers
fled. So if Venezuela isn't producing
much oil, why does it matter
strategically? Because it's not about
current production. It's about future
control. Here's the mechanics. For 50
years, global oil has been priced in US
dollars. This system, called the petro
dollar, creates automatic demand for
American currency. Every country that
needs oil needs dollars to buy it. That
demand allows the United States to
borrow cheaply, print money without
immediate inflation consequences,
and finance its debt at lower interest
rates than economic fundamentals would
otherwise allow. But that system is
fracturing.
Saudi Arabia refused to renew its
exclusive dollar agreement.
BRICS nations Brazil, Russia, India,
China, South Africa are increasingly
settling energy trades in local
currencies or yuan. And Venezuela,
according to multiple reports, was
preparing to fully integrate its energy
sector into China's crossborder
interbank payment system and price its
oil in a basket of currencies led by the
yuan. If that had happened, China could
buy Venezuelan oil without holding
dollars. If China doesn't need to hold
dollars, demand for US currency drops.
If demand drops, the dollar's value
falls. If the dollar falls, the cost of
servicing American debt skyrockets. This
is the threat. Not that Venezuela would
sell a million barrels a day to China,
but that Venezuela sitting on 300
billion barrels would prove you can
price oil outside the dollar system and
survive. That's the President Washington
couldn't allow. So, they removed the
government. Trump said it explicitly at
his press conference. He said US oil
companies would go in, rebuild the
infrastructure, and extract wealth. He
said the oil would go to other countries
and to the United States as quote
reimbursement for damages. Rubio walked
it back the next day, said the US
doesn't need Venezuelan oil, said this
is about governance, not resources. But
the contradiction tells you everything.
Trump says what the operation is about.
Rubio manages the diplomatic fallout.
The reality is somewhere in between. The
United States doesn't need Venezuelan
oil today, but it needs control over
that oil. It needs to ensure those
reserves stay denominated in dollars. It
needs to prevent China from securing an
independent energy supply outside the
American financial system. This wasn't
about liberating Venezuela. This was
about locking it back into the dollar
framework, positioning for what comes
next. Now, here's the layer most
analysts are ignoring. This isn't just
about today's oil market. This is about
prewar positioning. I'm not saying war
with China is imminent. I'm saying the
United States is consolidating its
hemisphere in case that conflict comes.
Look at the pattern. pressure on Canada
over trade, rhetoric about Greenland and
its mineral resources, renewed focus on
the Panama Canal and who controls
shipping lanes, and now direct
intervention in Venezuela. These moves
share a common logic. Secure the
backyard, control critical supply lines,
deny adversaries access to resources and
infrastructure in the Western
Hemisphere. Before you fight a pure
power, you secure your rear. You make
sure your energy is reliable, your trade
routes are protected, and your neighbors
aren't providing strategic depth to your
opponent. Venezuela fits that calculus.
It's not about fighting the Duro. It's
about ensuring that if tensions with
China escalate, South America's largest
oil reserves don't become a Chinese
energy lifeline. This is strategic
husbandry.
securing resources, locking in
contracts, controlling insurance and
shipping frameworks before they're
needed in a crisis. The domestic
political framing is different. Of
course, the administration talks about
the Monroe Doctrine, about national
security, about defending the
hemisphere. That language resonates with
American voters. It sounds decisive,
strong, protective, but the underlying
strategy is economic containment,
preventing China from securing
independent access to critical resources
and using military force to enforce that
containment when economic pressure
fails.
What happens to prices and markets?
So, what does this mean for actual
markets, for oil prices, for gasoline at
the pump? In the short term, not much.
Venezuela's current production is so
low, less than 1 million barrels per
day, that removing it from global
supply, doesn't move prices. OPEC has
spare capacity. US shale can ramp up.
The market absorbs the disruption. But
markets don't just react to current
supply. They react to expectations.
