Pssssssssssst while we're preoccupied

[malaise]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/23/us-guyana-maritime-patrols-near-venezuela-border-denounced-latest-american

In what critics are calling an intentionally provocative imperialist move targeting Venezuela, the United States and Guyana recently announced they will begin joint maritime patrols ostensibly aimed at fighting drug trafficking along the South American nation's disputed border with Venezuela.

Reuters reported Friday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Guyana on his four-country Latin American tour. Pompeo met with Irfaan Ali, Guyana's conservative new president, in the capital of Georgetown, where they discussed economic, energy, and security cooperation, as well as immigration and the Covid-19 pandemic.


Pompeo—the former director of the CIA—also visited Brazil, Colombia, and Suriname on his three-day trip. All but Suriname border Venezuela, whose increasingly authoritarian leftist government was the target of constant U.S. pressure throughout the tour.

The U.S.-Guyana maritime patrol agreement comes as a international consortium of oil giants—including U.S.-based ExxonMobil and Hess, and China's state-owned CNOOC—increases crude oil production in the massive offshore Stabroek block, much of which is claimed by neighboring Venezuela.