The United States has launched a full-frontal attack not only against Venezuela, but against all of Latin America — and even against the basic concept of sovereignty.
Donald Trump ordered the US military on January 3 to bomb Venezuela, to kidnap its constitutional President Nicolás Maduro, and to send him to New York to be subjected to a show trial on politically motivated charges.
This brazen assault on Venezuela is part of a larger US imperialist offensive in Latin America as a whole. The Trump administration has openly invoked the 202-year-old colonial Monroe Doctrine, and has updated it for the 21st century, proudly dubbing it the “Donroe Doctrine”.
By attacking Venezuela, the US empire hopes to accomplish several goals:
- Impose US hegemony in Latin America (from the Monroe Doctrine to the Donroe Doctrine).
- Exploit Venezuela’s natural resources (oil, gas, critical minerals, and rare earth elements), as part of an attempt to build a new supply chain in the western hemisphere.
- Cut off Latin America’s ties with China (as well as with Russia and Iran).
- Threaten other left-wing governments in the region (primarily Cuba and Nicaragua, but also Brazil and Colombia).
- Destroy the project of regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean (in organizations like the ALBA and CELAC).
- Sabotage Global South unity (given Venezuela’s support for Palestine, Iran, African liberation struggles, etc.).
Trump embraces the colonial Monroe Doctrine
The US empire’s broader plan was spelled out clearly in the Trump administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy.
The document showed how the US seeks to forcibly impose its hegemony in the entire western hemisphere. It openly invoked the Monroe Doctrine.
US officials have enthusiastically embraced the colonial doctrine, which dates back to 1823.
Mere hours after the US government attacked Venezuela, an official Trump account on Twitter posted propaganda depicting the US president standing over all of the Americas, from Alaska at the top of North America to Argentina at the bottom of South America, holding a big stick reading “Donroe Doctrine”.
The image was a reference to a Monroe Doctrine political cartoon from 1905. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reposted it on his official government account.
The US empire wants to control Latin America’s natural resources
The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy emphasized that the goal is for US corporations to control all of the western hemisphere’s strategic natural resources, including critical minerals and rare earth elements.
It is by no means a coincidence that Venezuela has the world’s largest reserves of oil. Although today the US is the top oil producer on Earth and a net exporter of oil, it is still heavily reliant on importing heavy crude. Much of that comes from Canada, but Venezuela’s heavy crude is a potential alternative source.
Trump has been explicit about the fact that he wants US corporations to take over Venezuela’s oil industry, so the US can meet its heavy crude needs. (Replacing Canada’s heavy crude exports could also give Washington leverage over Ottawa, at a time when Trump talks about colonizing Canada and making it the “51st state”.)
In a press conference held after he bombed Venezuela, Trump claimed that the US government will “run the country”. He added, “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money”.
“We’re in the oil business”, the US president stressed. “We’re going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground”.
A new US-controlled supply chain for critical minerals, cutting out China
In addition to enormous reserves of oil and natural gas, Venezuela also has significant deposits of gold, critical minerals, and rare earth elements.
The US government has made it clear that it wants to create a new supply chain in the western hemisphere that cuts out China, to prepare for future conflict with Beijing. It hopes it can use Latin America’s critical minerals and rare earths to do so.
This is also a major reason why Trump wants to colonize and pillage Greenland, which has 25 of the 30 materials considered “critical” by the European Union.
In the 2025 National Security Strategy, the Trump administration asserted that US corporations must control Latin America’s “energy infrastructure” and “critical mineral access”. The US government wrote that it is “strengthening critical supply chains in this Hemisphere”, in order to “reduce dependencies” and “detrimental outside influence” — an obvious reference to China.
China dominates the global supply chain for critical minerals. It is not only the Trump administration but also the Joe Biden administration that sought to change that, by creating a new US-controlled supply chain.
