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Venezuela explained in 10 maps and charts
- mohsen1 10mo agoAl Jazeera has been super loud and vocal about how US aggressions towards Venezuela is all about oil. It makes sense since Venezuela’s future oil exports in case the current regime falls will hugely impact the price of oil which funds Qatar which funds Al Jazeera.
- faidit 10mo agoIt could also reduce US dependence on Qatar, reducing the value of all the bribes they paid to Trump so far and requiring them to bribe him more.
- e40 10mo agoThe similarities with Iraq are insane https://youtu.be/C5QGzYFjVaU?si=09nRUo_ddUd5H3D7 https://youtu.be/C5QGzYFjVaU?si=09nRUo_ddUd5H3D7 The Daily Show segment on comparing them.
- cm2187 10mo ago[flagged]
- gpderetta 10mo ago> When US supports dictators, US bad. When US topples dictators, US bad… there is a third option.
- rglullis 10mo ago"Don't do anything, let China handle it" ?
- kakacik 10mo agoNo just the first part, China ain't doing no ground invasion for oil, minerals and power half around the world. Iraq and whole surrounding region became a hellhole due and only due to US failed invasion, gave the world ISIS and screwed entire region badly for decades to come. Afghanistan became (again) a hellhole due to failed US invasion too, 0 positive long term things achieved, just death all around. US military-industrial complex (aka the republicans in power but not only) will try and force any way US will spend trillions on military equipment again and again, thats glaringly obvious to literally whole world and not something new or secretly done behind many curtains. If US would actually want to have an image (and not just self-image) of somebody standing up to tyranny and genocide and protecting the weak and just, they would support Ukraine and not backstab it frequently as they do. Thats a fine litmus paper for this in current times, don't need anything else. The fact that enemy there is a mortal enemy of US itself and all principles US holds (held?) dear like freedom, democracy, capitalism or right to self-determination is just the proverbial cherry on the top of the cake. No amount of words can bullshit around this simple fact. Also in the process US is losing its by far biggest and strongest ally in whole world on all existential, moral and societal levels - Europe. An army of expert spies and hackers wouldn't be able to achieve in decades what current potus achieved in less than a year.
- rglullis 10mo ago> No just the first part, Ok. Then the question is "If the US really goes full isolationsist and packs it home, who takes the power vaccum?" > China ain't doing no ground invasion for oil I didn't say that "China handling it" is about invading anything. I also didn't say anything that the US is justified in invading Venezuela. I am just wondering that if those saying "the US shouldn't do anything" understand that someone will do something, even if this something is stupid, counterproductive or plain evil.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- wiseowise 10mo ago[flagged]
- fakedang 10mo agoWell as long as they're just fucking around within their borders, yeah? Or maybe the US should start with instituting regime change in its allies in the Persian Gulf?
- drysine 10mo ago[flagged]
- wiseowise 10mo ago> created: 11 months ago > 90% comments are about Ukraine and US :^)))
- drysine 10mo agoI don't think you should laugh. Not even a tiny grin is appropriate. Come and see.[0] Watch desperate mother whose son was grabbed on the street and "busified"[1]. She later died in the ER after the stroke she suffered. Just found some random telegram channel for you which apparently collects the videos of Ukrainian forced mobilization[2]. The channel's admins sarcastically call them "volunteers" which I find despicable, but just watch the videos. Some of the videos have logos of popular Ukrainian telegram channels, you can find them there. [0] https://t.me/ASupersharij/42745 https://t.me/ASupersharij/42745 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busification [2] https://t.me/busification https://t.me/busification
- maximinus_thrax 10mo agoI see you ran into our resident Russian troll, protomolecule's new HN account. Don't engage. Flag and move on.
- vkou 10mo agoStrange how this humanitarian concern only comes up when they have oil, or are somehow geopolitically relevant. (You may also want to look into the US' track record for installing dictators throughout the Americas. It's not great.)
- sirfz 10mo agoI think the problem with your take is your assumption that the US topples regimes because of dictatorship or to support "democracy".
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- cm2187 10mo agoUS foreign policy goals are self serving like every other country. And it has supported lesser of two evils many times (like a non communist dictatorship vs a communist one). I don’t think the Iraq war was to establish democracy, it was to get rid of a dictator hostile to the US at a time when after 9/11, the US decided to it would not tolerate further aggressions. But a byproduct of that policy has been the establishment of a democracy and historically the US considered that democracies as natural allies and therefore the more the better.
- oersted 10mo agoIn practice, just the act supporting the lesser of the two evils has brought so much more evil. If you want to do good, fine, but make sure you are smart about it and actually achieve that aim. The US has shown that its not good at this, regardless of intentions, they should just refrain from action until they get their shit together.
