US takeover of oil-rich Venezuela reflects race for hard power: Uday Kotak

New Delhi, Jan 4 (IANS) Kotak Mahindra Bank founder Uday Kotak said on Sunday that the US attack on Venezuela and the capture of the oil-rich country’s President Nicholas Maduro reflects the “race for hard power” between nations in today’s world.

Kotak highlighted the fact that Venezuela is a country with the “largest oil reserves on earth” and hinted that the US operation in the South American country was linked to this fact.

“The United States takes control over Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves on earth. As I said in my year-end musings, this is a world of hard power, and the race between nations is on,” he wrote on X.

The veteran banker had pointed out in his year-end views that the world has become less tolerant of alternative points of view and has become more transient and transactional in relationships, with the dominance of hard power over soft power. He highlighted that the race between countries is getting more intense and less mindful of consequences.

President Donald Trump announced, at a press conference after the capture of Maduro, that the US would run Venezuela and American oil companies would invest billions of dollars to produce more oil in the Latin American country.

“We’re going to have our very large U.S. oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” he said.

Trump also noted that Venezuela had earlier grabbed the oil assets of US oil companies, which would now be recovered. He was referring to the nationalisation of the oilfields discovered in Venezuela by US oil giants such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, among others, about 20 years ago, by then-President Hugo Chavez.

The US will “run” Venezuela until a “safe, proper and judicious transition” can be ensured, Trump said after US strikes.

Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured and flown out of Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, on a US helicopter the wee hours on Saturday and taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima at an unknown location in the Caribbean Sea.

They were then flown to the US Naval Base in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay before being transferred to another plane and landing in New York state. Finally, the couple was taken on a helicopter to New York City’s Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where they will face charges for alleged drug trafficking.

Meanwhile, Venezuela has announced a state of national emergency and denounced the “military aggression”, with the country’s Vice President saying Maduro is its only leader.

sps/vd