Venezuelan Presidential Election Another Battlefield in Growing China-Russia vs. U.S. War

The most blatant, indisputable "official enemy" propaganda has of late been produced by The New York Times with the reporting of William Neuman and Nicholas Casey on the presidential election in Venezuela.

For a sample, read the first paragraph of "Venezuela Election Won by Maduro Amid Widespread Disillusionment":

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Nicolás Maduro won a second term as president of Venezuela, a country in the midst of a historic economic collapse marked by soaring prices, widespread hunger, rampant crime, a failing health system and a large-scale exodus of its citizens.

From there the story goes to read like an opposition brief  in favor of a re-vote, which is what distant runner-up Henri Falcon is demanding:

Reuters lists the vote total:

The election board said Maduro took 5.8 million votes, versus 1.8 million for his chief challenger Henri Falcon, a former governor who broke with the boycott to stand. 

Turnout at the election was 46 percent, it said, way down from the 80 percent at the last presidential vote in 2013.

No doubt turnout was down significantly because Venezuelans know that a Maduro victory will precipitate more Yankee economic warfare against the country. According to Neuman and Casey,

The United States — which condemned the election as unfair and anti-democratic even before it happened — has threatened stricter sanctions. Also likely to increase pressure on Mr. Maduro’s government even before his next term begins: He has largely been cut off from international financing, and the government-run oil industry, which provides virtually all of the country’s hard currency, is in free fall, with plummeting production.

What Casey and Neuman don't mention, but the Reuters report does, is that the economic warfare is already so extreme that a U.S. oil company, ConocoPhillips, has seized significant property of the Venezuelan national oil company, PDVSA:

Furthermore, Venezuela’s multiple creditors are considering accelerating claims on unpaid foreign debt, while oil major ConocoPhillips has been taking aggressive action to seize state oil company PDVSA’s assets over a 2007 nationalization.

I was surprised to read of this last week in a business page feature written by Times energy specialist Clifford Krause, "Sanctions on Iran and Venezuela May Empower U.S. Rivals":

ConocoPhillips has seized cargoes at a refinery it leases in Curaçao and various storage facilities in Aruba, Bonaire and St. Eustatius to enforce a $2 billion arbitration ruling against the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, known as Pdvsa.

The facilities were used to blend Venezuelan heavy crude with lighter oils, and the port in Curaçao was able to dock the largest tankers that typically send crude and other fuels across the Pacific.

“This will clearly limit Venezuela’s ability to export profitably to Asia,” said Francisco J. Monaldi, a Venezuelan oil expert at Rice University. “And if the supplies from Venezuela cannot arrive in Asia, China and India are less likely to go along with sanctions against Iran.”

Venezuela may hope for a reversal of the liens, either by international courts or by island governments concerned about protecting local jobs and fuel supplies. But with the country increasingly behind in its debt payments since last year, mining and oil companies are likely to make further attempts to seize Pdvsa assets in the coming months. That would limit Asian imports of Venezuelan oil even more.

More trouble may be coming for Venezuela in the next few days.

Trump administration officials have warned that they may impose additional sanctions on Venezuelan oil after the election on Sunday. Washington could restrict insurance on Venezuelan oil shipments or ban American sales of light oil used to blend with Venezuela’s heavy oil to prepare it for export. A ban on imports of Venezuelan oil altogether is less likely, although possible.

The point of the Krauss piece is that the Trump administration is biting off more than it can chew by sanctioning (with the ultimate intention of regime change) Iran and Venezuela simultaneously. China relies on both countries for its crude oil; hence, China will find a way around the sanctions:

In Venezuela, Beijing in recent years has tried to gain a stable energy source with more than $50 billion in loans in exchange for oil shipments, but lately has shied away from deepening its relationship. More recently, Russia has poured money into the tottering government and helped it create a cryptocurrency as it picks up oil fields on the cheap.

A collapse of the Venezuelan government might jeopardize payment of money owed to China and the future of oil-field acquisitions by Rosneft, the Russian oil company.

As Reuters says,

Though increasingly shunned in the West, Maduro can at least count on the support of major powers China and Russia, who have provided billions of dollars’ funding in recent years. 

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China believed the Venezuelan government and people could handle their own affairs and that everyone should respect the choice of the Venezuelan people.

China and Russia, at least for the time being, will stand fast with Venezuela.