Venezuela Crisis

[WolfeTone]

Trump says he is considering a blockade or quarantine on Venezuela

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he is considering a quarantine or blockade of Venezuela, as the United States steps up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to relinquish power.

www.cnbc.com

US threatening naval blockade now. Aren't there any rules anymore? I forget, but what did the Venezuelan people do to be treated like this?
And if the socialist government is destined to crash its own economy, why does the US need to crash it?

 

[Sister Sara]

So the underlying point is what is the US interest in Venezuela. Democracy? Liberating the people from a failed political and economic system (which pre-dates Chavez by a long way, so why such interest now?)

I would suggest that it is to advance US corporate interests, particularly the oil industry, and not much else.

I think this point is pretty much spot on and clearly evident by Trumps actions.

 

[Purple]

US threatening naval blockade now. Aren't there any rules anymore?

I know this is an old post but it's pertinent to the current situation and the broader political reality in the world. The answer is no, there are no rules if the people with the most power don't want to follow them.

The ability to enforce your will through physical force is the ultimate power. It is only when those with that power act in the common good and consent to not using their power for their own narrow ends that we end up with rules.

Women have rights because men agreed to give them to them. If all men decides to take away the rights of all women then there would be no way women could stop them because men are capable of physically dominating them.
I have rights because younger stronger men who could band together and impose their will on me choose not to.

We need to realise that in a post UN, post Cold War world in which Russia and China already embraced the Monroe Doctrine decades ago the USA was the only backstop. They have now also embraced that doctrine and the world is rapidly moving back towards a version of 1860's imperialism.

What is happening in Venezuela is shocking. Not because a vile murderous dictator has been removed from power and not because it smacks of imperialism. It is shocking because it is so blatantly imperialistic and because of the permission it gives Russia in Ukraine and in other now free former parts of the Russian Empire and the permission it gives China in Taiwan. It also signals US intentions towards Greenland are very real.

President Trump may be added to the list of Presidents who significantly increased the size of the United States. Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase which doubled the size of the US. James Polk added present day California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico as a result of the treaty referred to as the Mexican Cession, as well as annexing Texas and purchasing Oregon from the UK. Andrew Jackson purchased Alaska. Greenland is more than 50% bigger than Alaska and bigger than the lands gained through the Louisiana Purchase. Only the lands gained after the American Mexico war added more territory to the US than would be added with the purchase/annexation of Greenland.

That would put President Trump second, first if you treat the annexation of Texas separately to the Mexican Cession. That's the sort of legacy he's looking to build.