And the expectation here is that US oil
companies will eventually go into
Venezuela, rebuild the infrastructure,
and bring production back online. If
that happens, if Venezuela's output
returns to 3 million barrels per day
over the next decade, that's significant
additional supply. Heavy crude
compatible with Gulf Coast refineries
priced in dollars. Energy stocks have
already started pricing in that
scenario. expectations of contract
resets,
sanctions easing for select operators,
preferential access for American firms.
But here's the risk. Rebuilding
Venezuelan oil infrastructure will take
years and tens of billions of dollars,
and it requires political stability. If
Venezuela descends into internal
conflict, if the transition government
lacks legitimacy, if resistance
movements disrupt operations,
none of that investment happens. So
markets are betting on a bestcase
scenario, smooth transition, cooperative
government, rapid infrastructure
rebuilding. That's optimistic for
consumers. Gasoline prices won't drop
immediately. Retail prices lag crude
markets by weeks or months and regional
impacts vary. GF coast refineries
benefit first. Other regions see smaller
effects. The psychological impact might
be bigger than the economic one. the
perception of energy security, of
American control over supply, of reduced
dependence on Middle Eastern oil. That
perception shapes policy debates and
voter sentiment, even if the actual
price change is minimal.
Europe and financial pressure.
Now, let's talk about Europe's role.
Because while military action happened
in Venezuela,
financial pressure is happening in
European capitals.
European governments have frozen
Venezuelan government assets. Banks have
been told to scrutinize transactions.
Insurers are reviewing coverage for
Venezuelan linked shipping.
This creates choke points that go beyond
the military operation.
If you can't insure a tanker, you can't
move oil. If you can't clear payments
through European banks, you can't settle
contracts.
If your assets are frozen in London or
Frankfurt, you lose liquidity. This is
how modern economic warfare works. The
United States provides the military
pressure. Europe provides the financial
isolation. Together, they create a
system where resistance becomes
economically unsustainable.
For Venezuelan elites, this is a crisis.
Their wealth is tied up in foreign
accounts, real estate in Miami and
Madrid, investments in international
markets. If those assets are frozen or
seized, their ability to operate
politically collapses. This gives the
United States negotiation leverage, not
just with Maduro's inner circle, but
with whoever comes next. The message is
clear. Cooperate and your assets are
safe. Resist and you're financially
isolated. The endgame, nobody's
answering. So, here's the question that
should be dominating analysis, but
isn't. Who actually governs Venezuela?
Now, Trump said the US would quote run
the country. Rubio said no. existing
structures will handle day-to-day
governance.
Vice President Deli Rodriguez appeared
on state TV claiming she's still in
charge.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado
says Edmundo Gonzalez should assume the
presidency.
There's no clarity and that's a problem
because governance isn't speeches, it's
enforcement.
It's who signs contracts, who collects
revenue, who controls security forces,
who guarantees legal frameworks for
investment.
Right now, nobody has clear answers. And
that uncertainty freezes everything. Oil
companies won't invest billions without
knowing who they're negotiating with.
International banks won't clear payments
without legal clarity. Shipping firms
won't move cargo without insurance
guarantees.
So you have three possible paths
forward. Path one, controlled
transition. The US brokers a deal with
remnants of the existing government and
the opposition. A transitional authority
is established.
Oil contracts are renegotiated.
Revenue flows are restructured.
This is the bestcase scenario. It
requires cooperation from multiple
factions and years of institution
building.
Path two, fragmentation.
The government fractures.
Regional power centers emerge. Some
areas controlled by military units loyal
to the old regime, others by opposition
groups, others by criminal networks that
fill the vacuum.
Oil production stays disrupted.
Investment doesn't happen. The
humanitarian crisis worsens.
This is the Iraq Libya scenario. Path
three, economic counter pressure.
China doesn't accept the outcome.
Beijing continues buying oil through
shadow tankers, provides financial
support to resistance elements, uses its
leverage in other Latin American
countries to isolate USbacked
structures, turns Venezuela into a
long-term economic battleground.
