When I was a young boy, we believed that what the world needs now is "love, sweet love" because, if we're being honest, that's really the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs under Presidentish Joe Biden is just one more war, this one much closer to home than Ukraine or the Gaza Strip.
I know that was a weird intro for a serious topic but I'm trying to break just one more bit of threatening news as gently as I can.
In this week's little-noted news of great importance, the fraternal socialist brotherhood government of Venezuela will hold a referendum on Sunday officially annexing the border region of tiny neighboring Guyana — a border region encompassing two-thirds of tiny neighboring Guyana. Whoever told you socialists aren't greedy was lying. And a socialist. But I repeat myself.
Anyway, Nicolás Maduro's United Socialist Party government authorized the referendum back in October and has been using "leaflets, reggaeton, videos, and other content" to stir up nationalist fury over lands Venezuela has long claimed but never bothered to fight for.
Perhaps until now.
There are clear signs that #Venezuela is contemplating the annexation of Essequibo, encompassing two-thirds of #Guyana.
— Jack Straw (@JackStr42679640) November 28, 2023
Caracas is gearing up for a referendum scheduled for December 3 and is making military preparations. The #Brazilian army is on high alert. pic.twitter.com/1WBXi8A3w7
Who had "Venezuela and Brazil Fighting It Out Over Guyana" on their 2024 Global Doom Edition™ Bingo card?
International organizations have recognized Guyana's existing border since 1899. Caracas has been content until now to leave well enough alone. So why is Maduro suddenly getting frisky?
Oil. Lots and lots of oil.
Discoveries over the last decade put Guyana's reserves at 11 billion barrels, on par with other mid-tier producers like Norway, Brazil, and Algeria — not bad for a country of fewer than 800,000 people. Imagine a poor family of four suddenly inheriting a large bank, and you'll get an idea of the windfall coming Guyana's way.
"But wait a minute," I can hear you ask, "doesn't Venezuela have more oil than that? Like, a lot more?"
Indeed. Venezuela's proven reserves are 308 billion barrels — the largest in the world and 28 times the size of Guyana's comparatively puny stash. Venezuela invading Guyana for the oil would be like Canada organizing an invasion of Vermont to steal their snow.
But socialists have run Venezuela for the last 20 years or so, and you know what that means: it doesn't matter how much oil is under the ground because they've run the domestic oil industry into the ground. Oil production in the world's most oil-rich country has been in decline since 2012, following years of official neglect.
After socialists are done eating their own country's seed corn, it's almost inevitable that they begin to covet their neighbor's seed corn. Pity poor Guyana's sudden windfall.
There might, however, be one more reason why Maduro has chosen now to move his country to a war footing.
The Biden Administration began lifting sanctions on Venezuela last year, just like it lifted sanctions on Hamas's sponsor, Iran, two years before Hamas launched its terror invasion of southern Israel last month.
I see a pattern developing here, and I bet you do, too.
Future historians may posit that mean tweets and world peace went hand in hand, but my hopes of living long enough to see that happen grow dimmer with every war that begins on Joe Biden's watch.
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