A SOUTH AMERICAN DISRUPTION FRONT: Oil War in South America: Venezuela’s Maduro Threatens Guyana

I wrote this Creators SYndicate column Tuesday afternoon. Since then Maduro has mobilized military forces. In retrospect I should have elaborated on the third sentence in this paragraph:

Britain still supports Guyana. Yes, Britain and NATO are focused on supporting Ukraine. Yes, Chavistas have made verbal common cause with fellow oil producer ayatollah Iran — a rhetorical proxy. Yes, the Biden administration is reprehensibly slow to react to crises — and a reptile like Maduro may see an opportunity.

Maduro is acting as an Iranian proxy of a type — a turmoil proxy. There are also Falklands War echoes.

Various Venezuelan governments have claimed Guyana’s Essequibo region, but Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, got serious about it. In 2010 Chavez was threatening to invade Curacao as well as supporting Colombian rebels. He actually toyed with invading Curacao in 2007. This column from 2018 discusses Chavez’ “Bolivarian state” and the the jaw-dropping exodus of Venezuelan refugees fleeing the Chavistas’ hell.

VERY RELATED: This popped up on a news feed. Venezuela-Guyana tensions soar, US mounts military exercises According to the wire service, the exercises are “joint military flight drills” over Guyana. This report emphasizes Brazil’s tough political response and military deployment.