Print this page Venezuela Intervention and the Geopolitics of Oil

The USA has been heavily involved in oil imperialism often in partnership with regime change since 1919. In recent years the USA has been returning to a unilateralist foreign policy and global intimidation.

DELIVERY MODE

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COURSE OUTLINE

• Iran (1953): The USA and Britain staged a coup (operation AJAX) against the democratically elected PM Mosaddegh in order to secure the oil reserves and install the Shah of Iran as an American client state 1953-1979. Democracy was wiped out in Iran
• The Suez crisis (1956): Involved USA, Israel, Britain and France reacting to Egyptian President Nasser’s nationalisation of the Canal in 1956.
• OPEC (1960): Established by Iran, Kuwait, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iraq in Baghdad to control and stabilize oil prices in competition with the large American and European oil companies.
• The Iraq invasion of Kuwait (1990-1991): The dispute over the control of valuable oil wells triggered the international conflict, the First Gulf War under President H Bush
• Invasion of Iraq (2003-2011): President Bush, PMs John Howard and Tony Blair formed the Coalition of the Willing to secure alleged weapons of mass destruction (a false assertion at the time) and remove President Saddam Hussein from power. He was executed in 2006 . Securing the Iraqi oil fields was a strategic priority.
• Libyan Civil War (2011): The civil war was exploited by western powers and the USA to remove Gaddafi from office and kill him.
• Venezuela in crisis (2026): USA has instituted yet another regime change with direct links to the global politics of oil. President Maduro has been kidnapped and arrested for “narco terrorism”. He has already faced a court in NY and has entered a plea of not guilty on all charges.