Sanctioning Venezuela Hurts Working Americans Too
A look into the effects of sanctioning Venezuela on Americans.
If I told you that I knew a man who came from a struggling family, worked as a bus driver for most of his life, believes that American COVID vaccines were a disaster,1 thinks the US deep state tried assassinated Donald Trump,2 is fiercely patriotic, and is a devout Christian who upheld Christian values, would you believe that I was talking about President Maduro?
It's no coincidence that upon description, President Maduro sounds like the average MAGA hat-brandishing patriotic American. It is also no coincidence that the ruling class think tanks, such as the Heritage Foundation, villainizes both President Maduro and MAGA America as "communist" threats.3
Beyond superficial characteristics working Americans may share with President Maduro, we should pay more attention to the overall relationship of America to Venezuela. The two countries have similar revolutionary histories and the fate of Venezuela may be tied to the fate of America in more ways than one. Every attack on Venezuela's sovereignty has a direct effect on life in America.
Putting things in context
After the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the Biden administration banned the import of Russian oil, alongside implementing a slew of other sanctions.
In 2022, during the peak of inflation and having barely recovered from COVID, President Biden told Americans that paying more at the pump is a valid price to pay for "standing up to Russia." On numerous occasions, he directly blamed the inflation on Russia, even though it was his own administration’s policies which caused the spike in prices.
An economic advisor to the Democrats told Seattle Times, “there’s broad support for standing up to Putin and putting these sanctions in place, including those that will increase the cost of gas.”
Broad support from whom? Working Americans were overwhelmingly against US involvement and especially against the US implementing international policies which made them suffer at home. No amount of fabricated data could disprove the real sentiment in our communities.
Because oil was cut off from Russia, the US had to look elsewhere. Biden was relying on Saudi Arabia to ramp up oil production to compensate but surprisingly, the opposite happened: the Saudis declared that they’re cutting production by 2 million barrels.
This was a disaster for the Biden administration. As gas prices were surging, their allies decided to further cut the supply.
Many of the OPEC nations were quickly realizing that if the US can try to boss Russia around through a proxy war, even go as far as attacking vital infrastructure such as Nordstream, there is nothing stopping the US from eventually turning on other OPEC nations. In this important moment, Saudi expressed to the US that they have control over their own oil.
Now Biden was really stuck. It seemed that the big OPEC nations we’re not going to play along. Biden had no choice.
Let’s look at the data.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. However, to the detriment of everyone, Venezuela has been under heavy sanctions for decades. The most extreme restrictions were implemented in 2015 and 2019. This led to a crash of crude oil production and an explosion of inflation within Venezuela, which mainstream media blamed on the election of Maduro.
By October 2023, left with no choice, the Biden administration was forced to relieve oil sanctions placed on Venezuela in order to reduce domestic US gas prices by increasing the amount of oil circulated in the market. This had a positive effect for Americans because it resulted in gas prices stabilizing after experiencing massive inflation.
Of course, this also had a positive effect on Venezuela, contributing to a decrease in their own inflation.4
The US media reported the deal as a "negotiation" in which Venezuela promised free and fair elections in exchange for the easing of sanctions. It was clear, however, that the US approached Venezuela out of necessity.
While international corporations may benefit from restricting business with Venezuela and stifling its oil exports, small businesses and domestic US industries suffer as gas prices affects all transportation.
Some argue that the US doesn't need oil because the US has it's own significant domestic production of oil. In fact, the US is the largest producer of oil in the world.
The issue is not that the US needs to steal oil from another country, or control its production directly. Rather, having influence over the international oil supply affects global markets and acts as a tool to leverage against competitors in the energy space. Further, being able to restrict the freedom to do business in another a country serves to stifle that country's economy in order to turn the population against their own leaders.
The elites will do anything to hide the truth.
Early in his term, Trump wanted to meet Maduro and work out a deal. After all, he campaigned on the idea that he would be able to make peace with the “enemies of America” through tough negotiation. Unfortunately, Trump failed on his main campaign promise which was to drain the swamp. John Bolton, Trumps national security advisor, interfered and prevented any talks before they happened.
Most recently, American journalist and political commentator, Jackson Hinkle, had to be placed under protection while he was in Venezuela as an international election observer. US politicians, online trolls, far right influencers, and leftist influencers all united to expose Hinkle’s location and call for attacks against him. The establishment simply cannot let working Americans be exposed to the truth about Venezuela.
Americans deserve to learn the truth about Venezuela for the sake of their own futures.
Like you, American people, we Venezuelans are patriots and we will defend what is ours with all the pieces of our soul. […] We appeal to the good souls of American society, victims of their own rulers, to join us in our call for peace. Let us be one people against warmongering and war.
- President Nicolas Maduro
https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1747284640799588719
https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1818375040506667073
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/12/16133/
Banco Central De Venezuela, accessed on https://tradingeconomics.com/venezuela/inflation-cpi