One question worth considering is how U.S. leverage over Rodriguez will increase or decrease over time. Does she simply have to “weather the storm” so to speak until Trump fixates on the next shiny object, or will pressure mount to show tangible concessions to the U.S.
The big question is whether the U.S. is about to ask for something Delcy can't credibly deliver. Right now the focus seems to be on oil, and that's a place where Venezuela can play ball, since it helps the regime financially even if it means they have to cut off their old clients like China and bend the knee a bit. If the U.S. chooses to push for elections or a military presence in country then I think things start getting rough.
The announced imposition of a scheme similar to the Iraq "oil for food" UN program in the years of Koffi Annan, with Trump keeping the naval blockade and "taking the oil" and managing how the money from its sale is spent, is comparable to the US taking over the customs of Latin American countries in the early XXth century. Full neocolonialism.
One question worth considering is how U.S. leverage over Rodriguez will increase or decrease over time. Does she simply have to “weather the storm” so to speak until Trump fixates on the next shiny object, or will pressure mount to show tangible concessions to the U.S.
The big question is whether the U.S. is about to ask for something Delcy can't credibly deliver. Right now the focus seems to be on oil, and that's a place where Venezuela can play ball, since it helps the regime financially even if it means they have to cut off their old clients like China and bend the knee a bit. If the U.S. chooses to push for elections or a military presence in country then I think things start getting rough.
The announced imposition of a scheme similar to the Iraq "oil for food" UN program in the years of Koffi Annan, with Trump keeping the naval blockade and "taking the oil" and managing how the money from its sale is spent, is comparable to the US taking over the customs of Latin American countries in the early XXth century. Full neocolonialism.