US Sanctions Venezuela, Ignores Its Own Oil Dealers
Bloomberg breathlessly trumpets the Trump administration's bold move to sanction Nicolas Maduro's nephews and six Venezuelan oil tankers. The narrative is clear: bad guys sanctioned, problem solved. Yet, the article feels less like news and more like a press release, conveniently forgetting the 60-plus years of US economic destabilization, coup attempts, and resource theft that shaped Venezuela's
present. From the CIA-backed overthrow of Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala for United Fruit Company to orchestrating coups in Chile and repeated attempts in Venezuela, US interventionism has a long, bloody history. These sanctions, then, aren't an isolated act, but just another chapter in a very stale playbook. One might wonder if the US also plans to sanction the CEOs of ExxonMobil or Chevron for their
own less-than-stellar environmental and human rights records globally, or perhaps the politicians who consistently vote to enrich the military-industrial complex (Representative Mark Green, for instance, received over $50,000 from defense contractors in 2022-2024, per OpenSecrets.org, and consistently champions aggressive foreign policy. Not quite the same, is it?) But no, it's always the
convenient foreign 'bad guy' who gets the headline. The selective morality on display makes you question if it's about justice, or just resource control.