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Leadified on 30 January 2018
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torok said:
Leadified said:

The problem is that the US is actively trying to overthrow the government of Venezuela so they can swoop in an install their own US friendly regime. The state department today has announced that they want to "force democratic change", a massive oxymoron, and has admitted helping to collapse Venezuela's economy. "Getting the government out of the way" is exactly what the US and European countries want right now in order to reap the spoil's of Venezuela's natural resources, they do not care at all for the Venezuelan people.

Blaming the US for the Venezuelan situation is far fetched. Venezuela has a fragile economy, extremely dependent on oil. A sharp price decrease combined with Maduro destroying the small industry of the country resulted in a deep crisis. He also rigged elections and changed the constitution to remain in power. He is simply a corrupt dictator that is getting rich and making all his friends and family rich while starving the country. 

But most issues are more related to Maduro's incompetency. Morales is doing well in Bolivia. But you can argue that he follows a different socialism line, more akin to the Leninist policy on the 1920s that led to the URSS becoming a big power. He basically leaves small and medium business alone to work and operate. The US would also be interested in taking Morales down, since he is also socialist, anti-US, a big Fidel Castro fan and had conflicts with the US when he refused to stop the production of Coca.

While the US sanction make things worse, we are reaching the point where other countries really have to intervene before he starves his population to death. I don't think the US will take any military action, since that would be a diplomatic problem with the rest of Latin America. So yes, things will stay like this for a while. For the US, they do have interest in replacing guys like Morales and Maduro. But their approach to Latin America is way more hands-off since the end of the Cold War, so I think the Venezuelan crisis has nothing to do with the US. Sanctions or not, things would be as bad as they are now.

It's also becoming a huge issue for other Latin countries. Brazil has more than 40,000 refugees in the North region. We can have a major South American migrant crisis.

Bold: I am blaming the US for it's foreign policy, I've touched upon how Venezuela caused it's own economic problems in other posts. I am not sure how you can say that US has nothing to do with Venezuela when the US has become an involved party in the Venezuelan crisis, that just doesn't really make any sense.

Venezuela is a country of geopolitical significance, the country has massive oil and natural gas reserves but has managed not only to remain out of the US sphere of influence but work against it. Meanwhile Russia has been helping to prop up the regime in Venezuela to maintain the balance of power in the region. Military intervention in Venezuela would go poorly and it would probably help to actually unify Venezuela behind Maduro since the US would essentially be proving him right that the US is attempting to directly sink the country. Like Libya and Syria, the best time for intervention is during a civil war where it would help to give some legitimacy to the opposition and provide a casus belli to the international community. For now, the US can use it's economic power to pressure Venezuela, which is exactly what it is doing.