Venezuela turns against the petrodollar

The Art of War

Venezuela turns against the petrodollar 


Manlio Dinucci "From this week , the average price of oil in Chinese yuan is fixed", announced on September 15 the Venezuelan Ministry of petróleo.Por first time, the selling price of the Venezuelan oil no longer It sets in dollars. The response from Caracas to sanctions issued by the Trump administration on August 25, tougher than those imposed by the Obama administration in 2014: impidían to Venezuela to receive dollars from oil sales to the United States, more than one million barrels per day, dollars so far used to import consumer goods, such as food and medicine. The sanctions also prevent the marketing of securities issued by PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company.







Washington is twofold: the growing scarcity of essential goods in Venezuela and therefore popular discontent, the internal opposition stands (forged and supported by the US) to overthrow the government of Maduro; ie in bankruptcy, making it impossible to pay the foreign debt, ie to defeat the State which has the largest oil reserves in the world, almost ten times more than the United States. 

Caracas tries to escape the suffocating torment of sanctions, quoting the selling price of oil is not in US dollars, but in Chinese yuan.

The yuan came a year ago in the basket of reserve currencies International Monetary Fund (along with the dollar, euro, yen and pound sterling) and Beijing is about to launch marketing contracts oil in convertible yuan gold. "If new contracts are consolidated, albeit partially, corroding the power of petrodollars, would be a stunning blow to the US economy," said Sole 24 Ore.

When asked by Russia, China and other countries is not only the excessive power of the petrodollar (reserve currency generated by oil sales), but the very hegemony of the dollar. Its value is determined not by the actual economic capacity of the United States, but the fact of representing almost two thirds of global monetary reserves and the currency in which the price of oil, gold and commodities is determined. This allows the Federal Reserve, the central bank (which is a private bank) to print trillions of dollars that the colossal public debt of the United States is funded-about 23 trillion dollars through the purchase of shares and other securities issued by the Treasury. In this context, Venezuela's decision to decouple the dollar price of oil causes a seismic shock,

If the example of Venezuela to expand, if the dollar ceases to be the main currency of trade and currency of international reserves, a large amount of dollars would flood the market, causing the collapse of the value of the US currency. 

This is the real reason the executive mandate of 9 March, 2015 , President Obama declared a "national emergency with respect to the unprecedented threat and national security extraordinary and foreign policy of the United States established by the situation in Venezuela . "

It's the same reason that the President Trump announced a possible "military option" against Venezuela. She is being prepared by the US Southern Command, whose emblem is the imperial eagle that goes over Central and South America, ready to dip their paws on those who rebel against the empire of the dollar. 

( Il Manifesto September 19, 2017) 

Translator: Maria Luisa de Vasconcellos