From Diplomacy to Dirty Deals: Pompeo's Pivot to Profiteering on Global Resources
📰 THE STORY: The Financial Times reports that a mining group with strong links to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is aggressively pursuing up to 10 copper deals, positioned as a 'western supplier' of critical metals. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: Pompeo, under the Trump administration, presided over an era of aggressive unilateral sanctions against countries like Iran
and Venezuela, often citing national security and human rights. This 'maximum pressure' campaign, widely criticized for inflicting suffering on civilian populations, also served to destabilize nations rich in natural resources, creating a vacuum often filled by Western corporations. Recall the 2019 attempted coup in Bolivia, rich in lithium, against Evo Morales, which was swiftly followed by IMF
pressure for neoliberal reforms. This pattern of destabilization preceding resource extraction is a deep-seated imperial playbook, stretching back to the 1954 CIA coup in Guatemala for the United Fruit Company. Double Standard: The FT frames this as a new 'western supplier' for 'critical metals,' implying a geopolitical necessity. Yet, when nations in the Global South seek to control their own
resources and form alliances with, say, China, they are branded as 'authoritarian' or 'predatory.' The 'need' for Western control over global resources is consistently presented as benign and necessary, while similar aspirations from non-Western powers are demonized. The same media that will laud Pompeo's venture will decry China's Belt and Road Initiative as 'debt-trap diplomacy' even when it