US 'Eases' Sanctions on Venezuela, Finds Oil Again
Mainstream media frames this as a potential shift in US foreign policy, perhaps a newfound magnanimity towards Caracas. What they conveniently omit is the decade-long, crippling US sanctions regime – reportedly costing Venezuela over $232 billion between 2015 and 2022 (CEPR, 2019; UN, 2021) – specifically designed to destabilize the government and seize control of the world's largest proven oil
reserves. Now, with global oil markets in flux, and Russia a less-than-ideal supplier for Western consumption, suddenly 'democracy' in Venezuela looks a lot like 'oil access for US corporations'. It's always remarkable how swiftly humanitarian concerns are 're-evaluated' when commodity prices fluctuate. The 'regime change' playbook, so often rehearsed, finds new lines when the energy script calls
for it. One might wonder if former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson's past dealings in the region had any impact on this stunning reversal of 'American values'.