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Lilo & Stitch is a box office hit, the Detroit Pistons are good again, and American government officials are talking about “weapons of mass destruction” and regime change in an oil-rich nation — no, you haven’t time-travelled to the early 2000’s, this is all happening right now.
Driving the news: The Trump administration is ramping up the pressure on Venezuela and may be inching closer to a full-blown war to topple its government, led by authoritarian president Nicolás Maduro.
For the past several months, the U.S. has been launching deadly airstrikes — more than 20, now — against boats in the Caribbean it alleges are smuggling drugs from Venezuela, killing more than 80 people.
This week, U.S. forces seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast carrying the country’s crude oil for overseas export, and sanctioned six other cargo ships.
On Thursday, the U.S. added new sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector — the country’s most important industry, by far — and Maduro’s family. Trump said the U.S. would start striking targets “on land pretty soon”.
Why it’s happening: The Trump administration has blamed Venezuela — and Maduro, specifically — for the flow of drugs and migrants into the U.S., while Venezuela says the U.S. is after its natural resources, including the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves.
Why it matters: As violence in the region escalates, the risk of a war breaking out between the U.S. and Venezuela is growing.
So far, the conflict has only intensified, and it’s not clear what sort of off-ramp the U.S. is looking for, if any.
The Canadian connection: Venezuela and Canada both produce heavy crude oil, which U.S. refineries are tooled to process. If Venezuelan oil exports ramp up — because, say, a government friendly to Washington were to take power — demand for Canadian oil would suffer.—TS