On January 3, the United States launched a “large-scale strike” on Venezuela, captured President Nicolás Maduro, and flew him to a military base in New York. The American President says his country now runs Venezuela.
In 2023, Presidential aide and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller suggested that all of Venezuela’s oil belongs to Washington. That country’s proven reserves are the largest in the world.
The day before, Trump had imposed a “total and complete blockade” of oil shipments from Venezuela. He rationalizes the 2026 raids by saying the South American country’s oil industry was underperforming:
As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust, for a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping, and what could have taken place. We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, then start making money…
The U.S. administration said its military attacks on Venezuelan assets were part of a crackdown on drug trafficking and criminality. What we are really observing is another application of the Monroe Doctrine. President James Monroe’s 1823 assertion opposed European intervention in the Americas, but evolved to justify U.S. intervention against threats to its commercial interests.
The United Fruit Company, later known as Chiquita Brands International, owned vast Latin American land and economic holdings. It was the prime beneficiary of the Monroe Doctrine.
Today, the American government cares less about bananas and more about oil.
Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter states:
- All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
Categories: International
in-sights.ca 
Not simple. This is a generalization; the UN has to stop remaining in the background. It should be in people’s minds. Hold an internationally broadcast news conference underlining the weight of the crimes being committed.
The UN’s hands are tied. They only act with any sort of power that the UN actually has, it seems to me, is after the fact when the peacekeepers are called in.
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Carole Cadwalladr writes about this invasion on her substack site. She is blunt. The United States is now, without any doubt, a rogue state and Trump is a rogue president. Click on the link below.
https://broligarchy.substack.com/p/the-threat-from-america
This action by the US also builds on their long history of shock therapy. If you want to learn more about this I highly recommend you read Naomi Klein’s book ‘The Shock Doctrine’
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Thanks Pat. I pulled Naomi Klein’s fine book from our bookshelves, where it has rested for too many years. While re-reading it, I am amazed at how useful Shock Doctrine remains for those seeking to understand how the world has worked.
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Here in Canada and elsewhere (Greenland in particular) we should be extremely concerned about this action by the USA.
The USA is not shy about using force to cause regime change and to take over foreign countries. Trump had talked about taking over Greenland and Canada.
Are we next?
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Esheru on Bluesky offers another reason behind Trump’s invasion of Venezuela. Venezuela’s largest oil customer is China and the oil was being purchased in yuan. Normally, oil transactions occur using the US dollar and this supports the strength of the US dollar. If oil is allowed to trade in other currencies the US dollar will crater. The invasion serves as a ‘shot across the bow’ for any other petrostates, including Canada, thinking about trading oil in other currencies.
https://bsky.app/profile/esherukweku.bsky.social/post/3mblmymrpg222
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On January 3, 2026, Mark Carney commented on X(formally Twitter) regarding Trump’s invasion of Venezuela. I thought it required a few corrections. See below.
https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D3739388_08822455_66340598
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