Trump's Geopolitics

This is very British, and I mean that in a bad way. It's a pivot to crude 19th-century style imperialism as practised by the UK, France and others.

The USA has always had a massive influence in Latin America: from the Contras to the Chile Coup, to the Bay of Pigs, etc. The USA imposed sanctions in regimes it did not like and the IMF has forced privatisations, which have also benefited American companies. None of this was about democracy. It has always been about keeping out 'communism' and, more importantly, having pliant trading partners. Often, it's involved propping up horrendous regimes that enriched a tiny elite and sold the nation's resources to America cheaply.

What Trump is doing sets a new precedent. It's abandoning the pretences of benign neutrality and the tactic of using proxies and directly bombing and invading a country. None of this is about democracy. It's about oil.

I am not a fan of Mafuro, but anyone who knows anything about the country will tell you Venezuela has been in a slow-burning civil war for about two decades. The opposition has frequently used violent means and is linked to Venezuela's pro-American oligarchs.

It's also about intimidating the rest of Latin America and Greenland.

FIFA Peace Prize. Yeah 🤣