{"id":319923,"date":"2025-12-14T08:54:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T08:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=319923"},"modified":"2025-12-16T08:20:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T08:20:24","slug":"the-empire-is-scrambling-to-fully-dominate-latin-america-and-other-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=319923","title":{"rendered":"The Empire Is Scrambling to Fully Dominate Latin America, and Other Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The crude oil tanker Skipper seized by US Special Forces off the coast of Venezuela<\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Caitlin Johnston \u2013 Caitlin\u2019s Newsletter Dec 11, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Empire Is Scrambling To Fully Dominate Latin\u00a0America, And Other Notes\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-3shL0RsSHI?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/-3shL0RsSHI\">Video Link<\/a><\/p>\n<p>US forces have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/americas\/trump-administration-seizes-oil-tanker-off-venezuela-coast-us-officials-say-2025-12-10\/\">seized an oil tanker<\/a> carrying some 1.8 million barrels of oil from Venezuela to Cuba as part of its ongoing series of warmongering escalations against the Maduro government.<\/p>\n<p>When asked what would be done with the oil, President Trump told the press, \u201cWe keep it, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile Chuck Schumer <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kenklippenstein\/status\/1998895024994676751\">is refusing to oppose<\/a> Trump\u2019s regime change interventionism against Venezuela, and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kenklippenstein\/status\/1998900505339396255?s=20\">CNN just had<\/a> former US intelligence official Beth Sanner on to proclaim that the Trump administration\u2019s act of piracy \u201cis absolutely normal.\u201d So Trump\u2019s ostensible opposition in the political-media class are putting absolutely no inertia on this.<\/p>\n<p>The US pirating a Cuba-bound oil tanker from Venezuela illustrates how the empire is hurrying to shore up control over Latin America in the same way the US and Israel are quickly shoring up control over the middle east. There\u2019s a window of opportunity to shove through a bunch of pre-existing military agendas in both regions, and they\u2019re aggressively seizing it before their attention has to turn to bigger geopolitical fish.<\/p>\n<p>You often hear US imperialists saying that obtaining regime change in Venezuela will help achieve it in Cuba as well; Senator Rick Scott recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.caitlinjohnst.one\/p\/its-just-wall-to-wall-news-stories\">told 60 Minutes<\/a> that if Maduro is successfully ousted \u201cit\u2019ll be the end of Cuba,\u201d and that \u201cAmerica is gonna take care of the southern hemisphere and make sure there\u2019s freedom and democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stealing the oil hurts both Cuba and Venezuela, who are the two primary enemies of the US empire in the Americas because of their strongly socialist governments. They got a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2025\/12\/05\/jpln-d05.html\">right wing government into Bolivia<\/a> this year, and now they\u2019re hurrying to push regime change in Caracas and Havana while they\u2019ve got a right wing tyrant in office with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2025\/12\/09\/if-trump-is-serious-about-peace-marco-rubio-has-to-go\/\">gusano secretary of state<\/a>. The hope is to force the entirety of Latin America into full alignment with the empire before Trump leaves office. I have no idea if they\u2019ll succeed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2756<\/p>\n<p>The US House and Senate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/09\/house-and-senate-agree-to-make-draft-registration-automatic\/\">have agreed<\/a> to make registration for the draft \u201cautomatic\u201d, which will simplify the drafting process if the empire decides to throw the youth of America into a horrific new military conflict. The US is making its biggest draft policy change in 45 years so it\u2019s easier to force Americans to fight and die in a massive war, just as the New York Times editorial board <a href=\"https:\/\/www.caitlinjohnst.one\/p\/new-york-times-wants-the-us-military\">launches a series<\/a> explaining why the US must prepare for war with China.<\/p>\n<p>The latest edition of the New York Times\u2019 arguments for the need for more US militarism is titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/75Nxq\">This Is The 21st Century Arms Race. Can America Keep Up?<\/a>\u201d, which argues that \u201cCongress needs to expand funding for research and development into technologies with military applications.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo counter the growing threat, America must simultaneously win the race to build autonomous weapons and lead the world in controlling them,\u201d the editorial board writes.<\/p>\n<p>Fun times.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I know man, look how close they put their country to all those US military operations. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/s95pga3Qbo\">https:\/\/t.co\/s95pga3Qbo<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gKuTCeBf5S\">pic.twitter.com\/gKuTCeBf5S<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/caitoz\/status\/1998894015325114651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2756<\/p>\n<p>The BBC is <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PulaRJS\/status\/1998016520878743556\">reportedly<\/a> training its staff that it is antisemitic for anyone to oppose Zionism, because most Jews identify as Zionists. You see this argument a lot, and it a textbook example of an <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Argumentum_ad_populum\">ad populum fallacy<\/a>, which is when someone claims that something is true or right just because a majority of people believe it.<\/p>\n<p>Just as the Atlantic slave trade would have been wrong even if every white person in the world supported it, a genocidal apartheid state which cannot exist without nonstop violence, theft and abuse would still be wrong even if every Jewish person on earth supported it. The claim that a majority of Jews support the existence of the modern state of Israel has no bearing whatsoever on the question of whether such a state should exist, and does not invalidate any arguments that it should not.<\/p>\n<p>Israel supporters rely on lies, manipulations and fallacious arguments because their position is not based on truth or morality. If their position was right they would simply be making normal arguments like normal adults. They can\u2019t do this because they are wrong.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2756<\/p>\n<p>Whenever I catch myself wondering if I\u2019ve been too hard on the Democrats I re-watch last year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BTnewsroom\/status\/1826479453414850813\">video of DNC attendees<\/a> covering their ears and mocking activists reading the names of children who\u2019d been murdered in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>When they\u2019re not in power it\u2019s easy to forget how evil these people are.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EdZRhgluRkU?si=0DKlmuYj3MQ_ktwL\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EdZRhgluRkU\">Video Link<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2756<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Mirror has a gross <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/world-news\/hamas-terror-plotters-spread-across-36358597\">new propaganda piece out<\/a> claiming that \u201cHamas plotters are spreading their tentacles of terror into Europe, with secret arms dumps and operatives planning attacks even as far as in the United Kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As you might expect, The Mirror provides no evidence whatsoever for this claim, citing only \u201can intelligence report\u201d of unspecified origin.<\/p>\n<p>This is one of the dumbest narratives we\u2019ve ever been asked to believe about Hamas, amid some very stiff competition. I don\u2019t know about you, but am so sick of having my intelligence insulted like this.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Caitlin\u2019s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber&lt;https:\/\/www.caitlinjohnst.one\/subscribe&gt;.<\/p>\n<p><em>My work is <a href=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/2021\/05\/24\/my-experiments-with-hacking-capitalism\/\">entirely reader-supported<\/a>, so if you enjoyed this piece <a href=\"https:\/\/www.caitlinjohnst.one\/about\">here are some options<\/a> where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. The best way to make sure you see everything I write is to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.caitlinjohnst.one\/\">get on my free mailing list<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/\">Click here for links for my social media, books, merch, and audio\/video versions of each article<\/a>. All my work is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.caitlinjohnst.one\/p\/reminder-all-my-work-may-be-freely\">free to bootleg and use<\/a> in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.caitlinjohnst.one\/p\/the-empire-is-scrambling-to-fully\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US pirating a Cuba-bound oil tanker from Venezuela illustrates how the empire is hurrying to shore up control over Latin America in the same way the US and Israel are quickly shoring up control over the middle east. Caitlin Johnston explains<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":319925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=319923"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319927,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319923\/revisions\/319927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/319925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=319923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=319923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=319923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}