THE SHOCK DOCTRINE IS IN FULL SWING AND VENEZUELA IS ONE OF THE VICTIMS

Milton Friedman noted some time ago that the only way that his radical neoliberal reforms in their purist form could be implemented in the United States was in a situation of national crisis when out of fear and uncertainty, people would rally behind changes that were, in effect, not in their interests. This thesis played out after September 11, 2001. It gave us the Patriot Act and Guantanamo prison. After 2008, economic crisis got us the consolidation of bank ownership with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. But as Naomi Klein observed, crisis can also have the opposite effect. The stock crash of 1929 and the Great Depression ushered in some of the most successful organizing of the U.S. working class in the nation’s history as well as social reforms which were unprecedented. 

Ruling circles in Washington obviously know these lessons well and they are playing out in real time. Reducing the wages of agricultural immigrants is one example. Trump’s undoing of environmental protection rulings is another. His strategy to overthrow Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro is still another.

According to the thinking behind the latter, now is the moment to take full advantage of the extreme suffering of the Venezuelan people as a result of U.S.-imposed sanctions combined with the coronavirus and the concomitant collapse of oil prices. Now is the time to attack without restraint nor compassion. Practically a day doesn’t go by in which Washington doesn’t tighten measures designed to cripple even further the Venezuelan economy. Two weeks ago in rapid succession the Trump administration announced a $15 million dollar bounty for the capture of Maduro as well as other Venezuelan leaders who are accused without any proof whatsoever of drug trafficking. Then a transition plan to oust Maduro from power. Then the announcement of the largest deployment of navy vessels in three decades to waters near the Venezuelan coast in order to block the alleged flow of drugs from Venezuela. Then Admiral Craig Faller, a top commander of the Southern Command, gives a press conference in which he details the deployment of ships to the Caribbean waters outside Venezuela and in which practically in every sentence Faller accuses Maduro of drug trafficking, again without any proof at all.  In the last day or two, the Trump administration announced that Chevron was now ordered to pull out of Venezuela. Then the Trump administration announced that the Spanish oil company Repsol was abiding by U.S. sanctions and pulling out of Venezuela at the same time that the company was warned not to reconsider its decision.

While most of the rest of the world is focused on meeting the challenge posed by the Coronavirus and international solidarity is manifesting itself in diverse ways, the Trump administration is taking advantage of the suffering world wide as a result of the pandemic in order to put into practice the Shock Doctrine and achieve highly despicable goals.

by Steve Ellner
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/22/business/chevron-venezuela-oil-trump/index.html