By Scott Graber
For those of us who write a weekly column — perhaps I should say those of us who try to write a weekly column — there is a problem that occurs from time to time.
Occasionally there is tectonic, life-altering news that overwhelms every other topic. Moon landings, Diana’s death in Paris, nuclear-plant meltdowns are events that grab our attention and make everything else, at least for a time, unimportant.
Last week, we learned that U.S. troops descended on Caracas, Venezuela, and removed President Nicolas Maduro and his wife from their bedroom. Our troops shot their way through a cohort of Cuban mercenaries and transported the dazed couple to the Iwo Jima, variously described as a “battleship.”
This middle-of-the-night abduction was described in detail by Gen. Daniel “Raizin” Caine; and in follow-up comments our President added that we were going to “Run Venezuela” and, further, “We are going to be taking a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground.”
“You just can’t make this stuff up …”
This news made my intended column on the theologian, John Philip Newell, completely irrelevant. As I watched Secretary of State Marco Rubio further explain what Trump really meant by “Run Venezuela,” I wondered if there was some way to make a connection between Maduro and the former Scottish priest, John Philip Newell.
Newell does not believe in Original Sin — he doesn’t believe that what Adam and Eve did in the Garden was transmitted to the rest of mankind.
Newell also believes there is a “sense of sacredness in every human being,” and getting in touch with that sacredness is our primary duty.
But, somehow, I doubt that Original Sin, or a “sense of sacredness” were items of interest to Maduro or his wife as they took possession of their respective cells at the Brooklyn Detention Center.
But if we, as a people, believe any part of the notion that there is some divinity within each of us, perhaps we should be thinking about the Venezuelan people and how they are going to be fed in the next few years.
Currently Venezuela imports soybeans, corn, wheat and rice — most of what they eat. Their agricultural output is the smallest in South America, accounting for less that 5% of their GDP.
In his news conference Donald Trump focused on the rebuilding of Venezuela’s oil rigs and exploration of new fields — and said that oil giants Exxon Mobile and Chevron will do this rehabilitative work.
Although 30 million gallons of currently extracted oil will be delivered to the U.S. shortly, Bob McNalley (speaking on the PBS News Hour) says that “Big oil is years down the road.”
But wait, Mr Trump also said Conoco Phillips and Exxon will be compensated for the “takings” and the verdicts that came out of Nationalization of the oil industry in 1976. The United States will also be compensated for our costs and our current damages. And then there is the restructuring and repayment of Venezuela’s existing $160 billion debt.
When do these repayments start?
Some may remember that things were going pretty well for Venezuela until 2000 when Hugo Chavez decided to divert a big part of the oil revenues into social programs.
Then Hugo got into more political trouble, deciding to divert even more oil revenue into social programs, all of which led to overspending and the highest inflation rate in the world. All the while the oil drilling infrastructure was rotting, rusting in the field.
Eventually Venezuela turned to bad actors — Cuba, Iran and China — for immediate fiscal relief but giving them deep discounts when selling their heavy, syrupy crude.
I’m guessing this beleaguered country, which has no industrial base other than oil, will need some serious help in the short run to feed its people. I’m thinking that in the long run they will require a modified, modern day Marshall Plan — funded by the U.S. — with which to diversify their economy.
“What the U.S. needs to do is implement a form of a Marshall Plan,” said Orlando Ochoa, a Caracas-based economist (Wall Street Journal, 1/5/26).
While Trump and the remaining Maduroites try to figure out the damages and compensation and deliveries of what little oil there is now, there should be food assistance — just like the food we gave the Japanese after World War II.
In 1976, Venezuelan Oil Minister Juan Pablo Perez Alphonso said, “Ten years from now, twenty years from now, you will see, oil will bring us ruin … it is the devil’s excrement.”
Scott Graber is a lawyer, novelist, veteran columnist and longtime resident of Port Royal. He can be reached at cscottgraber@gmail.com.
