By Héctor Bernardo on December 27, 2022
In Washington a strenuous effort is being carried out to prevent its “enemies” from being able to produce, export or supply themselves with inputs for energy generation; for this reason, all kinds of illegal and illegitimate actions are carried out, ranging from unilateral sanctions to terrorist attacks.
“Gasoline will not be given to you”, that popular metaphor that, in Argentina, foreshadows the lack of energy – of a person or a group – to carry out a task, has become a precept of the foreign policy of the United States.
The constant demand for sources for the generation of energy to supply its industry and the needs of the daily life of its citizens has led the U.S. government to have a strategic understanding of the geopolitical importance of these resources. For this reason, successive U.S. governments maintain a State policy that could be divided into two main aspects: the best known, the plundering of the natural resources of other countries; the less well known, the violent and constant work to prevent their “enemies” (countries that are not submissively aligned up with their interests) from producing, exporting or supplying themselves with these inputs. The cases of Russia, Venezuela and Cuba are clear examples of this.
The US strategy to promote and sustain the conflict between Ukraine and Russia has been well explained by many analysts. Within this framework, there were overt actions such as the sanctions against EuRoPol GAZ, Gazprom’s parent company, and other veiled ones, as part of the systematic aggression against the export of Russian gas.
Then on September 30, 2022, an explosion occurred in the pipelines of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, through which Russia exports its gas to Germany. Investigations indicate that charges of more than 500 kg of dynamite or trinitrotoluene were used. Taking into account, the depth and places of their installation, the distance between them and their detonation in unison, there are no doubts about the vast capacity, means and resources of those who planned and carried out such an action.
Russian President Vladimir Putin remarked that the attack on Nord Stream was an act of terrorism and, as quoted by the Argentine news agency Télam, the Russian president remarked that “the beneficiaries are clear. Since this incident reinforces the geopolitical importance of the remaining gas systems, the one that passes through the territory of Poland and Ukraine, which Russia built at its own expense. But also to the United States, which can now deliver its energy at high prices.”
Although he is on the opposite side of the conflict, the former Polish Chancellor and current Member of the European Parliament, Radoslaw Sikorski, also had no doubts about who was responsible for the attack. At the time he wrote on his Twitter account: “As we say in Polish, a small thing, but a lot of joy”, then he shared a video published at the beginning of February in which President Joe Biden threatened to put an end to Nord Stream 2. In the video the American president assured: “If Russia invades [Ukraine]… then there will be no more Nord Stream 2.”
“Thank you, USA,” Sikorski tweeted, to which he attached a photo of the aftermath of the explosion.
Already in 2019, the then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, after being asked about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, assured: “Washington opposes the pipeline project, because this pipeline will strengthen the position of Russian advantage and will make other European countries more dependent on Russian supplies”.
A policy repeated in Latin America
Latin America, considered by Washington as its “backyard”, was not left out of this logic of US foreign policy. Venezuela and Cuba had to suffer this same type of aggression.
In Venezuela, after the attempted coup d’état in April 2002 against President Hugo Chávez, in December of the same year the oil coup took place, causing enormous losses to the Venezuelan State and generating shortages and social chaos.
Several researchers point out that since 2006, the United States trained, armed and financed mercenaries who were sent to Venezuela and Cuba with the mission of attacking the electric transmission network sector to cause its collapse.
In 2009, Caracas suffered a power outage that lasted 96 hours and, in 2012, there was an explosion at the Amuay refinery. Independent specialists proved that, in both cases, it was sabotage.
At that time it was also discovered and denounced that Washington’s intelligence services were planning an attack against the Guri hydro-generating facilities, essential for Venezuela’s electricity system.
In September 2021 there was an attack against the Lama sub-station, in Aragua, and in July 2022 another attack managed to put out of operation a power transformer that affected the supply of electricity to the capital.
Although the Cuban government has not publicly denounced it, several sources indicate that the severe energy crisis in the country, as a result of the successive breakdowns of its main generating machines, is also a consequence of this type of aggressions promoted, organized and financed from Washington. To this is added the confession of a person who claimed to have received money to attack electrical towers on the island.
Source: Network in Defense of Humanity translation Resumen Latinoamericano – US