Posted on 11/16/2018 4:49:36 PM PST by Kaslin
The idea of the United States directly intervening in Venezuela via military force has been off the table from the beginning. (The Trump administration did send someone to take a meeting with some coup plotters at one point, but nothing came of it.) But might there be some other way we could help knock their dictator Nicolas Maduro off his perch and give the people of that nation an opening to take back their government?
Maybe. Hitting their oil sales market through sanctions would be ineffective for two reasons. First, too many other nations would refuse to participate, particularly Russia and China. And second, their oil industry has pretty much imploded anyway. But one thing Maduro has a lot of (and is relying on heavily) is gold. Or perhaps we should say “had a lot of.” The Trump administration has basically shut off the supply of gold to Maduro by freezing his assets in the Bank of London. (Washington Post)
Socialist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro loves his country’s gold so much that he has waved bars of it around during rallies.The Trump administration has taken notice and has tightened sanctions that effectively seal almost 16 tons of Venezuelan gold held by the Bank of England.
Although oil is seen as his government’s lifeline, Venezuela’s gold deposits are playing an unexpected role in helping Mr. Maduro cope with a cash crisis at a moment when U.S. sanctions have essentially blocked Caracas‘ ability to borrow funds from international markets.
Trump’s executive orders also bar American interests from engaging in any illicit sales of Venezuelan gold. This is expected to be a crippling maneuver because, with their oil industry on the skids and their own currency being worth less than toilet paper, gold sales have been Maduro’s primary means of getting his hands on U.S. dollars or other viable currency. And without hard cash to keep his own illicit operations running, Maduro may find his hold on power slipping away.
Maduro isn’t popular with his own people at this point and hordes of refugees have been fleeing the country, threatening the stability of the entire region. If the tyrant isn’t able to keep paying his military and his network of political operatives around the country, he could very well find himself on the losing end of an internal coup. Unfortunately, that would probably toss the country into even more chaos for a few years to come, but with people starving in the streets and lacking basic necessities like running water and medical supplies, how much worse could it really get?
He’d better do it before the Rats introduce the Maduro Protection Act.
Air drop weapons and Special Forces there
Stay the hell out of it. The sh*t is going to hit the fan soon enough and its going to be ugly. If we get involved we will wind up owning that mess.
“Hitting their oil sales market through sanctions would be ineffective for two reasons. First, too many other nations would refuse to participate, particularly Russia and China. And second, their oil industry has pretty much imploded anyway.”
Or, perhaps, the fact that the U.S. is now producing copious amounts of oil and gas (and coal) has something to do with the recent implosion of the price of oil worldwide. More supply = lower prices. Ironically, this means much less* money for suppliers. (Oil from some of Alberta’s oil sands now costs more to extract, process, and ship, than it’s worth.) That’s got to be hurting Venezuela more. And Iran. And Russia. It’s like OPEC in reverse. No sanctions required.
* Price inelasticity, and all that.
yea they will be at our borders like the alamo soon
The brits probably don’t have the gold.
Trust our bank with your 550 million dollars worth of gold so we can steal it.
Theft by rationalization.
Excellent point, because I don’t doubt that they would do it.
“Stay the hell out of it. The sh*t is going to hit the fan soon enough and its going to be ugly. If we get involved we will wind up owning that mess.”
Exactly!
Any time Venezuela comes up someone needs to remind President Trump “if we break it, we bought it”.
Maduro is going down, just a matter of time.
Let the Venezuelan people clean up their own mess. They started it with Chavez and continued with Maduro. They broke it, they bought it.
That link actually is to the Washington Times, not the Post.
Yes, Jeff Flake will certainly demand it.
Not if our involvement is strictly to freeze their assets. I am guessing Great Britain is involved too, as I don’t see how Trump could have their assets frozen if they are in English Banks, which is where the Washington Times article says they’re located.
Government 101.
Has to be passed by senate and signed by trump before becoming law.
I would suggest an immediate rescue mission headed by newly-elected Congresscritter Occasional-Cortex to straighten things out down there in Venezuela.
Didn’t President Trump make the threat of sending U.S. troops into Venezuela?
VZ and Cuba are behind much of the “migrant” mess. They both make a lot of money on it. Get rid of Maduro and bring VZ back to being the prosperous, modern country it once was before the Marxists got into power (elected the first time, expelled and then reinstated by Bush, who didn’t let the Venezuelans shoot Chavez at the airport after his coup attempt or even take him out and quietly drop him off at wave number 2 billion in the Caribbean).
And don’t forget: Cuba is not our friend and there’s no reason to let up on the sanctions, since Cuba is actively undermining both us and Mexico through its drug running and people smuggling activities. That’s how it makes its money, and what keeps its cute old cars running is oil from VZ.
Getting rid of one or both of these dictatorships will bring a lot of peace to Latin America in general and reduce “migration” dramatically.
Cool, let’s destabilize another country in Latin America so the Democrats can take in millions of more refugees.
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