More sober officials in the Trump administration officials have recognized that most manufacturing is not actually coming back to the US (where the number of manufacturing jobs has been steadily falling for decades, even under Trump), so they admitted in the National Security Strategy that they want to “near-shore manufacturing” to Latin America. US corporations would like to exploit low-paid Latin American workers to make their products, cutting out China.
This is also why a new US-dominated supply chain in the western hemisphere is wanted: not only because the US military-industrial complex needs to remove China from the supply chain for the weapons that it is making to prepare for a potential future war with China; but also because the US seeks to economically decouple from China, and thinks Latin America can help it do that.
Latin America’s strategic infrastructure
Moreover, the US empire wants to control all of the strategic infrastructure in Latin America.
The 2025 National Security Strategy said Washington will “identify strategic points and resources in the Western Hemisphere”, adding, “The U.S. Government will identify strategic acquisition and investment opportunities for American companies in the region”.
The Trump administration is brazenly threatening Latin American countries to force China to sell any investments it has in regional infrastructure projects.
The US government already successfully ordered Panama to pressure the Hong Kong company that owned ports surrounding the Panama Canal, CK Hutchison Holdings, to sell them to Wall Street giant BlackRock.
It is likely that the US will also target Peru’s Port of Chancay, one of the most important ports in the region, which was built by China. Trump’s Latin America advisor, Mauricio Claver-Carone, suggested, “Any product passing through Chancay or any port owned or controlled by China in the region should be subject to a 60% tariff”.
There has even been discussion in Washington of potential measures to force Latin American governments to impose restrictions on Chinese investment in the region.
US intervention in Latin America in the Second Cold War
The 2025 National Security Strategy showed how the Trump administration is obsessed with trying to limit China’s ties with countries in Latin America. This is Cold War Two.
In his first trip abroad as secretary of state, Marco Rubio went to Panama, where he forced the Central American nation to withdraw from China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Trump administration is significantly increasing US pressure on other countries in the region to leave the BRI.
Likewise, Trump blatantly meddled in Honduras’ election in 2025 and backed an electoral coup d’etat. (Trump also pardoned and released from prison one of the world’s worst drug traffickers, the US-backed right-wing former dictator of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández — which illustrated how the Trump administration doesn’t actually care about drug trafficking, but is merely using it as a cynical excuse to attack and destabilize the independent governments in the region.)
The right-wing Trump ally who will now run Honduras on behalf of the US, the oligarch Nasry “Tito” Asfura, has vowed to formally break diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China and recognize Taiwan separatists.
The US also wants to use Honduras as a base of operations for attacks on the Sandinista government in neighboring Nicaragua.
After bombing and occupying Venezuela, Trump and Marco Rubio hope to wage similar imperialist regime-change wars on Cuba and Nicaragua. Rubio has dedicated his entire career to overthrowing their socialist revolutions. It is a political crusade for him.
In fact, in a press conference that Trump and Rubio gave after bombing Venezuela and kidnapping President Maduro, they openly threatened Cuba and Colombia’s left-wing President Gustavo Petro.
The Trump administration’s goal is simple: to impose right-wing US puppet regimes in every country in Latin America, which will obediently serve the interests of Washington and Wall Street, and sell off their assets to US investors.
Two important elections are coming up in 2026 in countries with left-wing governments: Brazil (in October) and Colombia (in May). It is guaranteed that the Trump administration is going to meddle in those elections to try to put in power subservient right-wing US allies (like Javier Milei in Argentina).
Trump has also threatened to bomb Mexico, which has an independent, non-aligned government led by left-wing President Claudia Sheinbaum (who is one of the most popular leaders on Earth, with a consistent approval rating of around 74%).
Mexico has strongly opposed these US threats, saying they would be an attack on Mexico’s sovereignty. But, as Trump’s war on Venezuela demonstrated, the US empire doesn’t care a bit about sovereignty.
From the Monroe Doctrine to the Donroe Doctrine: the 2025 National Security Strategy
To further understand the US empire’s plan for Latin America, it is important to look at the details of the Trump administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS).
