[ternaryoperator]

If you think this is primarily about drugs and authoritarianism, don't overlook this one important dimension: the country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world is...Venezuela.

[0] https://www.baidarcenter.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/8...

[torlok]

It's not just oil, it's heavy crude oil; the type US is equipped to process, and rapidly running out of.

[jjtheblunt]

a nice visual in support of your comment

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/all-of-the-worlds-oil-reser...

[the_gipsy]

More importantly, they recently started trading in yuans.

[amelius]

US also bombed the harbor last night. Maybe that will change the currency back.

[abrichr]

Source? How recently?

[jeltz]

Mostly due to Trump's actions.

[scuff3d]

They aren't even trying to hide it. The administration has openly stated this is about recovering "stolen" oil resources.

[flumpcakes]

It also is predominately heavy crude oil, something the US lacks (it's what it mainly imports, with domestic shale oil being 'light') even though a lot of it's refineries are optimised for this.

[OCASMv2]

Oil that was being given to Cuba, Iran, Russia, China...

[culi]

By "given" you mean sold and by "Cuba, Iran, Russia, China..." you mean the only countries that aren't gonna follow the US' absurd sanctions that have led to so much suffering inside of Venezuela

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/05775132.2019.16...

> This article analyzes the consequences of the economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the U.S. government since August of 2017. The authors find that most of the impact of these sanctions has not been on the government but on the civilian population. The sanctions reduced the public’s caloric intake, increased disease and mortality (for both adults and infants), and displaced millions of Venezuelans who fled the country as a result of the worsening economic depression and hyperinflation. They made it nearly impossible to stabilize Venezuela’s economic crisis. These impacts disproportionately harmed the poorest and most vulnerable Venezuelans.

[SanjayMehta]

It's their oil to give.

[ronbenton]

Trump pardoned a drug kingpin exactly one month ago. Of course this isn't about drugs.

[dystopiandevel]

I certainly didn't. Along with the oil is more distraction from the Epstein files. Call me jaded but he has done this several times as a distraction.

[brailsafe]

Seems like the Epstein files are the obvious distraction at this point

[lofaszvanitt]

And yet, somehow, people are poor.

[wand3r]

This really doesn't have much to do with oil. This is because Marco Rubio and a cadre of wealthy elite immigrants who fled communism in the last half century have this grand vision of revenge and subscribe to an absurd notion of Domino Theory where communism will fall. Maduro already promised to stop trading with China and negotiate absurdly favorable mineral and energy deals. He even conceded to give up power on a 2-3 year timeline. Obviously, we will go in and control the nation and take a ton of resources. However, this was primarily about Marco Rubio living out his father's fantasy as outlined in his autobiography. It was sold to Trump as a drugs bust because he is an absolute moron and needed a distraction from Epstein.

Honestly, this is disgusting. Trump is personally renting and selling out America for personal profit. To Israel and now a cadre of South Floridians. He is selling passports and pardons and letting countries have trade deals or bases. I simply do not understand how everyone with power is letting this happen. This is not even ideological. The country is in recession and we are attached to 3 wars. WTF IS HAPPENING?

[matheusmoreira]

> This is because Marco Rubio and a cadre of wealthy elite immigrants who fled communism in the last half century have this grand vision of revenge

Maybe. Combating communism in south america is certainly a noble goal. Maduro is one of many communists that plague this region and his fall will undoubtedly contribute to significant power shifts in south american politics.

But it's not Marco Rubio who holds the power, it's Donald Trump. And Trump absolutely will deal with communists if it's profitable for him and/or the USA. His dealings with Brazil prove it. He embarrassed not only Rubio but various other staff and arguably his entire administration by leveraging tariffs and Magnitsky sanctions into some kind of deal with the communist brazilian president.

Trump could not care less about communism in south america. His past discourse on the matter of Venezuela is entirely focused on oil. He's been talking about seizing the resources for years. It's also easy to see how doing so benefits him and his country greatly.

I was hoping that he'd also end up unwittingly fighting the communists and drug gangs over the course of his war so that south america as a whole might at least reap some benefit but now it looks like even that was too much to hope for.

[internetter]

How are we not thugs in this situation? We're taking resources on other's land.

[integricho]

Except when it's other thugs who do the confiscation.