Trump's Thirst For Venezuela's Black Gold
The petroleum politics of the Maduro capture
In July 1914, engineers for the Caribbean Petroleum Company opened Venezuela’s first commercial oil well in the field of Zumaque on the eastern shore of Lake Maracaibo. As thick black petroleum gushed out, the local town was named Mene Grande, meaning “big oil” using a mix of indigenous and Spanish words.
Within decades, the tropical South American country, of sugar haciendas and fine rum, was the third biggest petroleum producer on the planet and then found to have the biggest proven reserves. Riches from this black gold are both a blessing and a curse for the Venezuelan people, as the Chavista regime and Donald Trump’s maneuvers after his military intervention show.
Following the…
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