Hello, I am from overseas. Can someone please explain to me why would they do that? What is the goal, what is the plan, what is the intent? Thanks for any comments, I am utterly confused.
Venezuela has oil. Wants to sell them in Chinese Yuan, because America bad.
America ensures the world's waters stay safe for commerce as long as all countries continue to do business in dollars.
When they don't, America is forced to remind them.
China in the meantime continues to diversify away from oil and doesn't mind taking risks that could cut supply. Venezuela's leadership has, for reasons well understood, fewer options.
America's number one export, as is every global empire's number one export is its currency. It's a gift and a curse.
Saddam's days were numbered when he began selling oil in Euros.
Gaddafi's days were numbered when he tried to sell oil in "gold dinars".
This is nonsense. We would still be going after Venezuela even if they did business in physical dollars the way Iran did for years.
This hasn't been a thing since the 1970s. Oil is priced and settled in multiple currencies today, including out of New York and London. America is a net oil exporter. And global oil trading volumes are insignificant compared with other dollar uses.
There are a lot of stupid reasons we're going to war with Venezuela. None of them have to do with dollar hegemony.
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/ire/focus/ecb.irebox201906...
What part isn't true? I never said most oil isn't traded in dollars. Just that it's priced and traded in currencies other than dollars on commodities desks in the United States.
In 2019, over 60% of all global trade was dollar denominated [1]. (58% today.) That's $27tn of dollar-denominated export invoices. Globally, oil exports are $1.3tn [2].
The petrodollar hypothesis held in the 1970s. It was becoming irrelevant with the 1980s' trade liberalisation. By 2019 [3] it had become totally irrelevant, both as a rational motivation and as a non-conspiratorial geopolitical talking point.
[1] https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/programs/geoeconomics-center...
[2] https://www.worldstopexports.com/worlds-top-oil-exports-coun...
[3] https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/The-US-Just-Became-A-N...
> We want to ensure that the Western Hemisphere remains reasonably stable and well-governed enough to prevent and discourage mass migration to the United States; we want a Hemisphere whose governments cooperate with us against narco-terrorists, cartels, and other transnational criminal organizations; we want a Hemisphere that remains free of hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets, and that supports critical supply chains; and we want to ensure our continued access to key strategic locations. In other words, we will assert and enforce a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine.
We'll never know now will we?
That's the reason you believe the boats weren't carrying drugs?
Accusation: Venezuela is using Nigeria as a means to launder sanctioned oil.
The great powers (China, Russia and America) have each, at this point, explicitly rejected this principle. More broadly, internationa law does contain broad exemptions for piracy.
But if we're using that as a justification, are we admitting the US has turned pirate then?
UNCLOS provides that “all states have universal jurisdiction on the high seas to seize pirate ships and aircraft, or a ship or aircraft taken by piracy and under the control of pirates, and arrest the persons and seize the property on board” [1].
> if we're using that as a justification, are we admitting the US has turned pirate then?
No, because the seizure was not “committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft” [2]. Under UNCLOS states can’t be pirates.
(Again, this is academic. China has been blowing off UNCLOS judgements in the South China Sea for years.)
[1] https://www.un.org/depts/los/piracy/piracy_legal_framework.h...
[2] https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unc...