In the brave new world of the new millennium, your Eyewitness has noticed that the economic weapon of imposing “sanctions” on nations not willing to do a country’s bidding is now a standard feature of war between the said countries. And sanctions mean war, baby!! So, does this mean our Government’s gonna soon be adopting this weapon against our arch-enemy Venezuela?? And the answer brings out the thing about sanctions, innit?? To impose sanctions, you gotta have the wherewithal to ENFORCE them – meaning, you gotta have the POWER to do so!! Which, sadly, even with our new oil wealth, we ain’t got much of!
On the other hand, the moment Russia attacked Ukraine, the US imposed sanctions on Russia’s exports – especially oil and gas – even though most of those were being shipped to its allies in Europe – and even to itself!! So, wasn’t this like kinda shooting oneself in the foot?? Well, as in all decision-making, the US would’ve weighed the costs (hardships to itself and friends) versus the benefits (denying Russia critical foreign sales for hard currency). So, with us approaching the 2nd anniversary of the Ukraine invasion next month, how did those particular cookies crumble?
As far as Russia’s revenues are concerned, it seems the sanctions didn’t produce the intended effect – which was to reduce Russia’s financing of its war effort in Ukraine. In fact, with Russia shipping just about the same amount of oil as before the war, it has made itself less vulnerable to economic pressure – by finding ways to ship its oil production to India and China. And this exposes the other side of sanctions – you gotta be capable of punishing countries that violate the sanctions. And here, the US can’t punish those two BRICS members!! They’re just too impervious to pressure for a variety of reasons: India, for instance, is needed as an ally in the QUAD!!
But the sanctions have actually boomeranged to hurt the US and Europe!! And this is where we enter the picture!! Because the US needs the heavy oils it was getting from Russia for its Gulf refineries, Biden had to loosen the sanctions they’d imposed on Venezuela in an effort to substitute!! Hence the renewal of Chevron’s licence to work with PVDSA, and the same with some European majors. So, while the sanctions were intended to force Mad Maduro to commit hara-kiri and hold free and fair elections later this year, the US’ own action against Russia has forced them to take their knee off Mad Maduro’s neck!!
Similarly, by giving the go-ahead for Trinidad and BP to develop Venezuela’s Dragon Gas Field, more funds will be flowing into Mad Maduro’s coffers. And Rowley’s gonna be more prone to making gooey eyes at Mad Maduro!!
…for jingoism
And imagine, we used to complain that nobody in the world knew who we were – save being the place where Jim Jones tanked Kool Aid’s reputation!! But after Exxon struck those 11 billion barrels of sweet, light crude – suddenly we’re on everyone’s radar!! Only to discover being well-known ain’t necessarily such a good thing as we might’ve thought it was!!
For one, while Mad Maduro’s been infected by the same “we wuz robbed by perfidious Albion” like his predecessors, seems the oil made him lose whatever marbles he had left when Chavez croaked and he became President. How dare these natives of the effete British Empire – who’d been just slaves and indentured servants – now be in a position to leapfrog the heirs to the Spanish Empire that once spanned continents!!? One of our problems is that because we haven’t been mixing much with our South American neighbours, we don’t realize how low they think of us.
The refugees created by Burnham didn’t help.