This is the great power competition
scenario. None of these paths are clean.
None of them resolve quickly, and the
Trump administration hasn't articulated
which one they're pursuing or how they
plan to navigate the complexity.
This is highstakes economic maneuvering
without a clear endgame, and that's
dangerous.
what this means moving forward.
Let me bring this back to what matters
for understanding the bigger picture.
The Venezuela operation wasn't about
Maduro. It was about control over energy
resources, maintaining dollar-based
pricing systems, and countering China's
economic expansion in the Western
Hemisphere.
Greenland, Panama, Canada, Venezuela,
they're all connected. They're all part
of a strategic consolidation of the
hemisphere's resources and trade routes.
The administration calls this national
security. Critics call it overreach. But
the economic logic is consistent. Secure
supply lines, control pricing
mechanisms, deny competitors access.
Whether this strategy succeeds depends
on variables nobody can predict. Can
Venezuela be stabilized? Will oil
companies invest? How will China
respond? Can the US maintain legitimacy
in the region while using military
force? Markets are pricing in the
optimistic scenario that Venezuelan oil
comes back online, priced in dollars,
flowing to American refineries and
allied nations. But history suggests
caution. Iraq was supposed to be quick.
Libya was supposed to stabilize.
Afghanistan was supposed to transition
smoothly. Removing governments is easy.
Building functioning states is
extraordinarily difficult. And the
question nobody in Washington seems to
be asking is what happens if this
doesn't work? What happens if Venezuela
fragments? If oil production stays
disrupted, if China doubles down on
alternative supply chains, if other
Latin American nations decide the risk
of working with the United States is too
high, those are the questions that will
determine whether this operation was a
strategic success or an expensive
mistake. And right now, we're too early
in the process to know. What we can say
is this. The economic contest for South
America is no longer background noise.
It's front and center. And the stakes
are oil dollars and global positioning.
That's the story. Not the arrest, not
the press conference. The reshaping of
economic power in the Western
Hemisphere.
- admin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 39813
- Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:21 am
Re: Part 2 Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down
by admin » Wed Jan 07, 2026 5:27 pm
“This Is Our Hemisphere”: Report from Colombia on Trump’s Escalating Threats to the Region
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
January 07, 2026
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/7/c ... transcript
Following his attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump has escalated his threats against Colombia and claimed without evidence that President Gustavo Petro is involved in cocaine trafficking. Trump and others in his administration have also threatened military action against Cuba, Greenland, Iran and Mexico in recent days.
Manuel Rozental, a Colombian physician and activist with more than 40 years of involvement in grassroots political organizing, tells Democracy Now! that Trump’s attacks on Petro are lies. The former guerrilla “has seized more cocaine than any other government in the past,” says Rozental. “President Petro is not a drug trafficker. President Petro has been a victim of drug mafias and their allies.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show looking at the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. On Tuesday, President Trump announced on Truth Social the interim leaders of Venezuela had agreed to turn over between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. In his message, Trump wrote, quote, “This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” unquote. This follows earlier remarks by Trump that he plans to, quote, “take back” Venezuela’s oil.
In recent days, Trump has also threatened other Latin American nations, including Colombia, Mexico and Cuba. Speaking to reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One, Trump specifically targeted Colombian President Gustavo Petro and claimed, without evidence, that Petro is trafficking cocaine into the U.S.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have a very sick neighbor. It’s not a neighbor, but it’s close to a neighbor. And that’s Venezuela. It’s very sick. Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.
REPORTER 1: What does that mean? He’s not going to be doing it very long?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: He’s not doing it very long. He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He’s not going to be doing it very long.
REPORTER 1: So, there will be an operation by the U.S. in Colombia?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It sounds good to me. Yeah.