This document identified the western hemisphere as the most important region for US foreign policy. The Trump administration declared that it wants a region that “remains free of hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets, and that supports critical supply chains”, in which the US has “continued access to key strategic locations”.
The NSS stated in no uncertain terms that the “United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere”.
In a press conference that Trump gave a few hours after bombing Venezuela and abducting President Maduro, he echoed this rhetoric. Praising the Monroe Doctrine, Trump said, “We’ve superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the Donroe Doctrine”. He added, “We are reasserting American power in a very powerful way in our home region”.
In the 2025 NSS, the Trump administration pledged to “deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere”. This was an obvious reference to China.
The document made it as clear as day that what Washington seeks is hegemony. It declared (emphasis added):
The United States must be preeminent in the Western Hemisphere as a condition of our security and prosperity—a condition that allows us to assert ourselves confidently where and when we need to in the region. The terms of our alliances, and the terms upon which we provide any kind of aid, must be contingent on winding down adversarial outside influence—from control of military installations, ports, and key infrastructure to the purchase of strategic assets broadly defined.
The Trump administration did not even try to hide the fact that it does not care about the sovereignty of countries in Latin America, and is more than willing to violate it.
“We want other nations to see us as their partner of first choice, and we will (through various means) discourage their collaboration with others”, the NSS said.
The document articulated a cold war-style, Manichean division of the world, writing, “The choice all countries should face is whether they want to live in an American-led world of sovereign countries and free economies or in a parallel one in which they are influenced by countries on the other side of the world”.
The ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine
The 2025 National Security Strategy stated that the US empire “will assert and enforce a ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine”.
This was a reference to the “Roosevelt Corollary” proposed by arch-imperialist Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt in his 1904 State of the Union address, when he stated the following (emphasis added):
Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.
…
Our interests and those of our southern neighbors are in reality identical. They have great natural riches, and if within their borders the reign of law and justice obtains, prosperity is sure to come to them.
…
In asserting the Monroe Doctrine, in taking such steps as we have taken in regard to Cuba, Venezuela, and Panama, and in endeavoring to circumscribe the theater of war in the Far East, and to secure the open door in China, we have acted in our own interest as well as in the interest of humanity at large.
What is striking is how the targets of Teddy Roosevelt’s imperialist aggression in 1904 — China, Venezuela, Cuba, and Panama — are some of the same targets of Washington today.
Trump has brought back Teddy Roosevelt’s imperialist “Big Stick” doctrine and gunboat diplomacy. With its “Trump Corollary”, the US government is stating that it believes it has the right to militarily intervene anywhere in Latin America and the Caribbean, whenever it wants. It is an explicitly imperialist policy that seeks to deny the nations of the region their rights to independence, sovereignty, and self-determination, which are enshrined in international law and the UN Charter.
The Trump administration’s attack on Venezuela is part of a larger imperialist assault on Latin America, and the Global South more generally.
The overt savagery and cruelty of the US empire likewise demonstrate how puerile and ridiculous the “democracy” rhetoric of Western officials and pundits is, when they accuse besieged Global South countries like Venezuela of supposedly being “authoritarian”.
It is impossible for the nations of Latin America (and the Global South as a whole) to practice democracy when the world’s most powerful and deadliest empire is constantly interfering in their elections, attacking them, imposing sanctions on them, and sponsoring coups.
True democracy is impossible while imperialism exists.
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-01-05 at 18:03
IT’S THE OILCONOMY, STUPID!!!
Yes, the US belligerence against Venezuela is multifactorial in origin, but by far the three key, top of the list reasons are OIL, OIL and OIL (which includes natural gas).
If you want to talk about the Dumbroe doctrine – keeping China and Russia out, or other resources such as lithium or gold or aluminium or rare earths, yes those may be part of it, however all other resources can only be physically extracted using oil, so IT ALL GOES BACK TO OIL, OIL, OIL.
Unfortunately the GPE commentators continue to lack a proper understanding of and hence ability to explain the nuanced multiple layers by which the “Oilconomy” operates.
