Tag: natural resources

The Venezuela Technocracy Connection

The US bombing of Venezuela and capture of Nicolás Maduro cannot be rationally explained as a drug enforcement operation, or even solely about recovering oil. The bigger picture is Technocracy.

In the early morning hours of January 3, 2026, the United States military launched military strikes on Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Maduro and Flores have since been transported to the New York City to face charges relating to gun crimes and cocaine trafficking.

The move has divided the MAGA base—and the American public more generally—with a large portion of President Donald Trump’s base viewing it as a betrayal of the principles he claimed to champion. Specifically, Trump has claimed for years he would not start new wars of aggression.

While Trump has stated that taking out Maduro is not about launching new wars but instead a calculated attack to take out a man he blames for America’s fentanyl crisis, the facts tell another story.

Was Maduro’s Capture About Drug Trafficking?

In May 2025, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) released its 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA). This report mentions Venezuela trafficking fentanyl to the US a total of zero times. Instead, it blames Mexican cartels for the manufacturing and trafficking of fentanyl. This should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention, as these facts are common knowledge among the US government and drug-trafficking researchers.

A second key point is that although Trump and neocon Secretary of State Marco Rubio have repeatedly sought to tie Maduro to drug cartels, there remains scant evidence for the claim.

The US government previously claimed Maduro was the head of the drug-trafficking group Cartel de los Soles (also known as the Cartel of the Suns). However, many skeptics have claimed the group doesn’t actually exist. During Trump’s first term, Maduro was indicted as the alleged leader of this cartel. In 2025, during his second term, Cartel de los Soles was officially designated a foreign terrorist organization.

However, when Maduro was brought to NYC and officially charged, the US Department of Justice dropped the allegations from their indictment. The lack of charges relating to Cartel de los Soles is a signal that the US government does not believe it has strong enough evidence to convict Maduro in court. Instead, they have changed their tune and are now claiming Maduro was involved in cocaine trafficking.

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Greenland mining firm hires Trump-tied lobbyists amid US invasion threats

The company suing Greenland for the right to mine rare earth minerals has hired a lobbying firm deeply connected to the Trump administration, increasing the threat of US action against the territory.

This article was originally published by ¡Do Not Panic!

Energy Transition Minerals announced yesterday that it hired Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm run by Brian Ballard, a major donor and fundraiser for Trump, to assert what it says are its claims on the territory. Attorney General Pam Bondi, along with Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, were both hired by Trump straight out of Ballard Partners.

The news comes as the White House steps up its rhetoric over Greenland, saying this week that it was exploring all options to take control of the territory, including a military invasion.

Energy Transition Minerals, an Australian mining company, was given a license nearly twenty years ago to explore the Kvanefjeld deposit, which contains over 11 million metric tons of rare earth minerals, including large quantities of uranium. The size of Kvanefjeld makes it the largest thorium deposit, the second-largest uranium deposit and overall the third-largest rare earths deposit in the world.

In a world hungry for new energy sources, Kvanefjeld’s significance can’t be overstated.

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What Israel Has to Do with the US Overthrow of Venezuela’s Government

A US invasion reveals deeper strategic goals tied to Israel’s push to weaken Iran, reshape Latin America, and consolidate control over global energy resources.

The overthrow of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro may appear to be a development that, on the face of things, has nothing to do with Israel, especially as Caracas seems too far away from Tel Aviv and its orbit. Yet, this move has a lot more to do with securing Israeli interests than meets the eye.

Following the US invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of its sitting President, officials in the Trump administration couldn’t wait to express their joy for Israel in such a moment.

The fragrant violation of Article 2, Section 4, of the United Nations Charter barely even registered much blowback on the international stage, although this should barely come as much of a surprise.

Within 24 hours of the operation to kidnap President Maduro, which resulted in the deaths of around 40 Venezuelans and 32 Cuban soldiers, US President Donald Trump had already let the cat out of the bag; he invaded to seize the oil. But then came a slew of other comments that obsessed over the fact that this attack on Caracas comes to the benefit of Israel.

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Trump says US could control 55% of world’s oil

President Donald Trump has said the US would control more than half of the world’s oil production if American companies regain access to Venezuela’s petroleum industry.

Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, nationalized the assets of US companies in the 2000s during the presidency of socialist Hugo Chavez.

