This is a tried and true American imperialist strategy. Economic warfare like sanctions and embargoes, barring countries from participating in trade is how you try to choke a country to death. See Cuba, Haiti, Bolivia.
Usually it’s an authoritarian country and the expectations is that the country will break up in revolution so US envoys can swoop in and install a “favorable candidate” - while sometimes employing the CIA to help in that process, maybe with a little assassination - as a treat.
But, the problem is, even though the country might have a despot, autocrat - or heaven forbid: a left leaning government - the people still are aware of the foreign encroacher.
Expecting them to bend to the whims of some sorted agent of foreign principal - who has a history of toppling legitimate governments - is insulting to the intelligence.
But ofc to Trump all people other than him are stupid - especially the US citizen - and that’s also how the republicans feel and why the US hasn’t won a single goddamn war in ages.
Of course he did… fucking war monger.
Soldiers who don’t refuse to obey are complicit
3 day long Special Military Operation? Putin loves that.
“Heeeeeyah!, boys! They got some of that oil in dem parts and I gotta get me summ” – 'MURICAH
Will the west say Venezuela has the right to defend itself?
Fuck no, you want us to pay to blockade Venezuela? In this economy? Try again with someone else’s money.
Is this… legal?
Has legality stopped him before?
Yes, the Office of Legal Counsel issued a classified memo to legally justify these killings.
What’s in the memo? No one really knows, it’s so classified that most members of Congress aren’t allowed to read it.
This is straight from the W. Bush playbook. W and Cheney(rest in piss) used these same tactics to legalize torture during the Iraq war.
The Guardian: ‘Donald Trump has ordered “a total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela…’
So, not a total and complete blockade.
They have them partially surrounded.
Notice that has prices dropping? he’s been depleting out national oil reserves to try to save face and needs to replace that oil somehow.