OIL as the fuel for driving a materially productive economy (mining, agriculture, industry, construction, infrastructure maintenance etc).
OIL as the financial basis for the US petrodollar which props up the USD as international reserve currency, without which the entire US financial and economic system will collapse.
OIL scheme scammery as faux collateral (fake hyped up future projected oil production) for obscene Ponzi schemes such as US shale oil and Canadian tar sands. The Venezuelan extra heavy Orinoco tar is being eyed by the US fraudsters as a vehicle to create yet another uneconomic oil Ponzi scheme.
If you want nuanced understanding regarding the above, here it is, and I challenge Ben, Radhika and Michael and any other analysts to find fault with it:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/disli90y1petqsz2g7noh/ITS-THE-OILCONOMY-STUPID-parts1to7.pdf?rlkey=s8ps9s14ym8g9kznc9c4o4jl0&st=ezqpebtz&dl=1
The KEY factor leading to the decline of the USD (which includes international flight away from US Tbills) is the LOSS OF US PETRODOLLAR STATUS.
Think about it. The US petrodollar began in 1974 when Saudi Arabia signed up to that Nixon/Kissinger protection racket scam. By 1977, even the USSR had signed up and it was practically impossible for any petroleum/gas importing country to obtain such critical fuels without having access to US dollars.
In 2025/6, IF oil/gas were still sold exclusively in USD, the primacy of the US dollar (and US treasuries) would still be intact, even if the USA uses it as a financial weapon (the USA had been using the USD as a weapon for DECADES and victim countries could do nothing so long as the US petrodollar was in place).
Even countries that may be able to 100% generate electricity without fossil fuels (renewables, nuclear), are STILL utterly dependent on oil/gas.
Example: Iceland may obtain 100% of its electricity from geothermal and hydro, however it still needs oil powered vessels to import food and run their fishing fleet and construct buildings and maintain infrastructure and export aluminium ingots.
Another example: If NZ eventually obtains 100% of its electricity from renewables, it will still need oil and gas to run its agricultural systems and for fertiliser.
NO COUNTRY CAN OPERATE WITHOUT OIL/GAS, we are ALL still addicted to those fossil fuels today and in certain sectors there is simply no viable replacement eg long distance aviation and the military.
Furthermore many petroleum fractions are vital feedstock for chemical products.
HOWEVER the nail in the coffin for the US petrodollar happened quietly in 2024 when Saudi Arabia refused to renew the US petrodollar agreement. The UAE had begun selling oil to China in RMB even before that. China, the largest oil consumer in the world, now obtains oil from Russia, Iran and Venezuela by trading in their mutual currencies, completely bypassing the USD. Even Nigeria is doing so, which may be the reason behind the US bombing of Nigeria on Xmas day. Soon all the oil imported by China from the Gulf States will take place through CIPS, bypassing not-so-SWIFT and the USD. This trend is accelerating worldwide, soon to be adopted by the majority of countries.
IT’S THE OILCONOMY, STUPID!!!
Note: depletion of oil/gas are intimately related to the depletion of minerals (a topic I will cover in part 8 of my oilconomy essays) which will lead to the total collapse of global industrial civilisation (unless…..to be discussed after part 8).
At long last I have found a couple of geopolitical analysts who show some understanding of the oilconomy. Paul in particular has a background in physics, hence will agree with everything I have written.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9GwFgPwbzM
Key points:
The US “shale revolution” was and is a Ponzi scheme. The industrial workhorse fuels of petroleum, diesel and jet fuel which run the material economy, CANNOT be made from volatile low energy density shale LTO.
US refineries, especially around the southern states, are configured to refine heavy conventional crude oil and cannot process shale LTO, which has had to be exported for processing.