Trump cited the “unfair” nationalization as one of the reasons he sent commandos last week to abduct Chavez’s successor, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, from his compound in Caracas.

“We’re going to be working with Venezuela,” Trump said on Friday during a meeting with executives from oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips at the White House.

“American companies will have the opportunity to rebuild Venezuela’s energy infrastructure and eventually increase oil production to levels never seen before. When you add Venezuela and the United States together, we have 55% of the oil in the world,” he added.

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California Democrat Has Incredibly Stupid Take on How Venezuela Operation Will Affect American Energy

Congressman Jimmy Panetta, a Democrat from California, recently offered an amazingly stupid take on how Trump’s operation to take Maduro out of Venezuela will affect Americans and American energy.

To hear Panetta tell it, this situation might further lower energy prices and that could cause instability.

If that makes sense to you, you might be a progressive.

In the clip below, Panetta says:

“We don’t know if the world’s saturated oil market will accept any more oil. This has left great instability not just in Venezuela, but in the region. And that leads to insecurity for the United States of America.”

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Oil Companies Are Key Partners in Trump’s Imperial Plans for Latin America

For months, U.S. President Donald Trump proclaimed that his pressure campaign against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, backed by dozens of illegal killings through drone strikes, was about fighting drugs and cartels. But at his press conference after the U.S. abduction of Maduro, Trump couldn’t stop talking about oil.

“We’re gonna take back the oil,” Trump brazenly said. “Very large United States oil companies” will “go in” and “spend billions of dollars,” he promised. “We’re gonna be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground.”

All told, Trump uttered the word “oil” at least 20 times during the press conference. Oil company stocks — ExxonMobil, Halliburton, ConocoPhillips, Valero, Phillips 66 — surged the following day, with Chevron, the only major U.S. oil corporation with a current foothold in Venezuela, seeing its share value jump more than 5 percent.

Further demonstrating the administration’s drug accusations to be mere propaganda, the Justice Department recently dropped its longstanding claim that Maduro was the head of “Cartel de los Soles,” implicitly conceding that it is indeed not a drug cartel but a slang term referring to political officials who have become corrupted by drug money.

The Trump administration’s barefaced imperial grab for Venezuela’s oil is fraught with challenges, and it’s far too early to predict what will happen. But its abduction of Maduro and effort to gain control over Venezuela’s oil industry aligns with the administration’s openly stated vision of reasserting undisputed political and economic hegemony across the Americas and the Caribbean, including control over natural resources and trade routes, through gunboat diplomacy backed by military threats. In doing so, Trump is looking to corporate allies like Chevron, which could stand to benefit handsomely from his administration’s action — though this is far from guaranteed.

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Tensions flare as Russian lawmaker accuses US of PIRACY after Trump’s forces seize two ships in daring raids

The United States has seized a tanker linked to Russia off the coast of Europe and a second vessel in the Caribbean in an escalation of the enforcement of the Venezuela oil blockade.

Dramatic footage showed American special forces boarding the M/V Bella 1 in the Northern Atlantic after pursuing it for weeks in an operation inflaming tensions with Moscow.

The Coast Guard also captured a second vessel – the Motor Tanker Sophia – off the coast of the Caribbean in the coordinated operation on Wednesday morning.

In response to the interceptions, Andrei Klishas, a member of the upper house of Russia’s parliament said the US actions were ‘outright piracy.’ 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put the world on notice by saying that the blockade of Venezuelan oil is in full effect, and said no ship is safe anywhere in the world.

The Russian Transport Ministry then responded by saying: ‘no state has the right to use force against vessels properly registered in other countries’ jurisdictions.’ It added that US forces boarded the Marinera at 3pm Moscow time, where communications were shortly lost with the vessel after.

Donald Trump appears to have dismissed the threat of Vladimir Putin‘s forces lurking nearby, including reports of a submarine.

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Trump: Venezuela to Turn over 30-50 Million Barrels of Oil to U.S.

President Donald Trump announced that the “interim authorities” in charge of Venezuela would be giving between 30 and 50 million “Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil” to the United States.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump explained that the oil would “be sold at its Market Price,” and that Trump would ensure the money from the sales would be “used to benefit the people of Venezuela” and the U.S.

“I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America,” Trump said. “This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!”

