E-Paper
Oil reserves, drug trafficking and more: Why Venezuela was attacked by the US
Why Venezuela got attacked: After the US military operation, Trump announced that the US is going to ‘run’ Venezuela until a power transition takes place.
The US administration under President Donald Trump on Saturday stunned the world, and Venezuela in particular, after it launched air strikes on the South American country and captured its President, Nicolas Maduro.
Track updates on US action in Venezuela
The leader along with his wife, Cilia Flores, were flown to New York where the two were first taken to the Drug Enforcement Authority (DEA) headquarters and later believed to be transported in a helicopter to the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn.
Amid the developments that shocked the world, one question persists: why did the US attack Venezuela?
Soon after the extraordinary US military operation in Venezuelan capital Caracas, Trump announced that the US is going to “run” Venezuela until a power transition takes place there. “We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition," Trump said during a press briefing.
Venezuela's oil reserves and Maduro and his wife's role in narco-terrorism conspiracy are being seen as top reasons behind US's military action on the Latin American country.
Here are four counts on which Maduro is indicted:
- Narco-terrorism conspiracy
- Cocaine importation conspiracy
- Possession of machine guns and destructive devices
- Conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Narco-terrorism conspiracy charges against Maduro
Maduro stands accused of running a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fuelled by an extensive drug-trafficking operation that flooded the US with thousands of tons of cocaine, AP reported, citing newly unsealed US Justice Department indictment.
The indictment accuses Maduro of working with “some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world” to allow for the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the US. Authorities allege powerful and violent drug-trafficking organizations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang, worked directly with the Venezuelan government and then sent profits to high-ranking officials who helped and protected them in exchange, as per the report.
Also read: Rape convict Dera chief Ram Rahim granted 40-day parole again: Report
“This cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States,” as per the indictment cited in the report.
Venezuela's oil reserves
One of Trump's first remarks about the key geopolitical development with Maduro's ouster was about Venezuela's oil reserves, making it quite obvious why the air raids happened.
"We're going to have our very large United States oil companies... go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure," Trump was quoted as saying by AFP, as he further added, "We'll be selling large amounts of oil."
Also read: ‘Ready for consequences if found guilty’: Accused professor in Dharamshala student death
As US Senator Bernie Sanders slammed Trump for his action sin Venezuela, he should stop “trying to run Venezuela for Big Oil”.
"President Trump does not have the constitutional authority to attack another country. When 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, he should focus on the crises at home, end his illegal military adventurism and stop trying to 'run' Venezuela for Big Oil," Sanders wrote on X.
Similar thought was highlighted by former US vice president Kamala Harris who criticised Trump and said the operation was driven by oil interests and not by concerns over drugs.
"Donald Trump's actions in Venezuela do not make America safer, stronger, or more affordable. That Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator does not change the fact that this action was both unlawful and unwise. We've seen this movie before. Wars for regime change or oil that are sold as strength but turn into chaos, and American families pay the price," she wrote on X.
Harris said the American public did not support such military actions and accused Trump of misleading people.
However, Bloomberg quoted analysts and traders saying it could easily take years for critical infrastructure to be fully repaired and for oil to freely flow out of Venezuela, which currently accounts for less than 1% of global supplies even though it has the world’s largest reserves.
‘Kidnappings, beatings, murders’
The indictment levels allegations of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders against Maduro and his wife, allegedly “against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trafficking operation.”
Maduro's wife is also accused of accepting massive bribes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between “a large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela's National Anti-Drug Office. In a corrupt deal, the drug trafficker then agreed to pay a monthly bribe to the director of the anti-drug office as well as about $100,000 for each cocaine-carrying flight “to ensure the flight's safe passage.” Some of that money then went to Maduro's wife, the AP reported citing the indictment.
With inputs from agencies