REPORTER 2: Secretary Rubio mentioned Cuba yesterday.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You know why? Because they kill a lot of people. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: In a series of posts on X, Colombian President Gustavo Petro blasted President Trump, saying, “Stop slandering me, Mr. Trump.” Petro called on Latin America to unite against the U.S, saying the region risks being “treated as a servant and a slave.”
We go now to Cauca, Colombia, where we’re joined by Dr. Manuel Rozental, Colombian physician and activist with more than 40 years of involvement in grassroots political organizing with youth, Indigenous communities and urban and rural social movements. He’s been exiled several times for his political activities. Manuel Rozental is part of the organization Pueblos en Camino, or People on the Path.
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Manuel. So, if you can start off by responding to these developments over the weekend? President Trump and the administration seize the president of Venezuela and his wife, bring them to New York, bomb both Caracas and other cities, 80 people are killed, and then says he’s setting his sights on Petro, the president of Colombia. Your response and how people are responding on the ground?
DR. MANUEL ROZENTAL: Well, first of all, Amy, thank you for having me.
The situation is evolving, but what is clear is that it’s not only Colombia or Cuba. The entire world should be very worried, scared about what is already happening — not what might develop, but what is happening. And what is happening is, first of all, Trump, with his national security policy that he launched in December, he has announced the takeover of the entire continent. This is his region. He’s appropriating this region. And as you stated, and he has stated, what — Venezuelan oil belongs to him, and that he’s made that very clear. Mexico is under threat. The entire continent is under threat. And as you all know, he liberated a drug trafficker from prison in the U.S., in the former president of Honduras, Hernández, at the same time seizing Maduro as a drug trafficker and bombing.
So, whatever is in his head, whatever impulse comes to him and the people that surround him and feed his impulses, which include Stephen Miller, Vance, Rubio, Hegseth, etc., are already and have already committed crimes against humanity and war crimes like bombing boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific. So, there’s a war launched in the world, and the U.S. has announced our territory is not only not the Western Hemisphere even, but the entire Americas.
Then, at the same time, China launched an exercise, a military exercise, against Taiwan. And Trump’s response was, “I’m not worried about that.” And we have the background of what happened before with Syria and what is happening in Ukraine. So, right now what we’re seeing is three contending forces, huge — Russia, China, the U.S. — and others, allies and not, that are actually taking over what they — seizing what they feel is their territory for pillage. And the risk is for everybody.
Within that context, one, President Petro is not a drug trafficker. President Petro has been a victim of drug mafias and their allies, not only in Colombia, but all over the world. President Trump and the people around him are closer to the money-laundering machine and the transfer of funds to the North from drug trafficking than is Petro. Petro, in fact, has denounced and opposed them. And Petro, yes, is at risk based on a lie. And the lie is exactly what you shared with us, that Petro is a drug trafficker. That is the global image.
But then, also — and I have to say this — that does not mean I am defending or one should defend the Venezuelan regime. The U.S. had no right to seize Maduro, to attack Venezuela, no right whatsoever. That doesn’t mean that there was an autocracy in Venezuela and that what is happening within Venezuela at the moment is that neither María Corina Machado nor the Chavista Maduro regime represent the majority of the people of Venezuela. And a new government is being established by Trump, from Trump, which is oil companies rule the country and the economy, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, Delcy Rodríguez and the other ones maintain stability and peace by repressing the people of Venezuela. The victims of all this for the moment are the people in Venezuela, of Venezuela, and the majority of the people in the continent.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Manuel Rozental, these threats of Trump against Colombia, actually the third-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, far bigger than Venezuela in population — Colombia has over 50 million people. And could you talk a little bit about Petro as the president, his history, and how contradictory his trajectory is to what Trump is alleging against him?
DR. MANUEL ROZENTAL: Absolutely, Juan. That has to be clarified. One may agree or disagree with his policies, but President Petro for 30 years — he left the armed insurgency that he was part of, and actually a commanding part of, that actually was forced into existence because of the robbery of an election in 1970 by the elites of Colombia. They took an election that was won by a popular party, and then enforced people with the views that Petro shared into an armed struggle, the M-19. But then he promised he would never take arms again, he would fight for peace. And he has been consistent with that. Nobody can say anything else about Petro.
