701–710 of 1001 posts
If you think this is primarily about drugs and authoritarianism, don't overlook this one important dimension: the country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world is...Venezuela. [0] https://www.baidarcenter.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/8...
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Nicolás Maduro was indicted for various crimes in 2020. I have a feeling the "possession of a machinegun" charge will be dropped, but the US does have a long track record of saying drug activity affects the US enough that it can arrest and prosecute almost anybody.
The invasion of Ukraine, on the other hand, is -- I believe -- a regular military exercise. Putin has claimed that he wants to achieve some unusual goals ("denazify the Ukraine special forces"), but even those goals aren't really law enforcement.
Maduro is a dictator and a murderer but I'm sure most people should now be uncomfortable with the way this was handled. Its undoubtedly the whole region will be better off without its hold and no there won't be regime remaining because Maduro doesn't have popular support it requires to do so. I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do or if it will have negative implications in the future. I didn't liked when Russia…
Any predictive model I would construct about geopolitics does include international agreements such as treaties and laws.
I challenge anyone to build a predictive model that ignores these factors. I’ll make this bet: any such model you come up with could be improved by including notions of international agreements and laws.
If USA can attack Venezuela for oil, why other countries, like France, couldn't do the same to Qatar or Koweit for example? France has more needs for oil that USA.
It's also not difficult to see the broader strategy: every US adversary (China, Russia, Iran) has been taking a piece of Venezuela over the past several months. They were already "conquered". This could also give the US an upper hand in ending the war in Ukraine as it further weakens Russia as it loses access to cheap oil.
If you think this is primarily about drugs and authoritarianism, don't overlook this one important dimension: the country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world is...Venezuela. [0] https://www.baidarcenter.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/8...
A lot of Venezuelans are happy about it. Maduro is not good for Venezuela. The US should not be the decider of who stays in power on another country. The president should not have the power to apprehend a countries president IN THEIR COUNTRY without a process thats more than just "I really want it". The US is giving another clear message that it does not care about global order, just global control. We're back in the…
Claim: according to any sensible definition of international law, this action was illegal. See [1] for example. Would anyone care to offer a genuinely held counter argument? Preferably based on legal expertise. [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/03/is-there-any-l...
Two wrongs don’t make a right. Regardless of your opinion on Maduro, you can still acknowledge that the head of a sovereign state being captured in an unannounced/unnamed military operation by a superpower is wrong from a principled standpoint, and that it’s destabilising a country with 30+ million people if not the entire region.