The IPS Venezuela Reader

IPS Reports

• What You Need to Know About the U.S. Attack on Venezuela | Phyllis Bennis, Khury Petersen-Smith, Lindsay Koshgarian, and Omar Ocampo
  Was it about oil? Will it stop the flow of drugs? What did it cost? IPS experts answer these questions and more.

Articles by IPS experts

• The Cost of Just One Aircraft in the Venezuela Invasion: $91,330 Per Hour | Lindsay Kosgharian
  The MAGA regime has cut critical services for families while spending untold millions on imperialist wars.
• Big Oil’s Big Win in Venezuela | Basav Sen
  Big Oil is a winner in the U.S. attack on Venezuela, even if they don’t extract a drop of oil from there.
• Congress Must Stop This War and Help Working Americans Instead | Lindsay Koshgarian
  Health costs are doubling, food prices are rising, and the safety net is shredded. So why are we launching an illegal war to help oil companies? 
• Venezuela and the Trump Administration’s “Hemisphere First” Agenda | Omar Ocampo
  Oil is part of the reason Trump invaded Venezuela. But the bigger reason is classic imperial power politics.
• The Power Play President | John Feffer
  For Trump, peace negotiations and military operations are simply different means to the same end: total control.
• VIDEO: The Worst Drug Traffickers Are Often U.S. Allies | Sanho Tree
  Sanho Tree tells the BBC the “hypocrisy is quite striking” when it comes to Trump’s claims about Venezuela.

Interviews with IPS experts

• Filter highlighted IPS experts’ analysis of key implications of the U.S. attack on Venezuela and quoted Sanho Tree on how greed over Venezuela oil — not drug trafficking — played a major role in fueling the U.S. attack on Venezuela.
• Basav Sen spoke to USA Today about why the U.S., the world’s top oil producer, wants Venezuelan oil too.
• Phyllis Bennis joined an Arab Center of Washington, D.C. panel on the Venezuela strikes.
• “U.S. violations of other nations’ sovereignty are not only profoundly dangerous and unjust for people abroad, but they also fail to benefit citizens within the United States. On the contrary, such actions contribute to the erosion of democratic norms and rights at home,” Khury Petersen-Smith told Prism.

• WPFW interviewed Phyllis Bennis about the attack on Venezuela and its broader implications.

• Khury Petersen-Smith spoke with Law & Disorder/KPFA about U.S. strikes on Venezuela and the implications for Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East.

• Basav Sen talked to The Verge about the role of oil in the invasion of Venezuela. Already, he says, financial speculators “are making money right now based on this invasion.”