But then, as a member of Congress, Gustavo Petro was the single most leader in exposing the connections between Colombian government, the Colombian Army, paramilitaries and the drug trade. And his voice will never be forgotten for that, his dignity, the strength of what he stated, and actually the evidence he presented to the Colombian people. He was then attacked. His life has been threatened because of his defense of peace, democracy and his struggle against mafias, paramilitaries, etc. And then he becomes the mayor of Bogotá, and he’s removed from power by an elite machinery of mafias, that he was actually proven to be — that this was the case, and he was an innocent from what he was accused for. He was the mayor of the largest city in Colombia.
After that, and after proving that he was innocent, he has the largest, largest electoral base ever in the history of Colombia, and with that base, from that base, he becomes the president of Colombia. And he has seized more cocaine than any other government in the past. But not only that — and this is more important than how much cocaine he has seized — he has exposed the fact that New York City, Paris, Dubai are the centers of global mafias that are transferring millions and millions of dollars of money through drug trafficking from all over the world, and that they are the ones that control drug trade, including the Colombian production, transformation or export of cocaine to the world. So, money laundering is the key here, and these mafias are there. So, he has stated clearly, to stop drug trade, you don’t attack boats in the Caribbean, peasants in Colombia and the presidents of Colombia or Venezuela; you find them, the center of command, up there in the U.S., in Paris, in Dubai and also in the Cuban American Florida-allied representatives and Republicans allied with the Colombian elites that are attacking Petro.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And also, most Americans are not aware that Petro is about to leave office. He’s term-limited, and the elections in Colombia are just in two months. Why do you feel — why do you think that Trump has taken this point to target a man who is about to leave office?
DR. MANUEL ROZENTAL: Juan, thank you for reminding me. That’s a very important point. The fact is, at the end of his presidency, the majority of people in Colombia love Petro still — with mistakes, with disagreements, with contradictions, but most people love Petro. That is not the case with Maduro. Maduro pretends to be loved, but there is an autocratic regime there. Here, no. Petro has defended democracy. There are no human rights violations from the government. There is not a repressive regime. And social change in many areas has been at least attempted by the government, as I say, with mistakes and disagreements and in a state of a growing war.
But why is he being attacked now? Because Iván Cepeda, the son of a murdered member of Congress, and a lawyer — sorry, a philosopher, an activist, a member of parliament, a fighter for human rights, he is a candidate or pre-candidate for the left in Colombia. If there were elections today, Iván Cepeda would win in the first round. And he has vowed to continue with President Petro’s legacy, so we would even have a stronger left-leaning social democratic government in Colombia. And that is what’s behind this attack on Petro. The only way one can stop Cepeda and the left from winning again in Colombia, it seems, would be to do something dirty, which is condemn Petro, attack him of being a narcotrafficker and destroy the electoral process. It serves right into Álvaro Uribe Vélez’s mafias and all the former Colombian elites linked to U.S. power.
AMY GOODMAN: Manuel Rozental, can you describe, as we begin to wrap up, what’s happening on the border between Colombia and Venezuela right now, the tens of thousands of Colombian troops that have been deployed there?
DR. MANUEL ROZENTAL: Yeah, absolutely. That border is uncontrollable, and this has to be said. All kinds of trades happen through there, including cocaine passing through that border into Venezuela and, from there, to the global markets. That is a fact. But also, armed factions, such as dissidents from FARC and ELN, cross that border, back and forth, involved in drug trade. And the Colombian government broke a peace negotiation with ELN, the second-largest guerrilla in Colombia before, now the largest one.
