Venezuela Under Siege by U.S. Empire

by DAVID W. PEAR

It is all about the oil. Whatever else one hears about Venezuela, it is all about the oil. That is what one needs to know first about why the U.S. Empire has Venezuela under siege. It is about the oil.

When President Trump says, “Venezuela is a mess; Venezuela is a mess, we will see what happens”, it is all about the oil. When the U.S. Empire imposes sanctions on Venezuela, it is all about the oil. When the mainstream corporate media (i.e. Fake News) cries crocodile tears about democracy, human rights and political prisoners in Venezuela, it is about the oil. When the U.S. calls into session emergency meeting of the United Nations and the Organization of American States, it is about oil.

Venezuela has the largest known reserve of oil in the world, and Venezuela controls its own oil, not international corporations; and it uses its oil for the benefit of its people. The U.S. Empire instead wants to control that oil and it wants the profits from the oil to go to U.S. oil corporations, especially ExxonMobil. Everything else one hears now about Venezuela is prologue or epilogue. The main plot is about the oil.

The first scene opens with protesters screaming and yelling in the streets of Caracas. Barricades are blazing, people are choking on the smoke, and their eyes are red from teargas. Traffic is backed up for miles. It is chaos. The streets are filled with anti-government protesters, and out of sight of the mainstream media cameras are pro-government supporters. Most of the violence one sees and hears about is from the anti-government protesters, but mums the word about that from the mainstream corporate media. The mainstream corporate media is the Fake News, it is the propaganda horn for the U.S. Empire and those that really control what happens in the world.

There is blood in the streets of Venezuela, and overhead the U.S. Empire regime change vultures are circling. In the United Nations, in the Organization of American States, in the Oval Office of the White House, on the floor of the U.S. Congress, and in the Fake News people are seen wringing their hands about human rights and democracy. Tucker Carlson on Fox News is reporting about the failure of Venezuela’s socialist government:

“”there is no toilet paper or meat there, the currency is worthless, the murder rate is perhaps the highest in the world, the Supreme Court has tried to abolish the entire legislature for daring to oppose a dictator who’s running the place into the ground, and you can go on and on and on, it is a disaster there in Venezuela.”

Behind Tucker there is a scene playing. It is showing young people, all of them anti-government protesters, many wearing masks one supposes to protect their identity from what we are supposed to believe are government thugs. The protesters are throwing rocks, one supposes at government security forces. A water cannon sprays the protesters and they disperse to get away from it. Groups of protester run back and forth in the street, it is chaos, smoke is everywhere. What is it all the chaos about? The Fake News says it is all about democracy, the economy and human rights violations from a tyrannical government. It isn’t.

It is all about the oil.

Scene two of this deadly serious mini play opens in a boardroom behind closed doors, somewhere in Washington, D.C. Politicians, generals, spies, and oil company executives from ExxonMobil and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson are meeting. They are talking in hushed voices about Venezuela. They are sharpening their axes and talking about oil. Venezuela has it? How do they get it? How can they control it? How do they keep others from controlling it? Who are the forces against them? Who are the forces for them? How can they create more chaos to destabilize the government of President Nicolas Maduro? How do they pull off a coup d’état? The plot thickens.

It is about the oil.

What we see happening in Venezuela is another tragedy unfolding on the world stage. There is bloodletting, and it will get much, much worse. Venezuela is approaching the edge of a civil war between the haves and the have-nots. It is class warfare. The rich and upper middle class want a regime change and an end to socialism for the poor. The rich want lower taxes, and ending social programs for the have-nots, and they want the privatization of vital government enterprises so that they can loot the country. And most of all, they want the privatization of the oil in their hands. They want to be billionaire oligarchs just like oligarchs in other oil-rich countries.

The have-nots support the government. They want the government to keep control of the oil for the benefit of the people, the have-nots. The have-nots are in the streets too, they are supporting the government, and they are being violently attacked by the hoodlums of the haves and the mercenaries for the U.S. Empire. The have-nots are being stoned, they are being shot down in the streets by anti-government rioters, they are being beaten with steel rods, and they are even being burned alive by anti-government protesters—let’s call them what they are, terrorists. We do not see or hear that from the Fake News. The have-nots want to keep their government provided healthcare, their government provided education, their government provided housing, their government provided mass transportation, their government provided food distribution centers, and all their government provided social services from the oil wealth.

The U.S. Empire wants a regime change in Venezuela. The Empire has been working on it for decades. We have seen their smoking guns before. Their guns now are smoking overtly and covertly behind the curtain, supporting the anti-government protesters and terrorists.

The Empire’s propaganda horn sounds off as if it is the government that is doing all the killing of peaceful protesters. Trump says Venezuela is a mess. The Empire has helped made it a mess; that is what the Empire wanted all along. The Empire’s Congress wants to impose more economic sanctions on a people that are already suffering. Congress wants more sanction on top of Obama’s sanctions. The U.S. is meddling, adding to Venezuela’s economic misery, trying to isolate Venezuela politically in Latin America, and trying to push Venezuela over the edge into civil war, if that is what it is going to take to get a regime change. Venezuela could turn into another human disaster like Syria, maybe even worse. Venezuela has twice the population of Syria and the largest proven oil reserves in the world. Venezuela could be on the cusp of a human catastrophe, a holocaust even.

The U.S. Empire has absolutely no concern about the population of Venezuela, any more than it is concerned about the people of Syria. Neither the Empire’s backing of terrorists in Syria, nor its backing of terrorists in Venezuela is about democracy, freedom, human rights, political prisoners, the economy and the thousands of people suffering and dying. The human suffering is of no importance or concern to the Empire’s foreign policy objectives. If one has any doubts about that, just ask Madeleine Albright:

Lesley Stahl: “We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?”

