A few quick remarks. I don't think Venezuelan oil is the main point here, and neither is Venezuela. Trump's National Security Strategy, which Trump probably has not read, makes it clear that the vision of the right wing cabal currently in the White House is to retreat to a "Little America" strategy. In the version of that strategy now unfolding, the USA is retreating from most of Asia, the Pacific, Africa and Europe and focuses on the oil and mineral rich areas of Western Asia, Latin America, and the North American Arctic.
Although Venezuela was the immediate target, Cuba is just as important a target and is already suffering from rapidly diminishing oil deliveries. The interview by Federico Fuentes with Malfred Gerig is in the right direction for understanding the situation. Despite Trump's own lack of understanding, his clique's aims are to intimidate all of Latin America and Europe, to buy and extort cooperation from the extremely corrupt Venezuelan PSUV, to push the Colombian, Brazilian and Mexican governments into defensive postures, and to put into power corrupt governments that will cooperate with Washington in various ways from sharing the skim to given preference to US business over Chinese businesses. The kidnapping of Maduro has already borne fruit in Venezuela where Delcy Rodriguez's government has been purchased, and in Colombia where Gustavo Petro has tacted from militant opposition to Trump to a friendly discussion of possible areas of cooperation from fighting the ELN to Colombian imports of natural gas from Venezuela. The policy is far from coherent, and -despite its short term successes - has a high likelihood of failure, like everything else Trump et al. are doing. Watch the Colombian elections to see how the next episode plays out. They will play out from March 8 to June. Anthony On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 7:42 PM Charles via groups.io <charles1848= [email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 07:26 PM, Chris Slee wrote: > > Only if the blockade is ended can Venezuela freely decide its economic > policies, > > External pressure does not *determine* internal policy. The early Soviet > Union and early People's Republic of China were denied freedom of foreign > trade by the Western imperialist powers. That did not determine that they > had to give in to capitalism. On the contrary, they rallied and organized > the workers and peasants to start along the socialist road right away. > > The Chavista regime pursued social welfare financed by petro export > revenues. "Solidarity" lackeys like Roger Harris call this socialism, while > other "solidarity" lackeys see nothing except external pressure. > > > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#40633): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/40633 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117554663/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
