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Any American correspondent working abroad will tell you: coverage of in-country upheavals are dictated by the nature of the government’s relationship to the United States. If they’re technically allies, protests tend to be portrayed as illegitimate. Hence the dilemma in Colombia, as depicted in this episode of Activism Uncensored.
Colombia for some time now has been considered America’s key strategic ally in South America “think of it as similar to Israel in the Middle East,” says correspondent Maranie R. Staab, above. Colombia is the top recipient in the region of American aid, collecting $800 million in 2020 alone, being central to multiple American objectives, from drug interdiction to opposition to the left-wing government of Nicolas Maduro. The State Department last year issued a fact sheet explaining the relationship:
Monthly Review | Repeated attempts at a coup in Venezuela have failed, an an extraordinary cost (EXCERPT: Extraordinary Threat) monthlyreview.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from monthlyreview.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Venezuela s State Oil Co. Fights $1.9B Bond Order
Law360 (June 22, 2021, 7:13 PM EDT) Venezuela s state-owned oil company told the Second Circuit that holders of $1.9 billion in defaulted bonds do not have a legitimate claim over its asset Citgo Holding, because the underlying deal was an illegal Maduro-orchestrated transaction condemned by the U.S.-recognized opposition government.
According to an ad hoc board of Petróleos de Venezuela SA appointed by Interim President Juan Guaidó, the 2016 bond swap in which the administration of Nicolás Maduro offered PDVSA s foreign crown jewel Citgo as collateral was never authorized by the National Assembly, as required under the Venezuelan Constitution.
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Source: Francisco Rodríguez, “Crude Realities: Understanding Venezuela’s Economic Collapse,” Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights (blog), Washington Office on Latin America, September 20, 2018.
Rodríguez found that oil production in Venezuela followed the same general pattern as in Colombia until Trump’s financial sanctions were imposed. Production levels in both countries basically tracked international oil prices, but after Trump’s sanctions were imposed production levels in both countries diverged drastically: Venezuela’s plummeted while Colombia’s stabilized. Had Venezuela’s production continued to follow the same pattern as before the financial sanctions, its oil revenues would have been drastically higher.