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Arguesovereverythin t1_j2as1ca wrote

Can anyone refresh my memory? Why were these sanctions in place? Something about an illegitimate election?

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IBAZERKERI t1_j2awlym wrote

i think it was because they nationalized a shit ton of american companies oil infrastructure? like 20 years ago?

something the usa has generally gotten really pissed off about historically as far as i can remember.

Cuba being another example.

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Marthaver1 t1_j2c3rsk wrote

“Something the USA has generally gotten really pissed off about...”

Correction: Something US oil companies have gotten pissed off by way of their puppets in Capitol Hill.

But hey, it’s not about the oil, it’s about “free & fair democracy in Venezuela!”. Or at least, that’s the same old shit we’ve been fed when US oil companies want “regime” change, human rights and all the jumbo shit. Because nothing screams democracy like attempting to install a lead conspirator (Juan Guaido) to a failed coup d'état (Op. Gideon). That’s why we bent over to the Saudis and Qataris.

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atomic1fire t1_j2byc6k wrote

Venezuala's the result of nationalizing foreign companies, replacing the employees with party loyalists who's only qualification is "They support the man in charge", and then acting pikachu faced when the country has shortages and has sanctions from the US that make it difficult to find trade deals.

Plus treating the oil money like a piggy bank to fund their social programs, and since they clearly are way too smart for the competent naysayers they removed, their management of said social programs is also bungled.

Also the issue where they over relied on oil money and as a result their economy becomes stagnate and they go into debt because their other industries get underdeveloped due to all the oil focus.

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Cicero912 t1_j2fb1tt wrote

Thats every oil country...

The only difference is that America will bend over backwards to satisfy the oil monarchys in the middle east cause they are right wing authoritarians, while if youre left wing they will try to destroy you.

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atomic1fire t1_j2fc9ec wrote

Venezuala is a member of OPEC along with those "right wing authoritarians", so I doubt you're barking up the right tree.

America has no interest in nationalizing the oil infrastructure because we're not idiots.

Once you take over an industry and put party loyalists in charge, you basically remove anyone who has any idea what they're doing.

China had famines.

Venezuala had shortages.

Cuba had shortages.

Russia had shortages.

It's the same cycle of stupidity. Fire all the competent people, put idiots in charge, and ignore the simplest concept of supply and demand in exchange for the whims of some despot idiot who thinks they know better then human nature and the laws of scarcity.

End result is you always have too much of the wrong thing, and not enough of the right thing, and you end with the poor starving far worse then they would in a capitalist country.

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Argikeraunos t1_j2bp4mk wrote

There was an attempted right-wing coup in Venezuela in 2019, supported by the US and some of its allies. The coup failed, and the leader of the coup Juan Guaido, who has attempted multiple failed insurrections and has courted foreign military support to install him, has pretended to be the legitimate president up until about three hours ago. Nevertheless the US applied sanctions to Venezuela in support of Guaido in the hopes it would lead to the collapse of the VZ government, once again inflicting collective punishment on the people of a weaker nation for political and ideological reasons. Economic reality has hit the US, though, and now they need VZ oil on the global market more than they want to topple the government.

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Marthaver1 t1_j2c617t wrote

Fools downvoting you for speaking the truth. Guess the truth is too hard to swallow for some. At least the Bay of Pigs Invasion was far more sophisticated. Operation Gideon’s epic failure was well hidden by the mainstream media, it was a catastrophic embarrassment. And knowing how impulsive and dumb trump was with stupid suggested operations like shooting missiles into Mexico or exchanging Puerto Rico for Greenland, Op. Gideon was definitely within trump’s pathetic alley.

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carlosos t1_j2beecx wrote

They had an election that was fraudulent and countries put sanction on the administration (and country overall) that stole the election. This caused economic issues for Venezuela where lots of people left the country. Recently the current administration showed willingness to work with the opposition that should have really won who also asked to ease the sanctions.

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jschubart t1_j2ctgia wrote

They have had fraudulent elections for the past two decades. Let's not be naive and think fraudulent elections are something we care much about, especially not Trump.

Also, Guaido made himself president. There was no election for the presidency. Guaido was elected president of parliament by the national assembly and then declared Maduro's election illegitimate and assumed the position of acting president. Not exactly democracy there either and was little more than a coup. The dude offered amnesty to all military personnel that helped him unseat Maduro. We immediately recognized Guaido as president despite that being far from clear. We very likely were helping fund some of his efforts.

It is basically a stalemate and there is essentially a truce for the last couple years.

No, the real reason we have bad relations with them is because they have been hostile to oil companies and have cozied up to governments hostile to ours.

The Venezuelan government is garbage and has been since Chávez. But let's not kid ourselves and try to portray our sanctions are coherent considering some of our relations with other shit regimes.

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TheGrandExquisitor t1_j2b8lik wrote

Trump put a bunch on because apparently nobody wanted to invest in Trump Tower Caracas.

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