Workers of state-run oil company PDVSA take part in a rally against US imperialism. The placard reads: “The oil is ours, Yankees go home”

The US’ Anti-Venezuelan Sanctions Might Tip the Scales Against Maduro

The US decreed earlier this week that it was sanctioning Venezuela’s PDVSA state oil firm and allowing the usurper Juan Guadio to access some of its financial assets, which will make it much easier for him to fund military defections and Color Revolutionary violence as he races to bring the regime change campaign to its climax. Although wantonly illegal in terms of international law and potentially amounting to the theft of $7 billion, there’s nothing that can be done to stop it since no power is going to go to war with the US over this issue. It’s true that the US is harming its own reputation by doing this, but the fact of the matter is that its energy-thirsty economy is so massive that none of its energy partners will probably seriously countenance cutting off exports to it even though their assets might theoretically be the next ones to be seized if they get too much on the US’ geopolitical bad side.

It deserves to be mentioned that the US buys 41% of Venezuela’s oil exports and is its top energy partner, meaning that this scenario was a Damocles’ sword hanging over the head of the Bolivarian Republic this entire time. That’s not to imply any fault of Venezuela’s own for continuing to sell oil to the US over the years, but just to point out that the latest developments weren’t exactly unpredictable in hindsight seeing as how the US has a lengthy track record of abusing whatever leverage is available at its disposal for geopolitical purposes against its opponents whenever it feels that the time is right. At this specific moment, the US knows that allowing Guaido access to such large amounts of money will serve as a stimulus boost to the formation of his so-called “government-in-waiting” and might be enough to eventually tip the scales to his favor.

In addition, depriving the democratically elected and legitimate government of Venezuela of its rightful financial assets is meant to stoke speculation about its currency and therefore trigger a forthcoming economic free-fall that could be capitalized upon by Guaido and his paid supporters in the streets and possibly even the military. Venezuela’s economic fundamentals are very weak after years of withstanding the US’ Hybrid War onslaught, so it might not even take all that much to throw the country into a qualitatively new level of crisis that could ultimately lead to its collapse. At risk of sounding overly dramatic, the chances of regime change taking place in Venezuela are higher than at any time before and it’s extremely difficult to think of how the government will replace the loss of revenue from its top oil customer in time to avert this from happening.


By Andrew Korybko
Source: Oriental Review

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