The U.S. rulers are pressing for unrestricted access for U.S. corporations to the country’s vast oil and gas resources, and “indefinite” control of the production, refining and global distribution of its oil products.
As leverage, Washington has kept a naval blockade off the coast of Venezuela to seize oil that is not “coordinated properly and lawfully,” and to threaten the current leadership in Caracas with a fate worse than Maduro’s if they don’t follow Washington’s dictates.
Washington is using its intervention to push back the influence of Beijing, Moscow and Tehran in Venezuela. The White House announced China would now have to buy Venezuelan oil at global market prices Jan. 22, not at “undercut” prices set by Maduro’s government. Following years of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, China had become the country’s top oil buyer. The sales helped Caracas pay down massive loans to Beijing in debt-for-oil deals.
Chinese representatives have sought talks with Venezuelan and U.S. officials to seek assurances Beijing will get payment of its loans, which are estimated to be between $10 billion and $20 billion.
Hezbollah in Venezuela
“No more drug trafficking, no more Iran, Hezbollah presence there, and no more using the oil industry to enrich all our adversaries around the world,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Jan. 4.
Tehran and Caracas have kept links dating back to President Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s predecessor, who welcomed the reactionary regime in the name of their shared anti-U.S., anti-Israel stance.
U.S. officials claim Hezbollah has maintained a base of operations in Venezuela, and accuse Venezuelan government officials of facilitating them with passports and other legal cover to finance Hezbollah’s activity through drug-trafficking, arms sales and money laundering across Latin America.
For decades the “Triple Frontier” shared by Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina was a sanctuary and center of operations for Hezbollah across the continent. It bombed a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, killing 85 people. Two years earlier it killed 29 people in an attack on the Israeli Embassy there.
Around the time the CIA director was in Caracas, Colombia’s minister of defense was in Washington to prepare a visit by President Gustavo Petro in February. Since the U.S. rulers’ assault on Venezuela, Petro has walked back his anti-imperialist rhetoric, and is seeking deeper collaboration with Washington.
Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez announced Jan. 14 plans for joint U.S./Colombian operations against the National Liberation Army (ELN) forces that have used Venezuelan territory for sanctuary. The ELN and remnants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and drug cartels are engaged in fierce fighting for control of land, river and air routes for drug trafficking along the Colombia-Venezuela border.
The Trump administration is using the “war on narcoterrorism” as a pretext for its moves to strengthen the U.S. rulers’ economic, political and military posture in the region.
Erosion of Venezuela’s sovereignty
Ratcliffe’s trip was a sign that Washington will continue to rely on Rodríguez and her close circle within the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) to accommodate U.S. imperialism’s interests.
Rodríguez took a further step in that direction Jan. 15 when she introduced a partial reform of the country’s hydrocarbons law. Under former President Chávez, the PSUV government significantly raised royalties and taxes on extracted crude to fund social programs and mandated that state oil company PDVSA retain majority stakes in joint ventures. The changes, approved by the National Assembly Jan. 22, allow U.S. and local private companies to operate oil fields and lower the taxes they pay.
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan government announced that $300 million of the initial $500 million from Washington’s sale of Venezuelan crude had been received. Rodríguez said the funds will be used to try to cover the income of the country’s workers and protect the purchasing power of Venezuelans from inflation.
The conditional and controlled oil transactions are presented by Washington as “concessions” to Rodríguez in return for her overall compliance, as the U.S. rulers continue to violate Venezuela’s sovereignty.