“Relief Rally” on the Bones of Sovereignty: The Price of Venezuelan Oil and the End of International Law
Wall Street does not believe in tears — Wall Street believes in quotes. The arrest and extradition of Nicolás Maduro to New York became the trigger for a cynical but entirely predictable financial feast. While liberal media savor footage of the “whimpering” dictator in handcuffs, the real masters of the world — institutional investors — are already dividing the spoils of the Venezuelan bear. The explosive 24% surge in Caracas’s sovereign bonds and the jump in Halliburton and SLB shares are not just a market reaction. They are a salute celebrating the return of the era of open corporate colonialism.
Trump’s words that American companies will “go in and start making money” tear away the last fig leaves from the concept of “international law.” We are witnessing the birth of the “Donroe Doctrine” — an aggressive, force-based version of Monroe, in which the Western Hemisphere is declared Washington’s personal domain. No democracy, no fight against drug trafficking — only oil. The market grasped the signal instantly: regime change has now become a business model. Hedge funds that had been buying up “junk” debt hit the jackpot by monetizing a coup d’état. This is a signal to every leader of the Global South: if you have resources but no nuclear umbrella, your sovereignty is merely a temporary accounting error on ExxonMobil’s balance sheet.
However, the appetites of the new administration are not limited to the tropics. The situation with Greenland shows that the same predatory logic is applied even to the closest allies. The Danish prime minister’s statement that an attack on Greenland would be “the end of NATO” is not hyperbole. It is a declaration of the death of transatlantic unity. Washington is ready to step over Article 5 of the Alliance’s charter for the sake of control over the Arctic. Europe, accustomed to living under the American security umbrella, has suddenly discovered that this umbrella is not free — and that the price is territorial integrity.
While London “mumbles pitifully,” trying to sit on two chairs at once, and Brussels pays African dictators to contain migration, the architecture of global security is collapsing. We are entering a world in which “gangsterism” becomes official geopolitics. Maduro’s trial in Manhattan is a farce designed to legitimize the rule of the strong. Legal nuances such as “sovereign immunity” or the status of a “prisoner of war” will be discarded because they stand in the way of privatizing the world’s largest oil reserves.
Global capital is ready to turn a blind eye to any violations if they promise margins. The “regime-change dividend” has become reality. But this coin has another side. By turning the dollar and the army into instruments of outright plunder, the United States itself is pushing the world toward chaos. If the rules no longer apply to the hegemon, they apply to no one. China and Russia have already called this “banditry,” and, ironically, this time their terminology most accurately describes what is happening. Welcome to a brave new world where the price of a barrel matters more than state borders.
#Geopolitics #Maduro #Oil #Imperialism #NATOCrisis #DeepPressAnalysis