03/01/2026
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Dzimbabwe πΏπΌ
Letβs stop pretending this is about narcotics, democracy, or saving anyoneβs soul. Strip away the rhetoric and what youβre left with is oil, thick, strategic, irresistible oil.
Donald Trumpβs declaration that the United States will now βrunβ Venezuela after capturing Maduro is not just diplomatic theatre; it is raw, old-school power politics. The kind that international law textbooks warn about, but history keeps repeating anyway. Call it trusteeship, call it stabilisation, call it a transition, empires have always been creative with language. Colonies rarely are.
The message from Washington is blunt: American dominance will not be questioned, especially where resources deemed βvitalβ are concerned. When the US Defence Secretary openly says they went in to get βtheirβ oil, the mask slips completely. No pretense of humanitarian corridors, no talk of multilateral consensus. Just ownership, asserted, not negotiated.
Trumpβs own words read like a throwback to the early 20th century: American companies, American money, American muscle. Fix the infrastructure, sell the oil to the world, and remind everyone who built it first. In his telling, Venezuelaβs greatest crime wasnβt socialism β it was taking control of its own resources.
Some are cheering. They always do in the early days. But Libya should sit uncomfortably in the background of this celebration. That intervention was also sold as necessary, temporary, and corrective. Today, Libya is fragmented, militarised, and effectively auctioned to competing external interests. Oil flows, but the state does not.
So the uncomfortable question hangs in the air: whoβs next?
Nigeria should be watching closely. Recent US strikes allegedly targeting ISIS-linked positions raise eyebrows not because terrorism isnβt real, it is, but because counterterrorism has become a remarkably flexible justification. Nigeria, like Venezuela, sits on oil. History tells us that coincidence is rarely innocent.
China has called the seizure of Venezuelan ships what it looks like to much of the Global South: piracy dressed in policy. But outrage without leverage is just noise. The United Nations? Toothless, as usual, when a veto-wielding power decides the rules donβt apply today.
This is not a collapse of the international order. Itβs a reminder of how it actually works.
Oil talks. Power listens. The rest of us are expected to understand, quietly.
