US Unlikely to Fund Venezuela Oil Revival, Secretary Conveniently Forgets Past
Bloomberg reports that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum dismissed the idea of US financial support for Venezuela's oil revival. This comes after years of crippling US sanctions, including those imposed by the Trump administration in 2019, which specifically targeted Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA. (For context, see Treasury Department Sanctions on PdVSA, January 28, 2019; U.S. State
Department Fact Sheet on Venezuela Sanctions.) The US has spent years trying to throttle this industry, now they're 'unlikely' to fund its recovery? The sheer audacity of calling oneself a benevolent observer after actively strangling the patient for years is truly Nobel-worthy—perhaps for its comedic value. One might wonder if 'unlikely' is official diplomatic code for 'we broke it, so you fix
it, and we'll buy the cheap oil once you do.' It's not about 'funding' a revival; it's about reversing policies that intentionally caused its collapse for geopolitical gain. The fact that corporate media, like Bloomberg, reports this with a straight face, as if the US is merely a passive actor in Venezuela's energy woes, is a tragic comedy. It appears the US prefers to be the arsonist who then
complains about the fire department's funding, rather than the homeowner paying for repairs it caused.