And so, tens of thousands of troops are in that border, because, one, there could be an aggression from the Venezuelan side; two, there could be a massive refugee crisis of people crossing from Venezuela into Colombia; and, third, and mostly, because there is a war now between the Petro government and the ELN that is — has been involved in drug trade, and the ELN has vowed to launch an anti-imperialist, they call, war against the U.S. And in that context, the Colombian Army has to stop ELN and has to protect the border. That’s what’s going on.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to end with Colombia’s foreign minister speaking Tuesday.
ROSA YOLANDA VILLAVICENCIO: [translated] We have said that every country in the international order has the right to its defense, its legitimate defense. And our Army has the president of the republic as its commander, and its mission is to defend the country’s sovereignty. If that aggression were to come, the Army must defend the national territory and the sovereignty of the country.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Colombia’s Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio. Manuel Rozental, I want to thank you so much for being with us, longtime Colombian physician, activist, exiled several times for his political activities, part of the group People on the Path, Pueblos en Camino. We’ll also do an interview with Spanish — in Spanish with him after the show and post it at democracynow.org.
Next up, we look at President Trump’s threats to seize Greenland from Denmark. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “Harbor for Hard Times” by David Berkeley.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
January 07, 2026
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/7/c ... transcript
Following his attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump has escalated his threats against Colombia and claimed without evidence that President Gustavo Petro is involved in cocaine trafficking. Trump and others in his administration have also threatened military action against Cuba, Greenland, Iran and Mexico in recent days.
Manuel Rozental, a Colombian physician and activist with more than 40 years of involvement in grassroots political organizing, tells Democracy Now! that Trump’s attacks on Petro are lies. The former guerrilla “has seized more cocaine than any other government in the past,” says Rozental. “President Petro is not a drug trafficker. President Petro has been a victim of drug mafias and their allies.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show looking at the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. On Tuesday, President Trump announced on Truth Social the interim leaders of Venezuela had agreed to turn over between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. In his message, Trump wrote, quote, “This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” unquote. This follows earlier remarks by Trump that he plans to, quote, “take back” Venezuela’s oil.
In recent days, Trump has also threatened other Latin American nations, including Colombia, Mexico and Cuba. Speaking to reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One, Trump specifically targeted Colombian President Gustavo Petro and claimed, without evidence, that Petro is trafficking cocaine into the U.S.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have a very sick neighbor. It’s not a neighbor, but it’s close to a neighbor. And that’s Venezuela. It’s very sick. Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.
REPORTER 1: What does that mean? He’s not going to be doing it very long?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: He’s not doing it very long. He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He’s not going to be doing it very long.
REPORTER 1: So, there will be an operation by the U.S. in Colombia?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It sounds good to me. Yeah.
REPORTER 2: Secretary Rubio mentioned Cuba yesterday.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You know why? Because they kill a lot of people. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: In a series of posts on X, Colombian President Gustavo Petro blasted President Trump, saying, “Stop slandering me, Mr. Trump.” Petro called on Latin America to unite against the U.S, saying the region risks being “treated as a servant and a slave.”
We go now to Cauca, Colombia, where we’re joined by Dr. Manuel Rozental, Colombian physician and activist with more than 40 years of involvement in grassroots political organizing with youth, Indigenous communities and urban and rural social movements. He’s been exiled several times for his political activities. Manuel Rozental is part of the organization Pueblos en Camino, or People on the Path.
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Manuel. So, if you can start off by responding to these developments over the weekend? President Trump and the administration seize the president of Venezuela and his wife, bring them to New York, bomb both Caracas and other cities, 80 people are killed, and then says he’s setting his sights on Petro, the president of Colombia. Your response and how people are responding on the ground?
DR. MANUEL ROZENTAL: Well, first of all, Amy, thank you for having me.
