Stephen Miller wrote yesterday that “American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.”
He’s so insane. But you may be wondering, as I have been, just what they’re talking about when they say that Venezuela stole “our land, our oil and our assets” as Trump said the other day. Well, it’s bullshit, of course. They’re acting as if Venezuela is part of the United States which, needless to say, it is not.
Here’s an explanation of what they seem to be referring to which makes their rhetoric nonsensical and threatened actions illegal.
While US and British companies were involved in early oil exploration in Venezuela, the fuel belongs to the Latin American country under the international law principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources.
Venezuela nationalised its oil sector in 1976 and brought it under the control of the state-owned PDVSA.
Later, in 2007, the late left-wing President Hugo Chavez nationalised the remaining foreign oil projects in Venezuela, effectively ousting US oil giants like ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil.
The US companies filed legal challenges to fight the expropriation process, and in 2014, a World Bank arbitration tribunal ordered Venezuela to pay Exxon Mobil $1.6bn. Legal proceedings remain ongoing.
The US imposed sanctions on PDVSA in 2019, under Trump’s first presidency.
But Trump has ramped up his “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuela since returning to office for a second term in January.
Late on Tuesday, Trump announced a blockade on Venezuelan oil tankers, describing them as “sanctioned”. In a Truth Social post on the subject, Trump echoed Miller’s assertions that Venezuelans had stolen oil from the US.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump wrote.
“It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before – Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
Venezuela nationalized its oil industry, something other countries have done and which Trump has threatened to do here with certain industries on occasion as well. In fact, he’s now commonly extorting pieces of various companies for the U.S. like it’s totally normal.
Chevron is still operating in Venezuela and seems perfectly happy with the arrangement. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips remain enmeshed in a legal battle with the Venzuelan government to get compensation for being ousted. This has nothing to do with the United States government. But any excuse will do.
If you’re keeping score, we are going into Venezuela because they are trafficking in fentanyl, which is now considered to be a weapon of mass destruction, we’re seizing their oil fields because we consider them to belong to us and, according to Susie Wiles, it’s all about regime change (which is the real reason.)
It’s unclear when the land strikes are going to begin but I suspect it will be soon. And once Maduro is exiled or killed (if he is) we’ll have to bring in some kind of military presence to protect the oil fields, especially since a good portion of the country will be actively hostile. Should be great.
If you ever thought that the violent, domineering Orange Julius Caesar was some kind of anti-war peacenik you were fooling yourself. He and his psychopathic henchmen are exactly the personality types that get off on war in a big way. (Think of the right wing after 9/11.) Blood lust is their favorite drug.
They are indulging that desire here in America by unleashing their masked secret police on anyone who looks like they might be an immigrant and those who defend them. But nothing can really slake the desire to actually kill people like actually doing it. That’s what this is. They got a taste for blood with the ICE raids. Now they need to up the ante. War is next.
Happy Hollandaise everyone!