{"id":239772,"date":"2026-01-11T17:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T17:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/239772\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T17:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T17:33:08","slug":"trump-racketeering-and-venezuelan-oil-middle-east-monitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/239772\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump, racketeering and Venezuelan oil \u2013 Middle East Monitor"},"content":{"rendered":"

It usually takes archival digging, the golden gaffe, an ill-considered remark and occasional spells of candour by those in power, to admit that the United States has, in common with other imperial powers, brutal ambitions.\u00a0 An example of the latter was General Smedley Butler who, at his death in 1940, had become the most decorated Marine in US history.\u00a0 After retiring from active service, he was frank<\/a> about what his role had been.\u00a0 Professing to being a \u201cracketeer\u201d and \u201cgangster for capitalism\u201d, he went on to explain how: \u201cI helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914.\u00a0 I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Boys to collect revenues in.\u00a0 I helped the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street.\u201d\u00a0 That was just a selection.<\/p>\n

With President Donald Trump in power, we do not need a Butler to give the game away or expose any frightful cabal.\u00a0 The empire is out of the closet, bolshie, bright and more thieving than ever.\u00a0 While the Donroe Doctrine is intended to reprise the Monroe Doctrine, it offers nothing more than imperial rapacity, seizure under pretext. \u00a0The January 9 meeting with two dozen oil executives at the White House to discuss the fate of the Venezuelan oil market showed Trump to be in full flight as cocky pip and proud procurer of corporate thieving under the cover of government protection.<\/p>\n

Representatives from such veteran behemoths as ExxonMobil and Chevron were present to listen to calls from the president that they invest handsomely in modernising and tidying up Venezuela\u2019s tattered oil infrastructure. \u00a0Problems with the oil itself \u2013 heavy, hard to refine and packed with sulphur, not to mention the questionable number of proven reserves \u2013 did not blight the conversation.\u00a0 \u201cAmerican companies will have the opportunity to rebuild Venezuela\u2019s rotting energy infrastructure and eventually increase oil production to levels never seen before,\u201d he crowed<\/a> at the start of the meeting.\u00a0 Our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100 billion of their money.\u201d\u00a0 In the course of this merry investment, Venezuela would \u201cbe very successful, and the people of the United States are going to be big beneficiaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Economic hegemony as a doctrine: A reading of current US foreign policy<\/a><\/p>\n

The choice of companies involved in the venture would, however, not be determined by free market wiles or any invisible hand.\u00a0 \u201cWe are going to be making the decision as to which oil companies can go in, which we will allow to go in.\u201d\u00a0 They would mostly be American, naturally.\u00a0 Forget the Venezuelans, he insisted. \u201cYou\u2019re dealing with us directly.\u00a0 You\u2019re not dealing with Venezuela at all.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want you to deal with Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeffery Hilderbrand of the oil and gas producer Hilcorp Energy and noted Trump donor, was all salivation and gratitude.\u00a0 He was also pleased with the implausible alibi Trump had offered for controlling and pilfering Venezuelan oil for American interests: finding imagined enemies who might do the same thing.\u00a0 \u201cThank you for your great, tremendous leadership in protecting the interests in the Western Hemisphere,\u201d he sighed<\/a> with oleaginous gratitude.\u00a0 \u201cThe message that you have sent to China and our enemies to stay out of our backyard is absolutely fantastic\u2026 Hilcorp is fully committed and ready to go to rebuilding the infrastructure in Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

CEO Bill Armstrong, of the Armstrong Oil and Gas company, also smacked his lips at the plunderous prospects.\u00a0 \u201cWe are ready to go to Venezuela,\u201d he declared<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cIn real estate terms, it is prime real estate.\u00a0 And it\u2019s like West Palm about 50 years ago.\u00a0 Very ripe.\u201d\u00a0 Fracking executive and Trump supporter, Harold Hamm, was tickled by the possibility of adventure, seeing<\/a> Venezuela as little more than a playground to roam and in and profit from.\u00a0 \u201cIt excites me as an explorationist.\u201d\u00a0 The country was \u201cexciting\u201d with its abundant reserves, posing \u201cchallenges and the industry know how to handle that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chevron, which already has a presence in the country in partnership with the state-run oil company Petr\u00f3leos de Venezuela SA accounting<\/a> for 240,000 barrels per day, expects to bolster its production by 50% over the next 18 to 24 months.\u00a0 Those at Repsol are dreaming<\/a> of tripling the current daily production of 45,000 barrels over the next few years, provided the conditions are appropriate.<\/p>\n

Not all the oil companies expressed the same level of glowing confidence.\u00a0 Naked plunder comes with its challenges and logistical tangles, not least the touchy issue of Venezuelan sovereignty.\u00a0 Exxon CEO Darren Woods was, for instance, concerned<\/a> that much will have to be done to make Venezuela an appropriate recipient of capital.\u00a0 One way was to ensure that whoever was in control in Caracas would be eternally reliable and amenable to US oil interests.\u00a0 \u201cWe have had our assets seized there twice and so you can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we\u2019ve historically seen and what is currently the state.\u201d\u00a0 As things stood, given \u201clegal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place\u201d, Venezuela was \u201cininvestable\u201d.<\/p>\n

That same day, Trump further confirmed the choking of Venezuela by signing an Executive Order<\/a> to prevent \u201cthe seizure of Venezuelan oil revenue that could undermine critical US efforts to ensure economic stability in Venezuela.\u201d\u00a0 The Order prohibits US courts from seizing revenue collected from Venezuelan oil and relevant holds in US Treasury accounts.\u00a0 The customary, absurd justifications follow: to lose control of such funds would \u201cempower malign actors like Iran and Hezbollah while weakening efforts to bring peace, prosperity, and stability to the Venezuelan people and to the Western Hemisphere as a whole.\u201d\u00a0 Were these funds to be tampered with, US objectives to stem \u201cthe influx of illegal aliens and disrupting the flood of illicit narcotics\u201d would be compromised.<\/p>\n

As for those befuddled figures of the Venezuela opposition thinking that much of their country\u2019s oil revenue will find its way into the coffers of Caracas, they should best think again.\u00a0 \u201cPutting America first,\u201d as the Order makes clear, means just that.\u00a0 The Venezuelan people don\u2019t count, except as props in tawdry oratory.<\/p>\n

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It usually takes archival digging, the golden gaffe, an ill-considered remark and occasional spells of candour by those…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-239772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}