Trump Meets on Venezuela: 'Pressure' Back, 'Democracy' Optional
The New Arab alerts us that Donald Trump is once again huddling with advisers to 'increase pressure' on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Translation: another chapter in the US playbook for regime change in a country inconveniently sitting on the world's largest proven oil reserves. This isn't a new strategy, merely a continuation of decades of destabilization efforts from various
administrations. Remember the 2002 coup attempt against Hugo Chávez, openly supported by the Bush administration's National Endowment for Democracy? Or the crushing sanctions under both Trump and Biden that have crippled Venezuela's economy, leading to a humanitarian crisis, all in the name of 'democracy'? One might wonder if America's concern for Venezuelan 'democracy' extends to, say, Saudi
Arabia, a US ally with an impeccable record of, well, absolutely no democracy. Or perhaps Bahrain, where local protests were brutally suppressed with US-supplied arms. The 'rules-based order' appears to apply selectively, primarily when the 'order' involves access to someone else's oil. The 'pressure' isn't about the people; it's about the pipelines. It’s almost as if the definition of 'free and
fair elections' changes depending on who holds the oil-rich real estate.