People who claim that Venezuela has the “largest proven oil reserves in the world”, say, 300 billion or whatever gazillion barrels, are merely shooting off at the mouth without actually understanding anything. Theoretically or technically extractable “reserves” spouted by the USGS or IEA or EIA or CERA mean NOTHING. The ONLY thing that matters is economically extractable oil (primarily conventional oil before, at and shortly after peak production) and that has long been depleting in Venezuela. Conventional economic oil in Venezuela (mainly from the Maracaibo region) has long gone past peak production and the last Chinese major oil investment was in Maracaibo CONVENTIONAL oil. The “huge” Venezuelan reserves that pundits refer to are the extra heavy UNCONVENTIONAL high sulphur, heavy metal contaminated oil of the Orinoco basin, MOST OF WHICH MAY BE UNECONOMIC TO EXTRACT.
A minority fraction of Orinoco unconventional oil may be economic to extract, which the Chinese have been studying, but is unlikely to be a significant factor in ultimate Chinese international oil imports (Venezuelan oil exported to China was only about 3% of total Chinese oil imports as of 2025).
The USA, unlike China, has a monstrously fraudulent stockmarket which vacuums up sucker money from dumbasses around the world. The US oil fraudsters, knowing that the Permian shale LTO is now flat and poised for decline, are looking around for the next sucker scheme and Venezuelan unconventional extra heavy crude is at the top of the list.
WAKE UP EVERYBODY!!! IT’S THE OILCONOMY STUPID!!!
Rafael D Acosta
2026-01-07 at 08:45
As a Latin American currently stuck in a semi socialist and mostly authoritarian regime, I just hope half of what is predicted here is true!
Energieerhaltungssatz
2026-01-07 at 14:54
Thank you Ben, it´s a real luxury to be presented with a detailed summary in such a precise, evidence-based way.
The language of trivialization, e.g. “intervention”, its constant repetition and the deliberate omission or ignoring of such detailed information is intended to prevent changes, numb the senses and purge everyone of thoughts of blaming the actual perpetrators.
What they did is wrong, these are blatant crimes and trivialising them with phrases like “business as usual” should be a crime as well. I will never accept such “whitewashing” – sounds racist, but it really fits to racists like Trump and his crusaders.
JonnyJames
2026-01-08 at 12:16
Bomb Nigeria, Yemen, Iran, Venezuela, and next bomb Colombia, Cuba, Greenland etc. Kidnap recognized heads of government, seize and steal Russian and Chinese assets, openly admit the CIA targeted President Vladimir Putin and/or Russian command and control center…This makes the original Monroe Doctrine very mild by comparison. The US is pushing for a reaction and the situation could escalate very quickly.
Since the US does not have the advanced conventional weaponry to intercept or counter a Russian retaliatory attack, the Unhinged Emperor and the kakistocrats in Warshiton would have to escalate to nuclear exchange. Recall Dmitry Medvedev mentioned the “Dead Hand” response https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand
Scott Ritter says that Dead Hand is still operational, so Nuclear First Strike Doctrine is a recipe for total destruction.
Oh wait, that’s just hyperbole, nothing to worry about. The stock market is skyrocketing, the economy is doing great!
And now the masked, domestic federal police openly murder US citizens, and will not be held to account.
As prof. Michael Hudson and others predicted a long time ago, DT will expedite the Decline and Fall of the US Empire. The question is: Will we survive the process?
Energieerhaltungssatz
2026-01-11 at 08:35
Don´t worry, Trump will use Nukes within 24 hours, just like he is still ending the war in Ukraine within 24 hours.
These people are cowards with the mindset of a bully. Unless they are sure that they don´t get hit in return, they will never act directly, so it will only be a “tactical” nuclear or non-nuclear exchange through middlemen in other nations or targets that are far enough away from them, like the former World Trade Center.
With more than 65 000 gun stores in the US, I think US citizens can hold anyone to account.
How did Kwame Ture put it: “In order for non-violence to work, your opponent must have a conscience, …” ICE agents have none.
