Venezuela Is Not Being Liberated. It Is Being Repossessed.

The United States does not invade countries because it needs their oil to survive. That is a child’s reading of empire. The United States invades or destabilises countries to control energy flows, market access, pricing power, trade alignment, currency settlement, and geopolitical loyalty. Control is leverage. Leverage is power.

Venezuela sits on the largest proven oil reserves on earth. That alone makes it intolerable as a sovereign actor that chooses its own partners, sells oil outside US oversight, or aligns economically with China and other non-Western powers. It does not matter that Venezuela currently produces less oil than it once did. What matters is who will own the upside when production rebounds, who controls the contracts, who rebuilds the infrastructure, and under whose rules.

And this is where the truth that supporters of this invasion keep dodging comes in.

Venezuela’s real crime was nationalisation.

Not dictatorship. Not corruption. Not incompetence. Nationalisation.

When Venezuela asserted sovereign control over its oil industry in the 1970s, and again tightened state control in the 2000s, it crossed the same red line that Iran crossed in the 1950s, Iraq in the 1970s, and Libya in the 2000s. In every one of those cases, the sequence was identical: assert control over strategic resources, face crippling sanctions and isolation, get demonised as illegitimate, then become a target for regime change.

This is not speculation. It is history.

American oil corporations were deeply embedded in Venezuela’s petroleum sector for decades. Billions were invested, profits extracted, and strategic dependency established. When the Venezuelan state rewrote the rules and asserted dominance over joint ventures, arbitration battles followed. Compensation disputes followed. Sanctions followed. Political warfare followed.

What we are witnessing now is not justice delayed. It is corporate grievance enforced by military power.

Supporters of this operation love to repeat that the United States no longer needs Venezuela’s oil because it produces so much of its own. That argument is deliberately dishonest. Empires do not only seek supply. They seek control of markets, denial of access to rivals, and dominance over future potential. You do not need to drink the water to poison the well for others.

This is why China matters so much in this story.

Venezuela did not just nationalise oil. It diversified its partnerships. It sold crude to China. It borrowed against future production. It aligned economically outside Washington’s permission structure. That was unacceptable. Not because it hurt Americans, but because it weakened American leverage.

And so the familiar playbook unfolded.

Delegitimise the leader.
Brand the government criminal.
Indict. Sanction. Starve.
Turn suffering into political consent.
Strike. Remove. Reorganise.

Then reopen the economy under supervision.

Already, the language has shifted. Talk of rebuilding. Talk of foreign investment. Talk of modern technology. Talk of efficiency. This is the same script used in Iraq after Saddam fell, in Libya after Gaddafi fell, and in Iran after Mossadegh was removed. The population celebrates change. The contracts go elsewhere.

Those cheering in the streets are not thinking about who will control oil licensing tomorrow, what currency oil will be sold in, who will own refineries, who will dictate debt restructuring, or how long foreign supervision will last. They are thinking about survival. That is precisely why their pain is so easily weaponised.

History is ruthless on this point.

Iraqis celebrated the fall of Saddam.
Libyans celebrated the death of Gaddafi.

Neither celebration brought sovereignty, stability, or prosperity. What followed was fragmentation, foreign interference, and permanent vulnerability.

Venezuela is not being saved from tyranny. It is being absorbed into a system where resource sovereignty is conditional and obedience is rewarded with access to markets.

This is not chess. It is conquest dressed up as pragmatism.

And for African states watching closely, the lesson is not subtle.

Your elections will not protect you.
Your crowds will not protect you.
Your opposition will not protect you.

Only control of your resources, strategic alliances, and economic independence offer any real defence.

Because when an empire decides your sovereignty is inconvenient, the cheering always comes first.

And the bill always comes later.

Duruebube Uzii na Abosi
Hon. Chima Nnadi-Oforgu

http://www.oblongmedia.net