With US sanctions in place on the Venezuelan oil industry, global oil prices are set to rise once again, which may have major geopolitical and geo-economic consequences.
While the willingness of the Maduro regime to silence the opposition is cause for concern, far more worrying is the prospect of the new Constituent Assembly rewriting the Constitution to eliminate the last vestiges of democratic checks and balances.
The United States, once the dominant influence over the armed forces of the region, is now in danger of losing that position to China and has already lost it in countries like Bolivia and Venezuela.
The country is witnessing protests which are the biggest in over a decade and will only worsen unless a political accommodation is arrived at soon. The efficacy of multilateral institutions like the UNASUR, not subservient to US interests, is also on test.
Chavez’s significance lies in his attempts to liberalise the international monetary system with regard to credit support for poverty alleviation schemes in Latin America outside the ambit of the IMF by setting up the Caracas-based “Bank of the South”, which was lauded by eminent economists like Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
US-Venezuela Stand-off: Impact on Global Oil Prices
With US sanctions in place on the Venezuelan oil industry, global oil prices are set to rise once again, which may have major geopolitical and geo-economic consequences.