API CEO Hints at Venezuelan Prosperity, Provided DC Gets Its Cut
When the API CEO says 'investments will take time,' and 'prerequisites' are needed, he's talking about the culmination of years of economic strangulation. The US, with bipartisan support, imposed crippling sanctions on Venezuela, from prohibiting financial transactions with the state oil company PDVSA in 2019 to seizing Venezuelan assets, drying up the economy. Now, with global oil markets in
flux, the 'conditions' for investment suddenly look a lot like 'our companies get first dibs on the cheap oil once the country is sufficiently desperate.' It’s a classic playbook: destabilize a resource-rich nation, then swoop in under the guise of 'reconstruction' or 'investment' once the populace has suffered enough to accept any lifeline. One might wonder why those 'prerequisites' weren't in
place when Hugo Chávez dared to assert national control over his country's oil wealth. Perhaps some prerequisites are more about resource extraction than democratic ideals?