JonnyJames
2026-01-11 at 11:21
Yeah, but most US folk, just like in the UK and EU, are misinformed and conditioned. They don’t know who their enemy is, so they lost the class war. The armed knuckle-draggers have Stockholm Syndrome, just as the unarmed knuckle-draggers in Europe.
I would not be so confident that ICBMs will never be used: when the US/UK try to assassinate the president of the Russian Federation, and attack Russia’s strategic response centers all bets are off. Thankfully the Russians and Chinese are sane and have acted with extreme restraint. You know, the laws of unintended consequences and all that. But as I said, nothing to worry about, the stock market is skyrocketing
Energieerhaltungssatz
2026-01-12 at 04:37
The armed knuckle-draggers on the other side don´t care if you are “armed” with a protest sign, complaints or if you have Stockholm Syndrome, they shoot, put you in prison or “deport” you anyway. And if there are no consequences, they will do it more openly and aggressively, just like the Nazis in Nazi-Germany. Then people can continue their peaceful protests, during which they appeal to their opponent’s conscience from concentration camps or as slaves without any rights for 24 Trump hours.
I did not say that ICBMs will “never be used”, as you can read in my second paragraph, only that the targets won´t be the biggest profiteers from armed conflicts and the Dollar-scheme / Crypto-scheme in or outside the USA. Investigations or enforcement actions (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)) are paused for 180 Trump days. The dissolved National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) no longer stands in the way of the new “crypto capital of the planet”. Instead of “victimising” poor fraudsters, “investigators” have to focus on the “right” drug cartels and terrorist groups, not those which Ben mentioned starting from 25:35.
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-01-09 at 21:29
I asked duckduck go this question:
Explain how Orinoco extra heavy crude is extracted
Answer:
Overview of Orinoco Extra Heavy Crude Extraction:
The Orinoco Belt in Venezuela contains vast reserves of extra heavy crude oil, which is dense and viscous. Extracting this type of oil is more complex than conventional crude due to its physical properties.
Extraction Techniques
1. Steam Injection
Purpose: Reduces the viscosity of the heavy crude oil.
Process: Steam is injected into the oil reservoir, heating the oil and making it easier to flow.
Temperature: Typically operates at temperatures between 280°C and 315°C.
2. Blending with Lighter Crude
Purpose: Improves the flow characteristics of extra heavy crude.
Process: The heavy crude is mixed with lighter hydrocarbons to create a more transportable product.
Importance: This blending is essential for making the oil marketable.
3. Downhole Upgrading
Purpose: Enhances the quality of the crude oil directly in the reservoir.
Process: Involves adding hydrogen donors and catalysts to the crude oil under high temperature and pressure conditions.
Benefits: Increases API gravity (a measure of oil density), reduces sulfur content, and decreases asphaltene levels.
Challenges in Extraction
1. Technical Difficulties
Viscosity: The high viscosity of extra heavy crude makes it difficult to pump.
Infrastructure: Requires specialized facilities for upgrading and refining.
2. Economic Viability
Cost: The extraction and upgrading processes are expensive and require high oil prices to be economically feasible.
Investment: Continuous investment in technology and infrastructure is necessary to maintain production levels.
3. Environmental and Operational Risks
Maintenance: Aging infrastructure and the need for constant maintenance can lead to production interruptions.
Environmental Concerns: The extraction process can have significant environmental impacts, necessitating careful management.
Conclusion
Extracting extra heavy crude from the Orinoco Belt involves advanced techniques like steam injection and downhole upgrading, which are essential to overcome the challenges posed by the oil’s density and viscosity. Despite its vast reserves, the economic and technical hurdles make extraction a complex endeavor.
Sources
oilprice.com
Al Jazeera
That answer did not include how such extra heavy crude is transported and refined to remove the large amount of contaminants
Q What contaminants are in Orinoco extra heavy crude
A: Orinoco extra heavy crude, primarily extracted from the Orinoco Belt in Venezuela, is known for its high density and viscosity. It contains several contaminants that can affect its processing and compatibility with refineries. The main contaminants include:
1. Sulfur
Orinoco crude typically has a high sulfur content, which can be as much as up to 5%. This makes it a sour crude oil, influencing its market value and refining requirements.
2. Metals
Nickel and Vanadium are commonly found in heavy crudes like Orinoco. These metals can lead to fouling in refinery equipment and require special processing techniques.
3. Asphaltenes
Asphaltenes are heavy molecular compounds that contribute to the crude’s viscosity. They can precipitate during storage and transport, complicating the handling of the crude.
4. Water
Water content can be significant in extra heavy crudes, often exceeding 10%. This presence affects the oil’s density and must be removed during processing.
5. Solids
Sediment and other solid particulates can also be present, impacting the oil’s quality and refinery operation.
Understanding these contaminants is crucial for refining and utilizing Orinoco extra heavy crude efficiently. This crude oil generally requires additional processing to mitigate the impacts of these contaminants on its handling and refining.
The above answer omitted salt, which also has to be removed due to the corrosive effect on pipes and tankers.
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-01-09 at 21:40
If ALL the Venezuelan oil currently exported to China was completely stopped today (and forever), it would have NO impact on China.
Zero, Zilch, Nada, Nothing,No effect, F*ck all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bZQ_6l6wzc
Energieerhaltungssatz
2026-01-11 at 08:24
Seriously, why do some people always have to care about humans, crimes or demand consequences for crimes (e.g. 18 U.S.C. § 1201), it´s so annoying. Can´t they just watch football or something and don´t interfere with parasitic, unethical “business” practices?!
By the way, I am sure Javier Milei is a drug trafficker as well. He is part of the notorious “Sunny Chainsaw Cartel”. He is not a legitimate “democratic president”. It´s a matter of “national security”. Chinese, Russian, Brazilian, etc. Special Forces have to “intervene” and “capture” him, drag him in front of their national “courts”, put him in their national prisons and “seize” everything he owns. Of course he will receive a fair and just trial with an evidence-based investigation, just like Maduro. Argentina will then be “run” by “legitimate” president that will help China, Russia, Brazil, etc. to get “their” resources back.
The same can be applied to all the drug traffickers which Ben mentioned starting from 25:35.
I think my neighbour is a drug trafficker as well, I guess I have to alert my “Homeland Security” and give the order to “capture” him and “seize” all his belongings. They are mine and I want them back.
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-01-10 at 16:35
Very pleased to note that Pepe Escobar has forensically examined the many complixities (including technical extraction details) of Venezuelan oil in this UNMISSABLE INTERVIEW.
https://podbay.fm/p/judging-freedom/e/1767990600
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFhrrHTmmwg
There is a reason many consider Pepe the greatest international investigative journalist in the world.
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-01-11 at 22:06
The US buggery of Venezuela turned out to self buggery of the US by the US.
Trump offered Venezuelan oil to the US oil company majors, which declared Venezuelan oil was “Un-Investible”.
The US incursion into Venezuela was not so much about oil, oil, oil as it was about the IDEA of oil, oil, oil, which turned out to be delusional.
Oil as a fuel to run industrial society? Only works if the EROEI is high enough, which is NOT the case for unconventional Orinoco extra heavy crude.
Oil as a means to restore the petrodollar? Even if Trump could get Venezuela to sell all it’s oil exclusively in USD (not gonna happen) this will have negligible effect of restoring the US petrodollar in world oil trade.
Oil as a means of establishing a new Ponzi scheme similar to the US shale fraud? Not if the US oil companies are unwilling to participate.
The whole cockamamie scheme was concocted by MORONS (mainly Elbridge Colby and Narco Rubio) who believed the oil industry hype / bullshit that Venezuela had 300+ billion of oil reserves ready for the taking, without actually understanding the tarry dirty nature of that oil or how dfficult it is to extract.