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it, if it furthers U.S. foreign policy objectives.”

This was no slip of the tongue by Madame Albright, and notice she said “we”. She is talking about the “we” that is the Clinton Administration and everybody on his foreign policy team. This is how they really think, act and care-not in private.

The foreign policy objectives and thinking of the Empire do not chance from one presidential administration to another. It has not made any difference whether the administration is Clinton, Bush, Obama or Trump. A half million brown babies in Asia, Africa or Latin America is of no concern to them, especially when those babies get in the way of the Empire’s foreign policy objectives. One million dead babies is of no concern. Five million is of no concern. It is as cold as that, and if one is in doubt then take a look at what is happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 8 million dead and increasing every day, with U.S. meddling and support of the killers.

What is of vital concern to the U.S. Empire is its foreign policy objectives. One important Empire foreign policy objective is the profits of corporations; not democracy and human rights. The Empire is not even that concerned about the best interests and welfare of U.S. citizens, not unless they are bigtime campaign contributors and bribers of politicians.

The corporate profits that the U.S. is concerned about could be for corporate owned banana plantations, cheap labor pools for sweatshops, opening foreign markets to U.S. corporations, or any natural resources below, on, or above the ground. Anything for corporate exploitation in game.

Of vital importance to the Empire is when its foreign policy objectives have to do with oil company profits and anything to do with oil, natural gas, and their shipping lanes, and the strategic pipeline routes for that oil and gas. Oil is vital to the Empire.

Oil has a special role in U.S. foreign policy. Oil is the important driver of the American way of life (figuratively and literally); oil is important to keep the U.S. economy greased (figuratively and literally); oil is important to fuel the U.S. military which is literally the largest single consumer of oil; and it is of vital importance to control all the oil in the world, all the time. Oil is what the U.S. Empire wants to control for fueling the Empire, and to keep it from fueling potential enemies and their military. Control of oil is the Empire’s way of keeping friends in a straight line too.

Oil serves another vital purpose. It is what backs the U.S. dollar. Oil is literally black-gold. As long as all the oil in the world is transacted in U.S. dollars, then there will always be a demand for U.S. dollars, according to the Empire’s foreign policy thinking. As long as there is a demand for oil, then they think they can print all the U.S. dollars it wants.

The U.S. can seemingly print and create dollars out of thin air, and use those fiat dollars to pay for all the foreign trade deficits with every other country. If one understands how important oil is for the U.S. dollar, then one can understand why half a million dead babies is “worth it”; or a million dead babies, or ten million dead babies; especially if they are brown dead babies and as long as their mangled little corpses are kept out of sight. The corporate Fake News’s job is to keep those dead babies out of the media, and that is what they do unless it is of some propaganda advantage for the Empire to display them.

Once one internalizes just how absolutely vital oil is strategically, militarily and economically to the U.S. Empire, then one can make sense out of U.S. foreign policy objectives. It is absolutely vital for the U.S. Empire to control oil, all of it, all of the time; to control the corporations that explore, refine and market oil; and to control the countries and governments that have the oil in their ground; and to control the countries and the governments that have the transportation routes for that oil (and natural gas). And oil is used to control its friends as well as enemies that vitally need the oil too.

Any country that has oil or the pipeline routes, and a government that is in noncompliance with the U.S. Empire oil policies, then that government is a marked government for regime change. It really does not matter to the Empire’s foreign policy objectives if that marked country is capitalist, fascist, totalitarian, or theocratic; an oligarchy, monarchy or a democracy. Nor do the human rights record of any country matter to U.S. foreign policy objectives.

Any government that uses its oil wealth for the benefit of its own people will sooner or later become a marked government for regime change. Any government that decides to sell its oil in other than U.S. dollars will be a marked government by the Empire. By definition any oil rich socialist government will be marked. Venezuela has a socialist government that controls its own oil, uses that oil for the benefit of its own people and does not sell that oil exclusively in U.S. dollars. Its government is marked for regime change, it has been for a long time and it is under siege now by the Empire.

Looking at U.S. oil policy one realizes that there is no Empire foreign policy contradictions. It does not matters to the Empire if the country is Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Nigeria, Mexico or Canada. The policy is the same and there is no squawking about democracy and human rights as long as a foreign government stays compliant. That is why there is no contradiction for the Empire if a marked government for regime change is a democratically elected governments such as Syria in 1949, Iranian in 1953, Guatemalan in 1954, Chile 1973, Haiti 1991, and Honduras 2009.

A democratically elected socialist government of an oil rich nation that uses its oil for social programs and sells that oil in other than U.S. dollars will definitely be on the Empires hit list. That is why the U.S. Empire has Venezuela in its crosshairs, under siege, and is using overt and covert forces to overthrow the government of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

The form of government and human rights only enters the Empire’s foreign policy equation when it is dealing with a marked government for regime change. A marked government will never be democratic-enough, and their human rights will always have the spotlight shined on it and criticized. Democracy and human rights are only important if they serve a propaganda purpose, no matter how democratic the government is or what its human rights record. The Fake News is the Empire’s best and faithful propaganda horn that will toot that the marked country is not democratic-enough and violates it peoples human rights.

Once U.S. foreign policy objectives are understood vis-a-vis oil, then one can have a rational understanding of why Venezuela and its oil is so important to the U.S. Empire. It is not about democracy and human rights. Get that straight in your mind.

The only reason the Empire has Venezuela under siege is because of the oil. Are there any questions?

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/21/venezuela-under-siege-by-u-s-empire/