The U.S. is not shy about proclaiming its control of Venezuela and its resources.
Originally published in Orinoco Tribune.
US President Donald Trump has escalated his openly imperialist rhetoric against Venezuela, portraying the South American country as a neocolonial possession whose sovereign resources Washington may plunder as the “spoils” of military aggression.
On Wednesday, August 5, during an event named Powering the American Dream, Trump boasted about the criminal act perpetrated against Venezuela on January 3 which culminated in the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, National Assembly Deputy and First Lady Cilia Flores, as well as the murder of more than 100 people, including 32 Cubans and 47 Venezuelan soldiers.
Oil as the “spoils” of war
Trump described the attack as “a 48-minute war” before declaring: “And we paid for the war with what we’ve taken out many, many, many times.”
He further claimed that 219 US men, accompanied by “a few women,” entered Fuerte Tiuna, a Venezuelan military complex housing thousands of soldiers, to carry out the operation.
Without reservation, Trump presented Venezuela’s oil as the material reward for Washington’s military aggression.
“We’re taking a lot of oil from Venezuela,” Trump declared, adding that “billions and billions of barrels” were coming out of the country.
Immediately beforehand, he stated, “Now I love Venezuela,” effectively associating his newfound approval of the country with Washington’s appropriation of its petroleum and laying bare the colonial nature of the January 3 bombing and abduction.
Trump then summarized his position with an explicitly imperialist maxim: “To the victor belong the spoils.”
The statement amounted to one of the clearest public admissions that Washington views Venezuelan petroleum as both a material objective of the attack and compensation for the costs of its military aggression.
Trump also incorporated Venezuela’s sovereign resources into his calculation of US energy power. “Now you add Venezuela to it, add that and we have 60% of the world’s oil and gas, including Venezuela,” he said.
The language portrayed Venezuela’s reserves as part of a US-controlled energy stockpile rather than the sovereign patrimony of the Venezuelan people.
Unease within the US right
The bluntness of Trump’s colonial rhetoric appeared to generate some caution even among far-right US media outlets that have spent years providing platforms for calls for sanctions, “regime” change, and open aggression against Venezuela since the election of socialist Hugo Chávez as president in 1998.
The coverage of these outlets maintained a degree of journalistic distance from the US ruler’s discourse rather than openly celebrating his description of Venezuelan resources as war booty.
Some Chavista analysts have suggested that this caution reflects frustration that US military violence did not return Venezuela’s far-right opposition to political power or produce the much-touted economic boom promised by supporters of Washington’s aggression, even if those outlets have not acknowledged that failure openly.
Leftist forces reject imperialist plunder
Other Chavista and leftist analysts have questioned decisions taken by the Venezuelan government, currently led, in President Maduro’s forced absence, by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez.
Leftist and popular forces have consequently begun reorganizing to build an internal bloc capable of defending socialist, popular, and anti-imperialist principles while resisting Washington’s increasing control over Venezuela’s political and economic affairs.
On Tuesday, August 4, approximately 150 demonstrators gathered in Caracas’ Plaza El Venezolano for a demonstration organized by a coalition of leftist political groups, including Comunes, the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) and the League of Socialist Workers (LTS), reported Venezuelanalysis.
“This is a protest against the imperialist plundering of our resources,” LTS member Ángel Arias declared. “Anti-imperialism is not merely a discourse, it is a necessity for the Venezuelan working class.”
Arias added that Venezuela’s resources remain removed from the control of its people, “with the decisions in Trump’s hands.”
The demonstration also condemned the January 3 attack, Washington’s continuing economic warfare on Venezuela (euphemistically referred to as “unilateral sanctions”), and US control over Venezuela’s oil revenues. Participants called for unity across political differences and the construction of a common front capable of confronting colonial domination and removing imperialism from Venezuela.
This week’s featured author is Andrea Freeman. Freeman is Professor of Law at the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law. Her book is Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race, and Injustice.
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