Link to the article:https://latinamericanpost.com/economy-en/venezuela-oil-bargain-with-trump-puts-sovereignty-on-auction-block/
The US and Venezuela have come to a deal that 2 billion dollars worth of oil would be taken and moved to the US. This deal also alleviates some of the pressure put on tankers via the US blockade since December of 25′. Trump has been promoting this as if it is the best thing that could have happened to Venezuela. This oil would have usually been sent to China so this is also a power play by the US to cut off a limb of the massive Chinese industry. In addition, with this deal, American companies like Chevron have now been allowed to drill and will get certain drilling rights not previously had. This challenges the PDVSA and the previous nationalization of Venezuelan oil.
From a moral perspective this is pretty despicable, however from a global politics move this is pretty well done from the US. In one military action, the US has significantly hurt the Chinese industry which was Venezuela’s #1 buyer of oil, lowered the gas prices in the US wich will certainly help his ratings, and set a precedent that is making every nation question whether whatever action they might be taking is really worth it. Also this plays into the idea that Trump has been using liberty as a face to impose control over enemy nations. This article may be talking about Iran in a few weeks from now.
The US now has a good bit of control over the Venezuelan oil and in my opinion Venezuela was the test run. I think that we may be seeing this exact kind of deal happen with Iran where the US forces them not to trade with China and give into a pretty bad deal with the US in order to maintain whatever sort of sovereignty they have left just as venezuela is. For the Venezuelans, I can’t see this being a popular move amongst the people that were just promised a better life. However, at the moment I do not see a way that Venezuela could retaliate in a way that would truly hurt the US, if they try anything militarily it will most likely crash and burn and Trump already has a grip around the oil now that US companies are coming into the picture.
I can see the concepts of power and leverage play into this. The US has not just gotten themselves more trading chips in order to have leverage against China in this coming age. The US also has demonstrated their hard power over the Venezuelans, this was shown as the Venezuelans have had to make a pretty bad deal for themselves and have had to denationalize their oil all because the US removed Maduro.