Arya News - “The message” the US hoped to send to regional leaders through its brazen attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Maduro is that Washington “calls the shots…and that if you do not obey, we will apply the Monroe Doctrine,” Professor Heinz Dietrich told Sputnik.
To China, which buys 80% of Venezuela’s oil, and whose yuan and BRICS-based oil payment systems President Maduro was seeking to join, it’s the same message, Dietrich, a former aide to the late President Chavez, who now heads a research center at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico City, says.But the US’s “obsolete,” imperialistic approach “will not work” this time around, the academic stressed.Acting president Delcy Rodriguez seems intent on sticking to the Bolivarian, national sovereignty-oriented course which Maduro pursued.What’s more, the Venezuelan police and armed forces are opposed to US intervention, as are a majority of Venezuela’s citizens (55-60%). Therefore, there’s no base “for a solid transition to a US-managed exploitation of the oil reserves” to stand on, Dietrich said.The US conducted a major strike on Venezuela on January 3, kidnapping President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, and whisking them out of the country to face trumped up "narco-terrorism" charges. The attack killed at least 40 people, including military and civilians, per media reports.