Excerpts from an Article on NakedCapitalism
Donald, you just wrote the most honest colonial confession of the 21st century. When you say Venezuela must “return” its oil, land, and assets to the United States, you are not talking about law. You are talking about ownership. You are saying, out loud, what empire has always believed in private: What lies under Venezuelan soil belongs to Washington.
The money quote: âyou know the old days, when you had a war, it was âto the victor the spoils.’â
Venezuela has the largest proven reserves of heavy crude in the world, with an estimated 303 billion barrels, as well as the largest reserves of light crude oil in the Western Hemisphere. But itâs not just that Venezuela is home to the largest oil reserves on the planet, itâs that those reserves are sitting âright next doorâ to the US, as Trump himself said in 2023:
President Trumpâs obsession with seizing other countriesâ oil goes back a ways, to even before he entered politics. Here he is explaining in 2011 why the US should seize half or more of Libyaâs oil after murdering its leader, Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, and plunging what was arguably the richest country in Africa (on a per-capita basis) into total chaos.
There are, of course, a plethora of other reasons for the USâ aggressive moves against Venezuela that weâve discussed before, including the countryâs large deposits of gold, rare earth minerals and freshwater; the opportunity to open up a mid-sized countryâs market to rampant privatisation and liberalisation.
It is, after all, the US, mainly during Trumpâs two presidencies, that has been stealing all kinds of Venezuelan assets, from the countryâs gold reserves to the oil tanker seized in the Caribbean last week, to the presidentâs official plane, to Venezuelan oil company Citgo.
Exxon has a long, rich history in Venezuela dating back over a century. Its predecessor, Standard Oil, was one of the first companies to explore for oil in the South American country in the 1910s
But that all came to a halt in 2005, when Hugo ChĂĄvez ordered all existing âoperating agreementsâ with foreign oil companies to be converted into joint ventures in which the state oil company, PetrĂłleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), held a mandatory majority stake (over 50% ownership and operational control). Exxon refused to sign while most other companies, including BP, Total and Chevron, took the deal.
That high-intensity conflict is now closer than ever. But it needs to be packaged and sold to US lawmakers, media, members of the armed forces, and Trumpâs war-weary MAGA base. And that is where CSISâ âexpertsâ come in. And they appear to be marketing this war on behalf of a company (Exxon) that has much to gain from a military intervention, and which bears the biggest grudge against Venezuelaâs Bolivarian movement.
