By Mohammad Ali Haqshenas
US President Donald Trump has exposed a worldview rooted in colonial entitlement by claiming Venezuela’s oil and other resources as America’s own, says a Venezuelan academic and political commentator.
Speaking to the Press TV website, Guillermo R. Barreto, a professor at the Simon Bolivar University, said Trump's claim on the South American country's rich oil resources reveals his "supremacist, colonialist, and imperialist" agenda.
“Trump explicitly stated his claim to the oil, lands, and resources that according to him belong to the US; this is undoubtedly a reckless declaration that reveals his supremacist, colonialist, and imperialist vision, devoid of any knowledge of history or international law,” he stated.
The academic and analyst said he believes Washington’s bellicose approach in the Caribbean reflects a deeper strategic anxiety.
It is a fact that US hegemony is under threat,” Barreto said, pointing to lost ground in technology, finance, and global markets.
“The US has lost markets in Asia and Africa, and therefore, its security doctrine prioritizes the domination of Latin America (and all their resources), employing the two remaining weapons at its disposal: military power and the entertainment industry,” he added.
At the center of that strategy, he noted, is not just Venezuela itself but its important Global South allies, particularly China.
“The US doesn't just need control of these resources for its own development. It needs to prevent China (and Russia or Iran) from accessing them because, ultimately, the US's biggest war is against China,” Barreto said. “Controlling Venezuela means blocking China's access to the world's largest oil reserves.”
The geopolitical calculations also explain, in his view, Washington’s hostility toward the Bolivarian Revolution, now in its third decade....... more below