- oersted 10mo agoWhen US initiates aggressive unilateral military action on other sovereign countries, US bad yes, of course. Old-school UN-led "police action" as in Korea is one thing, at least there's a somewhat universal institution making judgements on which countries need to be "saved" under a consistent legal framework, but that's such a slippery slope too. The US does not have the authority to make such decisions and definitely does not have a good track record of them. It's just vigilantism at a large scale, at best. Even when being charitable about intent, the US did do some things in legitimate good faith, at least partially, the results are always catastrophic. There's been no instance of actually positive outcomes for the local population, it has always destroyed the country for decades to come and set the stage for significantly worse regimes.
- cm2187 10mo ago[flagged]
- oersted 10mo agoNo, that's not at all what I said, read it back please. My point is that history has shown that such action is extremely counterproductive if you actually care about doing good for people under such regimes, particularly when the decision is made impulsively by a single country with a biased perspective and no consistent system or criteria to make sure it's a smart thing to do. Anyone that supports such action is using inconsistent moralistic arguments to justify blatant power grabs. It may be well intentioned, but you are just making yourself feel good by fighting the bad guys, while doing even more harm to innocent people and making it all worse in the long-run. Very American indeed. And frankly, right now, the US is not exactly in a position to be a judge of what is moral in the first place.
- cm2187 10mo agoHistory has also shown dictators engaging is mass genocide like in Russia, Germany, China, Cambodia, RDC, etc. I am not sure that the idea that leaving dictators alone does less harm to their people is a lesson from history. Read my comment back as well! I am saying this is neither a moral nor legal matter. So I am not using a moralistic argument.
- drysine 10mo ago>I don’t care that much which pretext is used to topple him. The US also destroyed the country in the process and caused more deaths than Saddam.
- matwood 10mo agoThe problem with your argument is there are dictators all over the world the US ignores. If anti-dictator is enough, why the tepid response for Ukraine? What about the various African nations? What about Haiti and the violence there? The difference is oil, and Trump's also very petty and Maduro has told him to pound sand. > Oil is unconvincing since it took years before production recovered, so that clearly wasn’t the priority. Haliburton, Exxon, Chevron, etc... made a ton of money rebuilding the infrastructure and continue to make money on the oil reserves.
- oersted 10mo agoHe did just get the FIFA Peace Price that was created out of thin air this year :) Yes FIFA as in the football/soccer league.
- kristopolous 10mo agolet's get a time stamp: https://youtu.be/C5QGzYFjVaU?si=lr30ZcfhKQgGCe1t&t=597 https://youtu.be/C5QGzYFjVaU?si=lr30ZcfhKQgGCe1t&t=597
- cloflaw 10mo agoThe real insanity is that nearly everyone, on "both sides", now agrees the US invasion of Iraq was a terrible outcome and a terrible idea built on lies about "weapons of mass destruction". Despite all of that this admin is using the exact same rhetoric while needing to redefine a drug, that largely is imported from places other than Venezuela, to make it a "weapon of mass destruction" in order to do it all over again.
- sofixa 10mo agoIt's not that easy/clear. Venezuelan oil is really poor quality, needs lots of refining, and is thus only profitable only when the price per barrel is on the higher end. So Qatar (which mostly exports natural gas anyways), Saudi Arabia, etc. can just dump oil at a cheaper price to make it unprofitable to extract and refine Venezuelan oil. US decision makers salivating over war/oil/whatever def don't take that into account, but it really doesn't matter either.
- apples_oranges 10mo agoGood video on the oil: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgwny1BiCYk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgwny1BiCYk
- Zealotux 10mo agoIt's an interesting perspective, and looking back at history I'm inclined to believing that. A question about those refineries for heavy crude oil: isn't that possible to adapt the oil plants to lighter oil? Or would that mean rebuilding the whole facility?
- maxerickson 10mo agoYou end up with useless processors, and you are working against the market. Converting increases the demand for light and decreases the demand for heavy, which will at least directionally improve the supply cost advantage of the heavy.
- 4gotunameagain 10mo agoThis doesn't mean that they are wrong. We should not have another was for the petrodollar. We have enough suffering in this planet. We should not only not create more, but actively try to reduce it.
- csomar 10mo agoExcept Qatar doesn't really have much Oil? They produce Gas which a different beast and used mostly for electricity or heating. They are also not friendly (actually hostile) to Saudis or the UAE; so they can't be working on this by proxy. Have you considered that they are doing this because of humans right and .. /s who are we kidding this is Qatar we are talking about. My only explanation of this, is that the collapse of the "order-based" system affects countries like Qatar disproportionately as part of their existence hangs on the respect of that order.
- crazybonkersai 10mo agoIt is shocking how openly US planning a war of aggression against Venezuela and the whole civilized world is just fine with it. EU could grow a pair and show the US that this type of behaviour is not accepted. Sanction the fuck out of the US regime, boot off Swift, kick American companies out of the EU market, barren American citizens from travelling to EU. EU can prevent this war, while it is not too late.
