Economist Francisco Rodríguez says no Venezuelan government would enter such a deal unless they were “held at gunpoint.”…

The U.S. has struck a deal to take majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves, nine months after the U.S. military abducted President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in a raid on Caracas and two months after The New York Times revealed that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has become the de facto viceroy of Venezuela, effectively controlling Venezuela’s finances, the distribution of its natural resources and its government. The new oil deal gives the Department of Defense a 35% stake in a joint U.S.-Venezuelan private company that now holds 100-year leases to 17 oil fields. It also gives the U.S. the right to buy some of the oil produced at cost — a major triumph for the Trump administration as the war on Iran depletes the United States’ strategic oil reserves. Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez claims U.S. investment in Venezuela’s oil industry will jumpstart the country’s floundering economy, but critics, including Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez, say the deal is not only “unfavorable to Venezuela” but also appears to violate the Venezuelan Constitution.

  • lmdnw@lemmy.world
    21·
    8 hours ago

    General strikes, protests in the streets and government buildings, recall elections when available, voting for candidates who are anti-imperialism. The protests of the past few decades haven’t accomplished enough because only a very small percentage of Americans actually get out to protest. The problem is one of general apathy from the American electorate.

    • EmmiLime@lemmy.ml
      1·
      2 hours ago

      The protests of the past few decades haven’t accomplished enough because only a very small percentage of Americans actually get out to protest.

      Let me guess, the magical 3,5%?

      • lmdnw@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 hours ago

        I know that the Center for American Progress put out that 3.5% number, but I think it’s too low and basically means that 96.5% either don’t care enough or don’t agree, which I think is the bigger problem.

        The US has fallen into this decline because, in my opinion, too much apathy exists and isn’t appropriately ridiculed. Almost 40% of eligible voters don’t participate and apart from impacts from disenfranchisement, that’s something to call out and ridicule. Of the people who do follow politics, only about 20% have ever attended any sort of protest.