RE:RE:RE:WarNo nothing will curtail him. He's looking to create a crisis as an excuse to declare martial law in order to cancel the presidential elections where polls show that Maria Corina Machado would win by 80% to 20% over Maduro. People here see the referendum for what it is. A desperate "Hail Mary" pass.
International pressure is mounting on him to stop frustrating free, fair elections with international observers. The US Senate is drafting a bill that would go after him and his cronies. The bill would freeze assets, have power to issue international arrest warrants etc. Today the International Court of Justice in the Hague headed by a judge named Khan started proceedings on whether to charge Maduro and others for crimes against humanity.
A more concrete, direct and immefiate action also happened today. The US and the EU banned Venezuelan air carrier Avior from their respective air spaces. Tip of the iceberg says the local media. More regime linked companies will see their very solvency threatened. Infighting within the regime is starting to boil over on how best to proceed. Nobody wants to go down on a sinking ship.
Anyway US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken reitersted yesterday that Maduro has until December 1 to release all political prisoners and to allow free, fair elections to proceed or the sanctions get imposed again.
That's a very brief summary of what's happening on the visible surface. But as in all things geopolitical there are a lot of hidden undercurrents driving the surface effects. The local analysts say that what is driving things is that both the Chinese, Europeans, Americans etc desperately need Venezuelan oil to come back online again because they game out the rising instability in the midEast as eventually being a dire threat not only to their economies but also the entire global economy. One local analyst said that if Hamas or other terror groups ever got decent missiles that would evade Israel's Iron Dome then Tel Aviv would be turned into rubble. That day will eventually come unfortunately. Pandora's Box has been opened. Now we have AI designing all kinds of stuff.
Personally I see Trump winning resoundingly in 2024. He wants the US to stop being the world's cop and referee. Look after America First. If people want to kill each other so badly then let them. Create Fortress America and everybody else can go f themselves and kill each other if that's what they want so badly.
But I digress. Canada and Venezuela could easily supply this hemisphere with oil for well over a century. They would become the global swing producers controlling the oil price. If the Chinese want to get into the action then their help would be welcomed I bet. My buddy who owns a drilling company says that the Chinese have developed some pretty hot shyte iron. High tech rigs. Nice he says. Plus they build them quickly. Bring over about 300 of them to Venezuela and drill baby drill. E&P costs are so low here.