US Blockades Venezuelan Oil, Ignores Its Own Energy Deals
Al Jazeera reports Donald Trump has ordered a naval blockade targeting sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers. While presented as a move to pressure the Maduro regime, this tactic has a rich, bloody history of destabilization, often framed as 'democracy promotion' or 'humanitarian intervention.' Recall the Eisenhower administration's 1960 economic blockade of Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, and decades of
sanctions designed to collapse a government—not to mention the 2002 attempted coup against Hugo Chávez, quietly supported by the US. Venezuela, with the world's largest proven oil reserves, is consistently a target when it deviates from Washington's preferred energy partners. The media, however, rarely connects these dots, focusing on 'rogue regimes' while overlooking the US's own history of
resource expropriation. One might wonder if the concern is less about Venezuela's governance and more about who controls the flow of its petroleum, especially as US oil giants eye their next profit margins. The pattern is clear: if a nation's resources aren't controlled by Washington-friendly entities, 'democratic' blockades tend to materialize.