US Seizes Tanker To 'Amp Up Economic Pain', Bloomberg Calls It News
Bloomberg's headline about a US seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker 'risks amping up economic pain' presents the US action as a detached force of nature, rather than a calculated act of economic warfare. This isn't a 'risk' or an unpredictable outcome; it's the stated objective. The US, which has imposed sanctions on Venezuela since 2006, targeting its oil sector directly since 2017 under multiple
administrations, is merely continuing its decades-long policy of regime change by economic strangulation. The current US sanctions on Venezuela include an arms embargo (1998), drug trafficking (2006), human rights violations (2014), and widespread economic sanctions targeting PDVSA (2017). One might wonder if Bloomberg would report on a foreign power seizing a US asset with such deferential prose.
The 'risk' of hyperinflation, as the article notes, isn't an unforeseen consequence; it's a direct result of these targeted economic pressures designed to destabilize the nation. Perhaps next, Bloomberg will marvel at how starvation 'risks amping up malnutrition' after blocking all food imports. It's not a 'risk' when it's the plan.