The situation is evolving, but what is clear is that it’s not only Colombia or Cuba. The entire world should be very worried, scared about what is already happening — not what might develop, but what is happening. And what is happening is, first of all, Trump, with his national security policy that he launched in December, he has announced the takeover of the entire continent. This is his region. He’s appropriating this region. And as you stated, and he has stated, what — Venezuelan oil belongs to him, and that he’s made that very clear. Mexico is under threat. The entire continent is under threat. And as you all know, he liberated a drug trafficker from prison in the U.S., in the former president of Honduras, Hernández, at the same time seizing Maduro as a drug trafficker and bombing.
So, whatever is in his head, whatever impulse comes to him and the people that surround him and feed his impulses, which include Stephen Miller, Vance, Rubio, Hegseth, etc., are already and have already committed crimes against humanity and war crimes like bombing boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific. So, there’s a war launched in the world, and the U.S. has announced our territory is not only not the Western Hemisphere even, but the entire Americas.
Then, at the same time, China launched an exercise, a military exercise, against Taiwan. And Trump’s response was, “I’m not worried about that.” And we have the background of what happened before with Syria and what is happening in Ukraine. So, right now what we’re seeing is three contending forces, huge — Russia, China, the U.S. — and others, allies and not, that are actually taking over what they — seizing what they feel is their territory for pillage. And the risk is for everybody.
Within that context, one, President Petro is not a drug trafficker. President Petro has been a victim of drug mafias and their allies, not only in Colombia, but all over the world. President Trump and the people around him are closer to the money-laundering machine and the transfer of funds to the North from drug trafficking than is Petro. Petro, in fact, has denounced and opposed them. And Petro, yes, is at risk based on a lie. And the lie is exactly what you shared with us, that Petro is a drug trafficker. That is the global image.
But then, also — and I have to say this — that does not mean I am defending or one should defend the Venezuelan regime. The U.S. had no right to seize Maduro, to attack Venezuela, no right whatsoever. That doesn’t mean that there was an autocracy in Venezuela and that what is happening within Venezuela at the moment is that neither María Corina Machado nor the Chavista Maduro regime represent the majority of the people of Venezuela. And a new government is being established by Trump, from Trump, which is oil companies rule the country and the economy, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, Delcy Rodríguez and the other ones maintain stability and peace by repressing the people of Venezuela. The victims of all this for the moment are the people in Venezuela, of Venezuela, and the majority of the people in the continent.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Manuel Rozental, these threats of Trump against Colombia, actually the third-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, far bigger than Venezuela in population — Colombia has over 50 million people. And could you talk a little bit about Petro as the president, his history, and how contradictory his trajectory is to what Trump is alleging against him?
DR. MANUEL ROZENTAL: Absolutely, Juan. That has to be clarified. One may agree or disagree with his policies, but President Petro for 30 years — he left the armed insurgency that he was part of, and actually a commanding part of, that actually was forced into existence because of the robbery of an election in 1970 by the elites of Colombia. They took an election that was won by a popular party, and then enforced people with the views that Petro shared into an armed struggle, the M-19. But then he promised he would never take arms again, he would fight for peace. And he has been consistent with that. Nobody can say anything else about Petro.
But then, as a member of Congress, Gustavo Petro was the single most leader in exposing the connections between Colombian government, the Colombian Army, paramilitaries and the drug trade. And his voice will never be forgotten for that, his dignity, the strength of what he stated, and actually the evidence he presented to the Colombian people. He was then attacked. His life has been threatened because of his defense of peace, democracy and his struggle against mafias, paramilitaries, etc. And then he becomes the mayor of Bogotá, and he’s removed from power by an elite machinery of mafias, that he was actually proven to be — that this was the case, and he was an innocent from what he was accused for. He was the mayor of the largest city in Colombia.