- mongol 10mo agoEU can't prevent this war.
- crazybonkersai 10mo agoNot with this kind of attitude for sure. EU can at least send a strong signal by doing concrete actions. Sanctions against American corporations and individuals, travel restrictions, SWIFT ban. These will make Trump think twice before waging acts of unprovoked aggression.
- farseer 10mo agoSanctions against someone they need to contain Russia?
- mongol 10mo agoEU has to focus on its hostile neighbour to the east. I can see you are no fan of the EU but be realistic
- nusl 10mo agoTrump and the US has never shown to care about this. The current US gov seems fixated on attacking the EU and trying to break it up. If they want to go to war, EU won't be able to stop them. Perhaps if they gift Trump a plane, though.
- vkou 10mo agoNo, but it can freeze the assets of its perpetrators.
- globular-toast 10mo agoThe export charts appear to have been taken from OEC[0]. They appear to be CC0 from the source but they've applied CC BY-NC-SA and put their own logo on it. A bit odd. [0] https://oec.world/en/profile/country/ven https://oec.world/en/profile/country/ven
- globalnode 10mo agoall these world power grabs are manufactured stories with the back end being -- gimme your stuff. something something playbook something something.
- febed 10mo agoInteresting how Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia but is not able to capitalize on it due to systemic issues
- HPsquared 10mo agoVenezuelan crude is heavier and has more sulfur than Saudi oil which makes it harder to process. (Still easier than Canadian oil sand though)
- decimalenough 10mo agoVenezuela was processing it just fine before Chavez showed up, nationalized the industry, put his cronies in charge and let it all fall to pieces. https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/venezuela/crude-oil-exports https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/venezuela/crude-oil-ex...
- orwin 10mo agoThe data you linked doesn't show that. If I were on my computer, I would download crude oil prices/US shale oil extraction data and look for correlations. My intuition seeing this is that the lack of openness of Venezuelian economy made it impossible to recover from the crude oil price drop circa 2014, because of a lack of access to capital and new tech (and probably corruption). Also, if you want to nationalizes, you better have a plan like Norway had, and Venezuela didn't. If your goal is only profit, better let a private company take care of it, that's the thing they're good for.
- ksynwa 10mo ago> systemic issues Like sanctions?
- grunder_advice 10mo agoFrom what I understand the root cause is racism and classism. Venezuela was in a deep economic crisis for a very long time before Chavez was elected. The then ruling elite were pretty happy living in a bubble, extracting oil, selling to the west, embezzling the proceeds and ignoring most of the population. The reason I say, the root cause is racism and classism, is because they totally underestimated the power of the people to overthrow their corrupt regime.
- nusl 10mo agoTrump has been begging for a peace prize, got his FIFA pretend-prize, and immediately threatens war on a country over pretense after illegally killing their citizens over dubious claims. They've been pressuring Ukraine into handing over valuable resources, and now they're going for a country over Oil. Okay, enjoy your peace prize Mr. Global FIFA Peace Man.
- armchairhacker 10mo agoWhat do Venezuelans think about the US aggression? Both in numbers and what are some common opinions?
- FullMetalBitch 10mo agoI only know expats and they can't wait to see Maduro gone.
- master-lincoln 10mo agoAll wealthy?
- smeeger 10mo agoevery day i talk to many Venezuelans who are currently living there and also living here working low level jobs… they all say they want him gone. they seem to think that it will solve their problems with running water, poverty and so on. i always silently think that it wont
- bsjaux628 10mo agoYes, my Uber eats delivery guy drives a bike on the rain just for fun. He doesn't want to get his Ferrari wet
- hopelite 10mo agoIgnoring the perfect example of selection bias you have there, people have no idea just how much the “immigration” and “refugee” thing is a function of conquering their home countries for the empire and installing them as the governors and apparatchiks of the vassalage. It’s one of the reasons why the ruling class of the empire loves immigration, it means those people can be used to conquer their home country. That applies to Ethiopians as much as Chinese and Indians, they are tools. It’s more complicated than that, but that’s the gist; immigrants and refugees are tools, just like how slaves are/were tools to the ruling class for other purposes. Today the ruling class puts their tools through education and gives them resources and opportunities and even funds them to make them heads of “NGOs” above and beyond their own people; so that those immigrants can become agents of the empire’s ruling class, to expand the empire into their home countries. It’s quite an ingenious and diabolical manipulation, but that’s why the ruling class of the empire rules you. Btw, I know this for a fact. I’ve been in the conversations about these kinds of matters. You didn’t think we support immigration out of the goodness of our heart, did you? It’s so easy to manipulate the peasants, especially when they personally have things to gain.
- salomonk_mur 10mo agoH
- salomonk_mur 10mo agoR