Alt.-media finally repeat the truth about Venezuela I had reported in 2019.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice. 13 January 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.) On 12 February 2019, I headlined “Why Venezuela’s People Are Suffering”, and reported “that Venezuela’s people are suffering from a tragic national situation which actually cannot be reversed by anything that’s within the power of Venezuela’s Government to do or to block,” and this tragedy is “that no nation can do anything but lose money by selling the world’s dirtiest oil, tar-sands oil, which costs $100+ to clean and produce, into a global oil market that’s paying less than $100 (currently around $65) per barrel. Venezuela was able to sell it profitably when oil-prices were high, but is getting crushed now, because its oil is no longer profitable to produce and sell. But 95% of Venezuela’s export-earnings come from oil. Unless and until oil-prices are again above $100 (which probably won’t happen again, except perhaps for very brief periods), Venezuela is doomed.” The article provided the full details, and (via its links) complete documentation. In short: all of the U.S Government’s assertions that Maduro and Venezuela’s Government’s refusal to privatize its oil, are the reason. America’s sanctions in order to force their capitulation are merely making this natural bad situation even worse for the Venezuelan people, so that Venezuelans will overthrow their Governmment and Venezuela will become a U.S. colony or ‘ally’. It’s lyuing through its teeth to grab another conlony (‘ally’). On January 12th, the “Judge Napolitano – Judging Freedom” site interviewed the great geostrategic analyst (retire CIA analyst) Larry Johnson, headlining “Is the CIA Fueling Iran’s Chaos?”, and Johnson said 4:43 As I discovered, and 4:45 when I started doing some research, this 4:47 entire notion that we’re oh, we went 4:49 there for the oil. Nonsense. If that’s 4:52 the real reason they went, boy, they 4:55 went for something that’s not going to 4:56 pay off, you know, because right now 4:59 Venezuela’s production 5:01 accounts for 2% only 2% of all OPEC 5:05 production. And as Alistair Crooke 5:08 correctly noted in your earlier 5:10 discussion with him, what comes out of 5:12 the ground is uh you know it’s not Jed 5:15 Jed Clamplet Jed Clampet in the Beverly 5:17 Hillbillies where you know he shoots a 5:19 rifle in the ground and up up comes a 5:21 bubbling crude. No no this stuff is 5:24 thick. It’s as Pepe Escobar talked about 5:28 it’s like tar. It’s very thick. It has 5:30 to be pulled out of the ground. It 5:32 doesn’t want to leave on its own. And if 5:34 if they go ahead and give uh Trump his 5:37 50 million barrels, it’s going to take 5:40 Venezuela 71 days to produce that. And 5:44 and if Trump thinks that’s going to 5:46 change the price of oil, that amount of 5:48 oil that would be pumped in those 71 5:50 days would account for less than one half 5:53 of 1% of global oil. So I mean, it’s 5:56 just: Trump is he’s he’s off and never 6:00 never last. He he just does not have uh 6:03 a realistic understanding of the oil 6:05 business and of Venezuela’s relationship 6:08 to it. Is it any wonder now? Of course, 6:11 he hates Exxon Mobile that the CEO of 6:14 Exon Mobile said, “We’re not going to 6:15 invest any money there and Venezuela is 6:18 uninvestable.” 6:20 Yeah. It would it’s going to take the 6:22 estimate about a hundred to to get one 6:25 million barrels of oil, you’re going to 6:26 have to invest in, invest basically a 6:28 hundred million dollars. 6:31 And and so just, you know, these are 6:33 businessmen. These are not idologues. 6:36 They’re looking at how do we increase 6:38 our profits, minimize our costs, and you 6:42 know, Exon Mobile’s, you know, they’re 6:44 not playing that game. And and if if 6:46 Trump again — this is the hallmark of 6:48 Donald Trump, he’s a bully and he’s an 6:52 ignorant bully on top of it. 6:55 So the president says 6:58 he is only constrained 7:00 by his own mind, his own morality. He 7:05 doesn’t need international law. It’s a 7:06 It’s a brief clip. We’ll play it and 7:08 then I’ll finish with the question. 7:10 Larry Chris, cut number two. Do you see 7:12 any checks on your power on the world 7:14 stage? Is there anything that could stop 7:16 you if you wanted to? 7:17 Yeah, there’s one thing. My own 7:19 morality, 7:21 my own mind. It’s the only thing that 7:23 can stop and that’s very good. 7:27 I don’t need international law. I’m not 7:29 looking to hurt people. 7:32 … Of course, Trump’s saying “I’m not looking to hurt people” is an insult to the intelligence of his own followers, because it presumes that they don’t know that everything he does in politics is directed at defeating his opponents (his ‘enemies’) — anyone who resists his demands. And he is saying this right after having slaughtered around a hundred people in fishing boats off Venezuela’s coast, and then around another hundred in his operation to kidnap Venezuela’s President. (Not to mention his and Biden’s donating, by U.S. taxpayers’ dollars, over 60% of the weapons by which Israel bombs the Gazans. And now he threatens Greenlanders with an invasion to grab their government.) That’s the way he is and has always been — and it has succeeded for him, which is all that he really cares anything about. He just lies about it because he despises his followers; he treats them as stupid people whom he can always deceive. Any of them who doubts this deceitfulness of him should see Napolitano’s interview of Pepe Escobar on January 9th, which covers Venezuela and lots more. It superbly details Trump’s making fools out of his own followers. Also well worth seeing is Alastair Crooke’s interview I mentioned. But anyway: the U.S. Government has always lied to allege that the poor people of Venezuela wouldn’t be poor if only American oil billionaires were making money off of their oil (which is what the oil-privatization that the U.S. regime demands would mean — cutting America’s billionares in on it), and this presumes that the American public are stupid. Similarly, the U.S./UK invasion of Iraq was based totally on lies by the U.S. and UK Governments, likewise targeting an oil-rich country. But by this time, one might have expected these publics to have learned that the governments that actually need to be regime-changed are their own. ————— Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public. The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
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