Expect Maduro to reserve a floor of Trump’s Washington hotel when he comes to negotiate an agreement.
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And Obama would have been just as wrong, as he was in Honduras, Libya, Syria, Yemen and the Ukraine…
Current U.S. policy does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s president though. U.S. and the EU are calling Guaidó the “legitimate” president and calling for new elections.
I think, “My! What big hands you have!” outta do it…
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Many years ago my father was the lead for Gulf Oil in Venezuela. They worked closely with the then questionable but ‘civilized ‘ government of the country to drill and export their oil. Until the government exercised their rights to ownership and appropriations of US ownership.
Those were tense times but both the US and Venezuela government realized they still ‘needed ‘ each other.
They still do except now Russia and China are very involved players. We may be missing our window
Oil talks. Bullshit walks.
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Trump’s Razor
Russia is supporting Maduro. Not sure about China. U.S. and EU are calling Maduro’s government illegitimate and currently supporting the opposition leader. I tend to lean more toward the U.S./EU stance.
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“The United States is holding accountable those responsible for Venezuela’s tragic decline,"
…while ignoring the tragic decline of many other less convenient countries -
including our own
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sadly this could have all been resolved if the venezualan officials had just booked a week’s stay at 45* 's bribe hostel
should’ve scrolled down!
Sanctions---------------Mr Doofus wants his commission .
“The oil belongs to the Venezuelan people, and therefore the money PDVSA earns from its export will now be returned to the people through their legitimate constitutional government.”
Staring us all in the face is that the Russian People’s oil wealth is in the hands of Putin’s Kleptocrats. Yet Marco Rubio and the American Media will not make a similar point about the Russian oil billions. And Congress is going to allow Trump to ease the existing sanctions on Russia. The sanctions on Venezuela also allow Trump to indulge his Latin America as a Shit Hole Continent and Racist impulses.
Or take control?
Putin’s tightly allied with Venezuela. In fact much of Venezuela’s oil resources are now owned by Russian oligarchs. Putin moved warships to Venezuela last year, both to defend his fellow autocrat (and kleptocrat), Maduro, and also to threaten the gulf of Mexico. These Russian warships are nuclear capable and whether they’re carrying nuclear weapons has been a point of much speculation.
In standing up to Maduro, the U.S. is also standing up to Putin. I never thought the Trump administration would take this step. We’ve been providing food and medicine to the starving people of Venezuela, basing aid ships in Colombian waters to do that, but I really expected Trump to succumb to Maduro’s bribery…yet here we appear to be going a step further…as well as doing something that threatens Putin foothold in Latin America.
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I suspect the explanation is in the Florida Cuban Vote block that the GOP and Trump so cherish. It was the reason Gore sided with the Exile Community against returning Elian Gonzalez to his father. Based on occasional reading of the most rabid right wing Miami Cuban blogs (one that regularly featured racist Black Sambo renderings of Barack Obama), Venezuela has propped up the Cuban regime, and provided revenue at Regime prices for Cuban MDs sent to provide Venezuelan regime health care and live in compounds guarded by Cuban security. And Chavez’s political embrace of the Castro regime and his own claim at being a socialist bolivarian revolution. So, I suspect this is the main and probably only reason Trump is doing this. That and the other post here earlier documenting how the US is Venezuela’s main customer for crude.
Sounds far fetched to me.
Maduro contributed $500,000 of money belonging to the starving people of Venezuela to Trump’s inaugural and he’s Putin’s bitch. Those are actual facts, not stretch of the imagination. Again, I find it really surprising that Trump would take a stand against Maduro given all that. More likely he sees the writing on the wall here. Venezuela is desperately in need of help. I’m provisionally optimistic. It’s been terrible to see what’s happening there while we mostly stood by and did nothing.
Not to me. Not at all. Pandering to the Cuban Right Wing Vote has been one of the Southern Strategy’s Main Features. And money in the bank since JFK refused to provoke WW3 by providing US Air cover for The Bay of Pigs Invasion. It has distorted US foreign policy for decades and both parties have been influenced by it.
Then why wait so long?
My guess would be they think there is a viable opportunity to topple the regime. Which would be a number one priority for said demographic.