Trump is escalating global tensions with reckless rhetoric after claiming that Venezuela is surrounded by the largest armada in South American history, a statement that is factually and legally false but deeply dangerous. Under international law, a naval blockade is considered an act of war, and history shows that claims of encirclement often precede military conflict. Trump’s post goes further by asserting that Venezuelan oil and assets belong to the United States and by suggesting the country has been labeled a terrorist organization, neither of which followed any required legal or diplomatic process. Experts warn this is not policy but provocative language without institutional backing, the kind that fuels instability, panic, and escalation. When a president speaks as if war is already underway, even when it is not, words alone can move the world closer to conflict.
Venezuela nationalized oil fields in 1976, and paid partial compensation over the decades. Yeah, we a war right now over oil company compensation disputes from 1976!!!
AI (always iffy) overview
Who Got What (Examples):
ExxonMobil: Sought billions, ended up with a 2012 ruling for $255 million from an ICC case and a later $1.6 billion ICSID award (later annulled).
ConocoPhillips: Received large awards from World Bank tribunals, totaling billions, though enforcement and payment were challenging.
Total, Chevron, Statoil, BP: Agreed to give PDVSA majority control and remained as minority partners, avoiding full expropriation.
Williams Cos. & Exterran Holdings: Received payments ($420 million) for natural gas assets nationalized in 2009.
Rusoro Mining & Crystallex: Canadian mining firms settled claims for over $1 billion each after arbitration
If President Trump thinks military action the right way to handle a country nationalising its assets, even from ownership by foreign companies (not countries) someone teach him about the Suez Crisis.
The canal was built by the French, but became British controlled. President Nasser's unilateral seizure of it without compensation sparked a needless conflict that really, only Egypt could "win". Both sides were in the wrong, but it should have been solved by diplomacy, not force.
Here though, Venezuela compensated the foreign oil-companies licensed to extract the oil; but the deposits are in that nation's territory and there is nothing illegal in a nation taking its physical assets into its own ownership.
@SatanBurger I don’t think Demented Donnie and Kegsbreath realize that Venezuela is quietly setting the stage for a proxy war. They have semi-secret deals with China, Russia, India, Cuba, Iran, their regional countries and likely Mexico at least.
China has a formidable modern navy (although they don’t have the “blue water” experience of the US or British navies), others have drones & missiles, and their neighbors control the air space. Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz which would disrupt international trading and cause enormous pressure on the US and other countries. Putin and Xi would be “all in” with Venezuela.
Our closest allies are pretty much fed up with tRUMP and while they’d probably side with us if we were attacked, they’d never venture into this mess which tRUMP (and tRUMP alone) provoked.
Demented Donnie kicked this wasp nest needlessly and he better wake up and start backing out of this before the US finds itself alone against a coalition we haven’t faced since WWII!
@SatanBurger It’s really funny (in a sick, incompetent way) how he keeps misusing military terms. He claims to have blockaded Venezuela. A blockade completely surrounds and cuts off all travel across the borders to the country. A blockade is an act of war and his misuse of that term could potentially escalate his growing international unpopularity.
A more correct term would be quarantine.
Demented Donnie still doesn’t know the correct terms for the various types of naval formations which is really embarrassing.
Clearly Demented Donnie and Kegsbreath have not thought this through and aren’t consulting the senior officers.
Congress really, really needs to jump in here and do their job—de-escalate this mess before we end up in a conflict much worse than Iraq that there is absolutely no reason to be instigating. And all predicated on Donnie’s demented lies and petty jealousies…
