TRUMP IGNITES THE FUSE FOR GLOBAL CONFLICT

Ironically, by his kinetic moves, Trump may have caused a sympathy wave for his foe in Venezuela at a period when street unrest was easy to provoke because of the failing economy and falling real incomes of the people.

- M.D. NALAPAT

By launching a full scale assault on Venezuela in the early hours of January 3, US President Donald Trump has lit the fuse for a war he will find difficult to contain.

It was clear from the start of his initially verbal and thereafter kinetic attacks on Venezuela under Madu-ro that what Trump sought was the immense oil and mineral deposits of Venezuela, including plentiful unmined resources of rare earths. As for oil, impartial analysts claim that Venezuela has the largest oil deposits of any single country in the world. President Trump has ensured US weapons manufacturers have profited hugely from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, by getting the Europeans to pay for the supply of US weapons “peacemaker” Trump gives to Ukraine.

Trump claims in an X post that US Marine commandos have captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife and brought them back to the US. Given that Maduro has been a longtime ally of Russia and China, were he and his wife captured by US forces, it would be an intolerable loss of face for CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping and the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. They would need to ensure that the Armed Forces of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela have the means necessary to bring down US military aircraft, and in extreme circumstances attack one of the many US battleships that are plying close to the Venezuelan coast. Were the US Administration to succeed in its mission of securing access to Venezuelan mineral resources through the planned replacement of Maduro, Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, it would be a setback to Chinese and Russian interests throughout South America. Even Mexico will need to condemn the US for its actions, with the spectacle of President Trump trying to mimic President James Monroe well over a century later.