There’s a lot of chatter rocketing around social media and on the cable news networks today about the House Intelligence Committee making Congress “aware” of an “imminent national security threat.” I won’t highlight any of the speculation, with this exception, which would be notable and newsworthy without today’s enigmatic announcement from Capitol Hill:
Between the Gaza war, the Ukraine war, and the worry about whether China might decide to exploit our weakness and seize Taiwan by force, who needs another war? President Biden might be about to get one anyway.
The media is barely noticing that Venezuela is massing troops on its border with Guyana, and is threatening to attack because it wants to seize control of large newfound oil reserves in Guyana. Why would Venezuela, which boasts one of the world’s largest oil reserves, need to pirate its neighbor’s oil? If you suggest “socialism,” you get an A for the day. Recall the old joke about how if Communists took over the Middle East before long there would be a shortage of sand? That’s what’s happened to Venezuela’s oil production under the thuggish socialists who took over the country and have run it into the ground. As the New York Times reports:
The state-owned oil company has struggled to maintain minimal production for export to other countries, as well as domestic consumption. . . widespread fuel shortages in the country with the world’s largest proven oil reserves mean virtually no one in this region has cooking gas at home.
No wonder Venezuela is eyeing its neighbor’s resources greedily, as socialist kleptocrats always do.
I have not seen a single mention of this story from the network news. I can’t find anything about it in the New York Times. The Wall Street Journal is about the only major media outlet reporting on this:
Venezuela is backing up its threats to annex part of Guyana and secure access to some of the world’s largest oil finds in more than a decade by moving light tanks, missile-equipped patrol boats and armored carriers to the two countries’ border in what is quickly turning into a new security challenge for the Biden administration. . .
Since late last year, the Venezuelan government, which has an army of up to 150,000 active soldiers and modern armaments provided by its ally Russia, has ratcheted up claims to the Essequibo, a mostly jungle-covered region that makes up two-thirds of Guyana.
The deployment and increasingly bellicose language from Caracas has come as Guyana emerges as one of the world’s hottest energy frontiers following offshore oil discoveries by an Exxon-Mobil-led consortium. The former British colony, population 800,000, has a defense force of only 3,000 service members, pushing the government to work more closely with the U.S. to enhance its defensive capabilities.
I’m sure Blinken and Sullivan are totally on top of this.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.