- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 03/Sep 07:24

Real reason Uncle Sam’s military in C’bean waters

To justify US air and naval forces in and around the Southern Caribbean, US propaganda is pendulum-swinging between, on the one hand, the threat of Venezuelan drug cartels to the US and, on the other, Venezuela’s threat to Guyana. No one seriously believes that a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine is part of a strategy to combat “narco-terrorism.” In contrast, it is long established that the US is gunning for regime change in Venezuela, first in relation to Hugo Chavez and now Nicolás Maduro. In his first 24 hours, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Maduro-opposition María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia to express such support. Wayne Kublalsingh, in his August 23 column, correctly assessed how a sound bite link between President Maduro and a transnational crime bogeyman is now being conveniently manufactured. There is a long read from May 2, 2022 published by the US think tank Insight Crime, titled Beyond the Cartel of the Suns, that paints a more complex picture than recent headlines. An August 1, 2025 revisit of this analysis, titled US Sanctions Mischaracterize Venezuela’s Cartel of the Suns, again debunks the narrative that drug smuggling and addiction are an ideological weapon to “poison” and overpower the United States. Which brings us to Guyana. At a press conference on August 14, Rubio said, “The (Nicolas) Maduro regime is not a government, it’s not a legitimate government, we have never recognised them as such. They are a criminal enterprise that basically has taken control of national territory of a country and who, by the way, are also threatening US oil companies that are operating lawfully in Guyana.” This “by the way” is the real story. Rubio has repeatedly threatened Venezuela if it “were to attack Guyana or attack ExxonMobil.” Though it is not the only oil company there, Guyana is ExxonMobil’s as much as the country was dominated by the British sugar giant Bookers in the 19th century. As Ben Jacob put it, in a January 20, 2025 piece in the New Internationalist, “life-and-death decisions for the colony’s population were made from a boardroom in London.” Today, they are made in Houston and Washington. For example, as far back as April 13, 2019, The Grayzone reported that the Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) held a closed-door and unreported meeting with military officials, Trump circles, USAID, and opposition supporters on “Assessing the Use of Military Force in Venezuela.” This was before Maduro escalated the border conflict between Venezuela and Guyana in 2023. Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali also drummed up support for an aggressive US engagement with the region in a discussion with CSIS in July 2022. In a CSIS publication on March 5, 2025, titled “What is the Significance of Venezuela’s Naval Incursion into Guyana,” the analysis is clear. Concerns are over “Guyana’s oil operations” being, “at the mercy of Venezuela’s armed forces,” and the risk of “destabilising the region and imperilling global energy markets — outcomes that Washington is unlikely to look upon positively.” As an aside, in July 2025, Chevron, an oil company with a long relationship with Venezuela, finally acquired Hess, which has a stake in Guyana’s lucrative Stabroek Block. Both ExxonMobil and Chevron fund the CSIS. Gunships are not here to help TT fight crime or help Guyana defend Essequibo for the sake of the Caribbean, as our cherished “zone of peace.” They are here to confirm to us all that US profits are protected by the force of the US military. When the British sent the warship, the HMS Trent, to Guyana in December 2023, it was not accompanied by the same rhetoric as Rubio’s though its presence was received as defence of Guyana and provocation to Venezuela. But, in a post-cold war, neoliberal, fossil-fuel ravenous world, would Guyana matter if there was no black gold? The TT government didn’t need to so plainly parrot US think tank/CIA speak. Nonetheless, it makes sense for us to show political solidarity with Guyana and stave off possible tariffs that could come as punishment for refusing US access to Trinidadian territory. Meanwhile, small, divided and insufficiently focusing our analysis on Big Oil’s long-contemplated strategy, we throw words at each other nationally and regionally. I believe in a strong stance against all militarism and US military penetration of the Caribbean, and that the Yankees should go home, but the realpolitik is that even as we speak out – as we must – both the US and ExxonMobil are Goliaths whose agendas trump our own. The post Real reason Uncle Sam’s military in C’bean waters appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.