US President Donald Trump had his greedy eye on Venezuelan oil for a long time, at least dating back to his first term as US president. The man said as much many times.
“That’s the country we should be going to war with, they have all that oil and they’re right on our back door.”
This quote was attributed to Trump by former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe in his 2019 book, The Threat.
At a press conference in South Carolina in June 2023 Trump said something similar.
“How about we’re buying oil from Venezuela. When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse, we would have taken it over, we would have got all that oil, and we would have been right next to her. But now we are buying oil from Venezuela, so we are making a dictator very rich.”
How about we’re buying oil from Venezuela. When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse, we would have taken it over, we would have got all that oil, and we would have been right next to her. But now we are buying oil from Venezuela, so we are making a dictator very rich.
Trump never hid his disdain for Nicolás Maduro. He has been accusing the Venezuelan leader of heading a massive drug cartel selling drugs to the US at an industrial scale and, of course … eh, of being a dictator.
These accusations ultimately led to several interceptions and strikes against Venezuelan ships at sea for allegedly carrying drugs last year.
Later last year, Trump ordered a blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers, effectively hobbling the Venezuelan oil trade. This extraordinary military activity culminated in a full-blown attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Maduro and his wife, apparently to face prosecution in the US.
There has been widespread condemnation of the military action against Venezuela within and outside the US. Trump is trying to classify the action as law enforcement activity despite the deployment of significant military hardware in a foreign country to justify acting outside the mandate of the US Congress.
He wants the world to believe the death of more than 80 people, and probably closer to 200 people if preceding actions at sea are to be considered, was merely the result of law enforcement activities and not war. These are the actions of a tyrant who refuses to account to anyone.
“South Africa views the actions as a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which mandates that all member states refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. Furthermore, the Charter does not authorise external military intervention in matters that are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of a sovereign nation.”
This was the statement issued by the SA government in response to the abduction of Maduro, rightly pointing out the violations committed by the US action of the UN Charter .
If our government was as consistent in condemning its allies, such as Russia’s attack on Ukraine, I would be applauding SA’s stand as principled.
It is unfortunate that our country, much like the US among others, tends to look at the geopolitics of self-interest at the expense of principle. As a result, our voice, though on point, is diminished by our inability to maintain a principled stand on global matters regardless of which country we are addressing.
I am not a fan of Maduro by any means. He is an undemocratic despot who is rather loud and will not hesitate to repress his own people to retain power, possibly indefinitely.
However, the actions of the US, led by a similar despot, are not only illegal but also introduce all sorts of dangers to an already unstable global atmosphere. Besides the dangerous precedent, the actions of the US have exposed once again the impotence of the UN in the face of violations committed by permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC). This destroys the already shaky confidence the global community has in the UN.
If the global community is to survive the ructions of the current events, serious consideration must be made in how the global community deals with permanent members of the UNSC.
It is not sustainable for these countries to be immune to global accountability simply because they have the power to veto any decision made by the UNSC. While it is important for the call made by SA, among other nations, for the UNSC to convene urgently, this will not do much to change what has transpired.
The US cannot be allowed to blatantly attack Venezuela pretending to deal with “narco-terrorism” when it is in fact trying to take possession of Venezuelan oil. The whole thing threatens the foundations of global peace and stability.
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