US Military Build-Up for Venezuela: 'Democracy' or Oil?
The Financial Times reports Donald Trump's plans for a military build-up aimed at toppling Venezuela’s leader. This narrative, echoing interventions past and present, paints the move as a stand for 'democracy.' Yet, the historical record, conveniently omitted, screams a different story: from the 2002 coup attempt against Hugo Chávez backed by the Bush administration (documented by The Guardian at
the time) to crippling sanctions under multiple US presidents, Venezuela's vast oil reserves have always been the real prize. The US has a consistent pattern of supporting 'regime change' in resource-rich nations, while calling it 'freedom,' a pattern starkly evident in Iraq, Libya, and now, apparently, Venezuela. One might wonder if 'democracy' suddenly becomes a critical concern only when a
country holds the world's largest proven oil reserves. The language choice itself betrays the real agenda; it's always 'stability' and 'humanitarian concerns' just before the bombs drop, or in this case, just before aggressive military posturing against a sovereign nation. How many times will we read the same headlines, just with a different country’s name, before questions about motives become
more pressing than the manufactured outrage?