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Russia sends navy to guard oil tanker being pursued by US in North Atlantic after fleeing Venezuela for Russia

Russia has dispatched navy assets to protect a sanctioned oil tanker as it crosses the Atlantic, amid mounting threats from the US to seize the vessel.

The move comes after US forces were said to be preparing to board the ship, which has a long history of transporting Venezuelan crude oil and was last believed to be sailing between Scotland and Iceland.

According to CBS News, Russia has now stepped in to escort the tanker in a development that raises the prospect of a dramatic showdown between the superpowers on the high seas.

By sending navy ships into the North Atlantic, Vladimir Putin is signalling to Donald Trump that he can’t act without consequences, following the US president’s threat to use the military to seize Greenland. 

The vessel, which is currently empty, had previously operated under the name Bella 1. Last month, the US Coast Guard attempted to board it in the Caribbean, armed with a warrant to seize the ship over alleged breaches of US sanctions and claims it had shipped Iranian oil.

However, the tanker then abruptly changed course, renamed itself Marinera and reportedly reflagged from Guyana to Russia.

Donald Trump last month said he had ordered a ‘blockade’ of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, a policy the government in Caracas branded ‘theft’.

In the run-up to the US seizure of the country’s former leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump repeatedly accused Venezuela’s government of using ships to smuggle drugs into the US.

Two US officials told CBS News on Tuesday that American forces were planning to board the Marinera and that Washington would prefer to seize the vessel rather than sink it.

Moscow’s Foreign Ministry says it expects Western countries to respect principles of freedom of navigation. 

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Trump’s New Energy Doctrine: Regime Change, Then Drill

President Donald Trump has embarked on his own regime-change mission. And this time the United States intends to keep the oil.

American Special Operations Forces captured Nicolás Maduro in a daring raid, nabbing the Venezuelan leader from his bed early Saturday morning before sending him north aboard the USS Iwo Jima to New York, where he will face criminal charges related to an alleged narco-terrorism conspiracy.

The leftist strongman had ruled the South American state for more than a decade.

Now Trump will take over. “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he told reporters during a Mar-a-Lago press conference, deputizing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to manage in the interim as “a team.”

Though long a critic of the foreign entanglements that defined the presidencies of his Republican predecessors, Trump insisted he could do regime change right. “We’ll run it properly. We’ll run it professionally,” he said. “We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world going in.” He will not, however, clean house.

Trump claimed Delcy Rodríguez, a Maduro loyalist and the current Venezuelan vice president, was already willing to work with the United States to remake the country. He said it would be “very tough” for opposition leader María Corina Machado to assume power. Just hours after perhaps the most consequential decision of his tenure, the once ostensibly isolationist president was suddenly and remarkably open-ended in his commitment to rebuild a nation thousands of miles away from his own. Of a potential American occupation force, Trump said, “We are not afraid of boots on the ground.”

Even if the newly announced nation-building mission may be something of a flashback to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Trump did not echo the language of the War on Terror. He spoke for nearly an hour. Not once did the president, or his assembled people, say the word “democracy.”

He ordered the removal of the foreign head of state to instead preserve American hegemony in the Western Hemisphere. Venezuela under Maduro had opened its arms to China, Cuba, Iran, and Russia by way of both trade and military cooperation. The White House alleged that this amounted to a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, a 19th-century precedent named for then-President James Monroe’s opposition to colonial meddling in the Americas by the Europeans. “They are now calling it the ‘Donroe Doctrine,’” the current president quipped before the press.

The turn of phrase was new. The strategy is not. The White House has shifted its focus to North and South America to establish what the new National Security Strategy released late last year described as “the Trump corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. The stated goal: U.S. dominance in the region. The specific application as described by the president last month: Any nation harboring drug cartels is “subject to attack.” Even as the administration designated drug cartels as terror organizations, sanctioned Maduro and members of his own family, and sent the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to blockade Caracas, the Venezuelan authoritarian doubted Trump.

The two leaders spoke as recently as last week in an attempt to avoid a conflict. The negotiations eventually broke down, according to Rubio, after Maduro failed to accept one of the “multiple opportunities to avoid” the kind of military intervention that led to his arrest. “We’ll talk and meet with anybody but don’t play games while this president is in office,” the diplomat warned, “because it’s not going to turn out well.”

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