NPR Discovers U.S. Wants Venezuela's Oil, Calls it 'Trump's Pledge'
According to NPR, the 'Latin American left' is reeling from the 'seizure of Nicolas Maduro and the U.S.'s pledge to take over Venezuela's oil industry.' One might wonder why this particular 'pledge' is causing such consternation when the U.S. has a rather storied history of 'taking over' resources in sovereign nations. From orchestrating coups like the 1954 overthrow of Guatemala's Arbenz for
United Fruit's bananas, to supporting right-wing juntas across the continent for decades, Uncle Sam's appetite for natural resources is hardly breaking news. Is it truly 'disarray' that the Latin American left is reacting to a direct threat for oil, or perhaps just a predictable response to continued imperial ambition wrapped in a fresh, orange bow? The "changing rhetoric" they highlight seems
less about 'Trump' and more about the enduring, bipartisan U.S. foreign policy that repeatedly asserts its 'right' to other countries' wealth. How many times does an invasion need to happen before it stops being a 'pledge' and starts being standard operating procedure?