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Even as Western government officials and much of the mainstream media were repeating the usual propaganda statements that get trotted (‘Well done for getting rid of a narco-terrorist-dictator for the good of the Venezuelan people’, respecting international law and upholding the global rules-based-order, defending democracy and human rights, etc.), President Trump was stating over and over what the invasion was really about.
“It’s all about the oil, stupid” Mehdi Hasan wrote on the zeteo.com platform. Here, a January 6, 2026 Democracy Now interview with Mehdi Hasan:
“Trump has spent the last three days nonstop telling us it’s about the oil. So, you have all these people on the right and in the center saying, “The sophisticated analysis is it’s not about the oil. That’s a conspiracy theory.” And then Donald Trump comes out, throws them all under the bus, says, “No, it’s about the oil.” He just can’t stop talking about the oil. Every time he’s asked about anything, he says, “Well, let’s talk about oil.””
David D’Amato, like Mehdi Hasan and many other voices rarely if ever featured in the mainstream news, cuts through the propaganda in a CounterPunch article (Naked Imperialism in Venezuela):
“[Trump’s] crude rhetoric, with its open acknowledgement of Venezuela’s oil riches, merely removes the polite, decorous language we’ve come to expect from our political figureheads. The U.S. government is not pursuing a new logic or discarding old values. It is reinstating our political-economic system’s commitment to imperialism and extraction, only without any pretense to humanitarian motivations or democracy-building.”
Here also a Facebook post by Laura Carlsen:
“[…] As a political analyst, I am at a loss for words. As an activist, I am struggling to shed familiar frameworks for action and build new non-violent strategies in a world where a handful of powerful white men impose their "might makes right" prerogative, obliterating "right" completely. As a feminist, I am appalled at the hypermasculinity that disdains all expressions of life that do not submit to the power and the will of men with weapons. As a Latin American and a dissident, I am a target. As a US citizen, I am ashamed. As a human being, I am heartbroken. Now we must seek out the compassionate among us, who reject the death-dealers and want a different world for ourselves and their children. And stop this insanity.”
“Charade of Western liberal democracy”
Arundhati Roy said, in a recent Democracy Now interview, “the whole charade of Western liberal democracy is as much of a corpse under the rubble as the tens of thousands of Palestinians.” This whole charade is on full display again in response to what the U.S.-backed West is doing to Venezuela.
The 51st State
After the January 3rd invasion and kidnapping, I have read comments from Canada, U.S. and some Latin American-based NGOs and activists expressing confusion or dismay at ‘the lack of courage of the Canadian government to say the right thing’, that ‘Canada is afraid of openly disagreeing with the U.S. even when Canada knows the U.S. is wrong’, and variations of the same.
Canada is not ‘afraid of disagreeing’ with the U.S., or any of Canada’s long-time key Western allies, on just about any “foreign policy” issues. When it comes to global military, economic and political interests (ie, foreign policy issues), Canada’s interests are invariably aligned directly with those of our forever-Western-allies, primarily the U.S., England and France, and from there with other European governments, Israel, Australia and New Zealand.
Like the U.S., Canada was “born” (forcibly created) out of centuries of European imperialism and settler colonialism, genocide, ethnic cleansing and land theft. Since “independence” in 1867 Canada has been joined at the hip ideologically, economically, politically, militarily with “the West”, always prioritizing the U.S., England and France.
Canada is basically a card-holding, first class member of the U.S.-led Western imperialist bloc exerting as much power and control as we can across the planet because it enables “our way of life” and position as a rich, Western country.
With respect to work I have been involved in with in Central America since the mid-1980s, Canada quietly acquiesced to or openly supported illegal U.S.-led military interventions in Guatemala 1954, Nicaragua (1979-1991, 2006 to present), Panama 1989, Haiti 1991 & 2004, and Honduras 2009 & December 2025. This, without mentioning here the horrific levels of U.S.-led, Western support State repression in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua the late 1970s and 1980s.
“The charade”
Each of these U.S.-led interventions and supporting for military regimes and paramilitary groups was legitimized in the name of fighting communism, more recently fighting terrorism and narco-terrorism, and/or defending democracy, “Western values”, the “international rules-based order”, human rights, etc.
The actual interests
In fact all of these interventions were simply to get rid of governments the U.S.-led West doesn’t like, and keep in power or put in back in power governments we do like – governments politically aligned with the U.S.-led West and, most importantly, that ensure full access by Western companies, banks and investors to any land and resources they covet.
Anyone who follows Rights Action’s work in Guatemala and Honduras knows of the courageous work and struggle of community defense organizations we support that are suffering, resisting and denouncing systemic repression and killings, evictions, environmental devastation, criminalizations and lawfare, and exile, related to mainly U.S. and Canadian corporate, banking and investor interests: mining, tourism, for-export food production, maquiladora sweatshops, dams.
Venezuela
In recent history, U.S.-led, Western imperialist aggression against Venezuela began in 1998 with the election of President Hugo Chavez. (See below a list of organizations and news sources that have being working on Venezuela related issues for years). The January 3rd invasion and kidnapping are the culmination, for now, of 28 years of constant economic, ideological (media), political and military aggression. The battle for control of Venezuela, and most pointedly its oil, gas and minerals resources, is not over.
During these 28 years, the government of the 51st State passed from complicit acquiescence to open support for U.S.-led aggression. In August 2017, during Trump 1.0, Canada’s Liberal government formed the so-called Lima Group to increase political pressure on the policies and actions of the Venezuelan government. In September 2017, Canada joined the U.S. in applying illegal economic warfare sanctions against Venezuela. In January 2019, Canada joined the U.S. and other Western nations in the bad Hollywood movie charade of recognizing Juan Guaido as President of Venezuela. Taking power in early 2025, the new “elbows up” Liberal leader of the 51st State nestled up to the Trump 2.0 administration and increased Canada’s illegal sanctions on Venezuela.
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