After that, and after proving that he was innocent, he has the largest, largest electoral base ever in the history of Colombia, and with that base, from that base, he becomes the president of Colombia. And he has seized more cocaine than any other government in the past. But not only that — and this is more important than how much cocaine he has seized — he has exposed the fact that New York City, Paris, Dubai are the centers of global mafias that are transferring millions and millions of dollars of money through drug trafficking from all over the world, and that they are the ones that control drug trade, including the Colombian production, transformation or export of cocaine to the world. So, money laundering is the key here, and these mafias are there. So, he has stated clearly, to stop drug trade, you don’t attack boats in the Caribbean, peasants in Colombia and the presidents of Colombia or Venezuela; you find them, the center of command, up there in the U.S., in Paris, in Dubai and also in the Cuban American Florida-allied representatives and Republicans allied with the Colombian elites that are attacking Petro.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And also, most Americans are not aware that Petro is about to leave office. He’s term-limited, and the elections in Colombia are just in two months. Why do you feel — why do you think that Trump has taken this point to target a man who is about to leave office?
DR. MANUEL ROZENTAL: Juan, thank you for reminding me. That’s a very important point. The fact is, at the end of his presidency, the majority of people in Colombia love Petro still — with mistakes, with disagreements, with contradictions, but most people love Petro. That is not the case with Maduro. Maduro pretends to be loved, but there is an autocratic regime there. Here, no. Petro has defended democracy. There are no human rights violations from the government. There is not a repressive regime. And social change in many areas has been at least attempted by the government, as I say, with mistakes and disagreements and in a state of a growing war.
But why is he being attacked now? Because Iván Cepeda, the son of a murdered member of Congress, and a lawyer — sorry, a philosopher, an activist, a member of parliament, a fighter for human rights, he is a candidate or pre-candidate for the left in Colombia. If there were elections today, Iván Cepeda would win in the first round. And he has vowed to continue with President Petro’s legacy, so we would even have a stronger left-leaning social democratic government in Colombia. And that is what’s behind this attack on Petro. The only way one can stop Cepeda and the left from winning again in Colombia, it seems, would be to do something dirty, which is condemn Petro, attack him of being a narcotrafficker and destroy the electoral process. It serves right into Álvaro Uribe Vélez’s mafias and all the former Colombian elites linked to U.S. power.
AMY GOODMAN: Manuel Rozental, can you describe, as we begin to wrap up, what’s happening on the border between Colombia and Venezuela right now, the tens of thousands of Colombian troops that have been deployed there?
DR. MANUEL ROZENTAL: Yeah, absolutely. That border is uncontrollable, and this has to be said. All kinds of trades happen through there, including cocaine passing through that border into Venezuela and, from there, to the global markets. That is a fact. But also, armed factions, such as dissidents from FARC and ELN, cross that border, back and forth, involved in drug trade. And the Colombian government broke a peace negotiation with ELN, the second-largest guerrilla in Colombia before, now the largest one.
And so, tens of thousands of troops are in that border, because, one, there could be an aggression from the Venezuelan side; two, there could be a massive refugee crisis of people crossing from Venezuela into Colombia; and, third, and mostly, because there is a war now between the Petro government and the ELN that is — has been involved in drug trade, and the ELN has vowed to launch an anti-imperialist, they call, war against the U.S. And in that context, the Colombian Army has to stop ELN and has to protect the border. That’s what’s going on.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to end with Colombia’s foreign minister speaking Tuesday.
ROSA YOLANDA VILLAVICENCIO: [translated] We have said that every country in the international order has the right to its defense, its legitimate defense. And our Army has the president of the republic as its commander, and its mission is to defend the country’s sovereignty. If that aggression were to come, the Army must defend the national territory and the sovereignty of the country.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Colombia’s Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio. Manuel Rozental, I want to thank you so much for being with us, longtime Colombian physician, activist, exiled several times for his political activities, part of the group People on the Path, Pueblos en Camino. We’ll also do an interview with Spanish — in Spanish with him after the show and post it at democracynow.org.
Next up, we look at President Trump’s threats to seize Greenland from Denmark. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “Harbor for Hard Times” by David Berkeley.
- admin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 39813
- Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:21 am
Return to United States Government Crime
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests