The Cynicism Behind US Rapprochement with Venezuela
Posted on March 10, 2022
FILE PHOTO. © AFP / Yuri CORTEZ
Bradley Blankinship
RT
Seeking to isolate Russia over the Ukraine crisis, the US is turning to a Venezuela government it earlier called ‘illegitimate’
Before announcing a ban on Russian energy imports, the US tried to plug this hole by meeting with representatives from a government they don’t even officially recognize, Venezuela.
Senior State Department and White House officials met with President Nicolás Maduro’s government in Caracas over the weekend to discuss resuming oil imports. It was the highest level communication between Venezuela and the US since they severed diplomatic ties in 2019, after the administration of former President Donald Trump recognized opposition figure Juan Guaidó as the country’s “interim president.”
It is certainly a positive thing for both sides that there’s rapprochement. The sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the US and its allies had crippled the economy and spurred runaway inflation until recently. Venezuela had only in the past year managed to post decent economic growth, reined in inflation to the single digits and, in fact, is projected to out-compete peers in the region in the near future.
If economic activity resumes with the US this will likely help Venezuela’s economy even more – and, hopefully, the unfair and illegal sanctions may be dropped too.
But, at the same time, the reason for this rapprochement happening now obviously has to do with the US trying to insulate itself from an oil shortage after it decided to block shipments from Russia. The United States is also trying to isolate Moscow diplomatically, seeing Venezuela as one of Russia’s key partners in the Western Hemisphere. That’s an understandable assessment since Russia has been a lifeline for Venezuela as it grappled with devastating US sanctions.
It’s for this reason that Venezuelan officials would do well to not see this overture as anything other than ‘strictly business’. In its attempt to isolate Russia, Washington is turning to countries around the world trying to “make a case for the West” while also weakening Russian influence, including now in Latin America. It hopes to do this by providing incentives to woo Venezuela (and other Latin American countries) away from Moscow and back into its orbit.
This is not to say that Caracas shouldn’t try to restore diplomatic ties with Washington, increase communication and have fruitful economic relations. But joining in with Washington’s isolation of Russia now would be unwise since it’s clear that if the geopolitical circumstances were slightly different, the US would be continuing its siege of Venezuela and its economy.
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Via https://www.rt.com/news/551561-us-replace-imports-venezuelan-oil/