the U.S. just placed a $25 million bounty on Venezuela’s president but...why?

another blatant display of hypocrisy and the lengths the U.S. Empire will go to secure its grip on global power.

Good day, spectators,

And this year’s spectacle is off to a truly absurd start, with the United States Empire blessing us with yet another display of its infinite arrogance.

Honestly, this one is a move straight out of a western: so the U.S. has placed a $25 million bounty on Nicolás Maduro, the sitting president of Venezuela. All this is coming to us, mind you, on the same day that its own new president has been sentenced for 34 felonies. But this bounty made me think: why Maduro, and why now? The answer, as often is the case with the US, lies in oil, power, and hypocrisy.

Venezuela’s struggle.

To understand the U.S.'s obsession with Maduro, we need to look back at the past couple of decades. Long before Maduro came into power, the country was already plagued by economic instability, mostly because of its reliance on oil exports. When global oil prices dropped in the early 2010s, Venezuela’s economy nosedived with it and that exposed years of systemic corruption and mismanagement.

Maduro inherited all of that, but his presidency wasn’t just defined by economic struggles—it was defined by sabotage. After his election in 2013, the U.S. ramped up sanctions against Venezuela, effectively cutting the country off from any global markets. These sanctions completely crippled its oil exports, the lifeblood of its economy, and triggered a far worse humanitarian crisis.

What followed was a standard case of economic warfare. The U.S. blocked access to, quite literally, billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets, restricted trade, and crippled Venezuela’s ability to import essential goods. Then, with a straight face, they pointed to the chaos and declared Maduro unfit to govern—a narrative that conveniently ignores the role of external sabotage. People were hungry, if not starving, in Venezuela, and the U.S. denied their country the ability to make money which could put food in their mouths, isn’t that crazy?

If this tale sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Cuba has endured decades of similar treatment, with the U.S. choking its economy and then blaming the Cuban government for its struggles. Maduro isn’t the first leader to be sabotaged into failure, and he likely won’t be the last if the Empire has its way.

oil and puppets.

The United States doesn’t put a $25 million price tag on someone’s head for no reason. For Venezuela, that reason is oil—and lots of it. With the largest proven oil reserves in the world, Venezuela is a tantalising prize for any empire. But there’s a problem: Nicolás Maduro isn’t playing ball. Unlike the compliant regimes the U.S. prefers to deal with, Maduro has refused to bow to Washington’s demands, maintaining control of Venezuela’s vast oil wealth and keeping it out of the hands of multinational corporations.

Of course, the U.S. couldn’t let that stand. And so, in 2019, they threw their weight behind Juan Guaidó, a relatively unknown politician who suddenly declared himself Venezuela’s interim president. Guaidó was propped up as the face of a new Venezuela, one that would supposedly usher in democracy while, purely coincidentally of course, being much more willing to cooperate with U.S. oil interests. Despite an aggressive media campaign and recognition from dozens of Western countries, Guaidó’s leadership fizzled out. He failed to gain any real support within Venezuela and was eventually ousted by his own party.

This is not a joke, I swear.

Guaidó meeting with a former government of the United States.

The bounty on Nicolás Maduro is just the latest in a long string of attempts to oust him from power. In 2018, Maduro survived an assassination attempt involving drones armed with explosives. While no direct link to the U.S. was proven, the attack bore all the hallmarks of external meddling. Coupled with years of sanctions and destabilisation efforts, the bounty feels like the empire trading covert operations for an open declaration of hostility.

With Guaidó gone and Maduro still in power, the U.S. has reverted to its old imperialist playbook. Whether it’s sanctions, coups, or outright military intervention, the U.S. has a well-documented habit of punishing leaders who refuse to sell out their nations’ resources. We’re seeing this more recently in Greenland and Panama too.

As far as I can tell, Maduro’s crime is not corruption or mismanagement—it’s just defiance. The bounty is a last-ditch desperate attempt to remove a leader who won’t hand over Venezuela’s oil on a silver platter. This is not about justice and democracy at all. (And I will get into that below.) It’s just about reminding the world what happens when a nation stands up to the Empire.

the hypocrisy.

Listen, I know many of the spectacle’s readers don’t need me to spell this out. But I also know there are people still in the process of deprogramming from Western propaganda, and they might not yet grasp the full extent of the U.S.’s hypocrisy.

So, let me lay it out plainly:

If the United States were genuinely concerned about democracy and human rights, Venezuela wouldn’t even make the top ten of their hit list. If it were about promoting democracy or protecting human rights, they’d be placing bounties on the heads of Saudi Arabia’s royal family or Israel’s prime minister.

Saudi Arabia, for example, doesn’t even pretend to be a democracy. It’s an absolute monarchy where dissent is met with torture or worse, and yet it remains one of the U.S.’s closest friends. Why? Because the ‘spice must flow’ and flow it does. Saudis keep the oil flowing with no issues and buy billions in American weapons. In other words, their brutality is fine as long as the Empire benefits.

U.S. President Donald Trump with the King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in Riyadh at a summit in May 2017.

Then of course, there’s Israel, currently orchestrating an open genocide in Palestine. The U.S. not only supports this but actively funds it, sending billions in military aid each year. Don’t need to say much more about that.

So, where does that leave us when talking about Venezuela? Well Maduro’s defiance really exposes the U.S.’s hypocrisy. They call him a dictator while shaking hands with unelected despots. They claim to defend a rules based order while arming regimes that spit in the face if such notions. The bounty on Maduro isn’t about justice, that’s nonsense, they simply want to enforce the Empire’s rule through being bullies.

The family’s all there.

This so-called ‘rules-based order’ the U.S. loves to invoke is nothing more than a tool of convenience. It’s a sham. It is designed to justify their imperial ambitions while masking their blatant double standards. And the bounty on Nicolás Maduro is just the latest proof of its absurdity.

While the U.S. plays world sheriff, it undermines itself at every turn by cosying up to genuinely questionable regimes. A bounty on a sitting president, combined with decades of sanctions and sabotage, shows just how far the U.S. is willing to go to maintain its grip on global resources.

So, here’s the question we should all be asking ourselves and our friends: if the empire can place a bounty on one leader today, who’s next? This is a country that has threatened and sanctioned judges in the International Criminal Court after all.

How long can this crumbling façade of justice and order last before it collapses under the weight of its own hypocrisy?

And with that thought, I will let you go and enjoy your weekend. Please let me know your opinions in the comments.

(As always, thanks for reading and please give this post a ❤️ and restack below.)

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