If only they had read my booklet explaining
“It’s the oilconomy stupid!!!” it would have saved them a lot of trouble…
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/disli90y1petqsz2g7noh/ITS-THE-OILCONOMY-STUPID-parts1to7.pdf?rlkey=s8ps9s14ym8g9kznc9c4o4jl0&st=ezqpebtz&dl=1
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-01-11 at 22:29
So why did China invest in Venezuela?
Because of Socialist Solidarity, being brothers in the Bolivaran revolution.
Viva Venezuela Libre!!!
The United Snakes of America has tried to swallow a porcupine too painful to ingest and will choke on its own greed and stupidity.
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-01-12 at 13:34
Pepe Escobar forensically examined the many complexities (including technical extraction details) of Venezuelan oil in this UNMISSABLE INTERVIEW.
https://podbay.fm/p/judging-freedom/e/1767990600
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFhrrHTmmwg
There is a reason many consider Pepe the greatest international investigative journalist in the world.
Eric Arthur Blair
2026-01-12 at 18:31
Good to see that Ben Norton has done some research into the physical nature of Venezuela’s oil reserves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbpdfPK8jVE
and instead of simply repeating the idiot mantra “Venezuela has the biggest proven oil reserves in the world” brainlessly spewed out by the LEMSO (Lying Establishment Media Sewer Outlets), Ben stated that most Venezuelan oil today requires imported diluent for extraction and pipeline transport.
Nevertheless there is still a long way to go for GPE to report petroleum matters properly.
Most important is to use PROPER TERMINOLOGY as specifically and precisely defined by the doyens of petroleum geophysics, namely M King Hubbert, Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrère, honest unprostituted SCIENTISTS.
Why? Because using Orwellian doublethink neo-definitions that have been pretzelised by the oil majors and oil PROPAGANDISTS (bullshit terminology and false conflations by the EIA and IEA and especially CERA) simply serve to confuse and promote LIES which then convince sucker investors to part with their money in bullshit oily ventures.
One of the biggest lies is conflating UNCONVENTIONAL shale LTO (also gas condensates* etc) with CONVENTIONAL crude oil output, lumping them together on oil output graphs, which I have explained is a BULLSHIT, in my booklet here:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/disli90y1petqsz2g7noh/ITS-THE-OILCONOMY-STUPID-parts1to7.pdf?rlkey=s8ps9s14ym8g9kznc9c4o4jl0&st=ezqpebtz&dl=1
*gas condensates are now re-branded by the propagandists as natural gas “LIQUIDS”, which is BULLSHIT because they are in fact GASES at STP. May as well describe IRON as a liquid, because it a liquid at 2000 deg Celsius. Such bullshit.
Other conflations are also highly problematic, eg describing Orinoco oil as “heavy crude”.
This confuses people into thinking Orinoco oil is the same as the heavy crude that flows out of conventional oil wells in, say Russia or Saudi Arabia.
IT IS NOT.
The proper term for Orinoco basin oil is UNCONVENTIONAL EXTRA-HEAVY crude, which does NOT flow out of wells and through pipes of its own accord.
This is essential to differentiate it from CONVENTIONAL heavy crude which DOES flow out of wells and through pipes of its own accord without needing steam injection or diluent.
The two have VERY VERY VERY different EROEI implications, which thus have HUGE economic and financial implications, which Ben also needs to research and report properly.
Other idiots keep calling shale oil “light sweet crude” because of the Goebbel-esque EIA, IEA and CERA deceitful conflations.
BULLSHIT.
Shale oil is volatile UNCONVENTIONAL LIGHT TIGHT OIL which CANNOT be fractionated into the workhorse fuels of industry and agriculture, diesel and jet fuel.
CONVENTIONAL light sweet crude however is FAR MORE VALUABLE than LTO because the forner CAN AND IS fractionated into the workhorse fuels of industry and agriculture, diesel and jet fuel.
Unless people use the proper terminologies, they will continue to be mindless brain hosts of the oil parasite propagandists who want to keep all of you ignorant and hoodwinked and invested in their SCAMS.
WAKE UP EVERYBODY, IT’S THE OILCONOMY STUPID!!!