Venezuela’s decision to give the US face- saving exit may be short-sighted

Crescent International

On November 26 the US regime announced that it was easing some oil sanctions on Venezuela.

It is obvious that easing of sanctions has little to do with western benevolence.

The reality is that western economies are in decline along with their geopolitical influence worldwide.

While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is partly responsible for this state of affairs, the decline of western hegemony is more a self-inflicted wound and has systemic reasons behind it.

The Venezuelan people can celebrate the easing of sanctions as a significant victory over western meddling and regime change agenda.

However, the public framework of how the issue was presented is problematic for both Venezuela and the broader international community.

Publicly, NATO regimes sold their latest political defeat in South America as a compromise to President Nicolas Maduro’s government to restart negotiations with Juan Guaido.

The latter is a Washington proxy who had declared himself “president” of Venezuela without even taking part in presidential elections.

Such niceties, however, are no bar to western proxies when the aim is to undermine a government that wishes to pursue an independent policy.

The latest western political gimmick does not fool informed observers about the fact that the US and its surrogates are now forced to acknowledge defeat in Venezuela.

However, it violates the established international principle of state sovereignty and continues to legitimize external meddling.

One of the key pillars of the international legal and political order is that independent states have full sovereignty within their borders.

Governments of other countries cannot dictate and impose policies based on internal processes that take place within the borders of independent states.

Although it is evident that Washington’s declaration was probably agreed with the Venezuelan government to provide NATO regimes a face-saving excuse for their public retreat, Caracas’ approach to the matter appears short-sighted.

The easing of oil sanctions may help overcome some of the economic problems in Venezuela.

These were created by the US-led economic war to exert pressure on Caracas.

It is the American way to blackmail countries into accepting Washington’s illegitimate demands.

The manner in which this illegitimate US act was “resolved”, however, allows Washington the opportunity to continue to meddle in Venezuela’s internal affairs in the future.

By providing Washington an exit from the dead-end it had run into in its neo-colonial drive in Venezuela, the Maduro government has simply postponed its long-term problems.

Based on the recently released National Security Strategy document, the American ruling clique still harbours the illusion that it can retain global hegemony.

Thus, US meddling is not going to end any time soon.

True, Washington is now significantly limited in achieving its imperialist agenda, as its failures in Afghanistan, Venezuela, Syria, and Iran have demonstrated, the US will continue with its destabilization policies.

By allowing a face-saving retreat, the Venezuelan government has inadvertently normalized Washington’s illegitimate meddling in the internal affairs of independent countries.

This phenomenon could have been significantly reduced if Caracas had rejected any linking between end of oppressive oil sanctions and internal political processes in Venezuela which are none of America’s business.

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