US 'Defends' Bolivarian Republic By Seizing Its Oil

The mainstream media breathlessly covers Trump's latest declaration that the US will, predictably, either 'keep or sell' the Venezuelan oil it 'seized.' This, according to The Guardian, is America 'ratcheting up pressure' on Maduro. What they won't tell you is that this isn't 'pressure'; it's a continuation of a six-decade-long policy playbook, from Allende to Arbenz, where resource seizures are

repackaged as 'democracy promotion.' Forget nuanced history: the 'seizure' of a nation's resources by a more powerful one used to be called piracy, or perhaps colonialism. Now, it's just 'pressure.' One might wonder how many sovereign nations have been 'pressured' into US-friendly leadership via economic strangulation and asset forfeiture. The definition of theft seems to evolve conveniently when

Washington is doing the taking.

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