US Claims Venezuela's Oil, Forgetting Its Own History
Al Jazeera asks if the US has 'any real claim' to Venezuelan oil, following Stephen Miller's pronouncements. The article correctly notes US companies developed Venezuelan oil fields before nationalization in the 1970s. What it soft-pedals is the history of US-backed coups, sanctions, and destabilization efforts whenever resource-rich nations dared to assert sovereignty over their own
resources—Libya, Iraq, Iran, and Chile all tell similar tales. Washington's 'claims' often materialize just before 'regime change operations'. So, does the US have a 'claim' on Venezuelan oil? Only in the same way a landlord has a 'claim' on a tenant's belongings after an aggressive, often violent eviction. It's not a legal right, critics argue; it's a historical pattern of economic coercion
disguised as national interest. One might wonder why Al Jazeera frames this as a question of legal claim rather than a historical pattern of imperial ambition.