On Jan. 3rd, the United States launched operation “Absolute Resolve” on Venezuela, leading to the bombing of the Venezuelan port known as the La Guaira Port. During this bombing, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by U.S. operatives.
What was the motive behind the Venezuelan Strikes?
With Donald Trump as president, it has been previously established that he has fully adopted an “America First” mentality and rose into power with the backing of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) campaign.
Since his election into presidency, Trump has built a repertoire of imperialistic motivations ranging from tariffs to assert an economical dominance over the Eastern Hemisphere, and consistent mentions of acquiring Canada (Trump’s Maralago conference) and Greenland (Trump’s Davos conference) for the purpose of national security, but many critics claim that an alternative motive is for the resources in which each of the respective territories have.
And so, with Trump’s operation in Venezuela, it seems to be a transparent addition to his portfolio of imperialism. However, Trump’s official reasoning for capturing Maduro and his wife was for drug trafficking and “narco-terrorism,” and goes alongside a previously established operation Southern Spear, which is his ongoing progressive plan to fight the trafficking of drugs into the United States. However, he also went on to live during a conference addressing his plans with Venezeula since Maduro has been relinquished from his office.
What are the effects over the Venezuelan bombings?
Whilst there is no immediate effect from Trump’s acquisition of Venezuela, his plans to overhaul Venezuela has many economists seemingly not as eager as one might think this acquisition.
Whilst the access to Venezuela offers more oil, which in fact has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, one main concern has been the large amount of investment which would be needed from the U.S. in order to build Venezuela’s oil industry into something worthwhile. The funding to build the oil industry would only add to the U.S.’s debt which has already increased over 2 trillion dollars since Trump’s election.
However, after some considerable development in the Venezuelan oil industry, it is also said that it would prop up the value of the American dollar.
How is America responding? How is the World responding?
Multiple nations and those with high standing have expressed their thoughts on the U.S. strikes on Venezuela, with a wide range of reactions being shown.
Many (like the British and Spain Prime Ministers alongside the UN General Secretary) are condemning Trump’s actions for violating international law set by the United Nations (UN) which states that, according to the UN Charter Article 2(4), “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
While other nations (like Argentine and Ecuador’s Presidents) are supportive of Maduro’s removal and wish to see the Venezuelan presidency transferred smoothly and democratically by the wishes of the Venezuelan people.
These trends of reactions are the same domestically with Democrats condemning the strikes as they violate international law, whilst Republicans celebrate the successful operation and Maduro’s removal.
How will this affect Hamilton, if at all?
And so how will this affect Hamilton in any way? Well in short, the drastic effects aren’t likely to happen anytime, however it is important to stay vigilant and aware of these situations as more arise since Venezuela may very well not be the last operation that Trump orders.
Any economical effects shouldn’t be felt instantly as all change takes time for their effects to start noticing. Unfortunately, gas prices won’t likely be noticeably cheaper anytime soon as we might all be wishing, but assuming things go peacefully and that future presidencies make an effort to develop Venezuela’s oil industry, then perhaps that might just be a future we will see.
Disclaimer
As a disclaimer, I am just a student and I’m not an expert over any of the topics discussed. I researched the credibility of all of my sources beforehand to try and give the most accurate information regarding topics discussed in this article however I am liable to getting information wrong.
