At the Core of Trump’s Venezuelan Gamble Lies a High-Stakes Triad.
Donald Trump recently claimed that he would “blockade” all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela. He also demanded the return of assets that he claims were confiscated from American oil companies years ago, a claim that provoked a sarcastic response from Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who cited a historical precedent in US-Mexico relations, raising the issue of a US-Mexican territorial dispute.
The dispute dates back to the 1848 Mexican-American War (Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo). Under this treaty, Mexico ceded half of its territory to the United States, including California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.
These conflicts were caused by the annexation of Texas by the United States and the territorial ambitions of the United States to expand westward, which ended with the American victory in the war and the peace treaty, leading to the formation of the present-day southwestern states of the United States.
Referring to Trump’s statement that “Venezuela should return the assets that it took from American oil companies years ago,” the Colombian president raised the issue of: “Give back Texas and California to the original owners of these lands in exchange for oil.”
But beyond Trump’s claims to fight drug trafficking and return the assets of American companies in Venezuela, the vast energy and mineral resources of this Latin American country have become a key factor in geopolitical disputes.
In a report from the Spanish newspaper El País, the first part of which was published on Tuesday, we discussed the issue of oil, gold, and rare earth elements such as coltan and thorium, which play an important role in new technologies, being valuable resources that Trump seems to be targeting with his recent policies under the pretext of fighting drug traffickers.