On Saturday, the United States carried out a number of strikes on Venezuela and kidnapped President Maduro and his wife.

They have been detained on a number of charges, including narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.

This is yet another example of distraction from the real goal of the US – oil.

Donald Trump has said that the US will ‘run Venezuela’ while they assemble a supposedly democratic alternative leadership, whilst all the while maintaining that the US will ‘take back’ the country’s oil.

Venezuela has the biggest oil reserves in the world, owning more oil than Saudi Arabia.

This is the real reason why the US has acted in this way. 

Oil companies, many of whom have funneled tens of millions of dollars into Trump’s campaign, wanting to expand their reserves and make more money.

In a world which is refusing to turn to renewable energy, and while we extract more and more of our natural (and limited) resources, full-blown overt imperialism seems to be strengthening. 

This brings up questions of how international law is enforced – although as we know from Palestine, it rarely is. The continued refusal to uphold international law has wide implications for everyone.

The world must come together to reject imperialism, and move towards a brighter future for the many, else risk falling further into chaos yet again.