Logan McMillen writes foreign policy analysis through the lens of critical political economy and geography, focusing on Latin America.
Donald Trump’s backroom deal with Venezuela’s leaders formally gives the US control over the country’s oil. It marks the definitive end of modern Venezuela’s social contract, in which oil production was meant to serve national economic goals.
The Trump administration has already cut off Cuba’s access to oil. Now it’s attempting to starve the Cuban people, targeting the country’s capacity to grow, process, and import food — unless it buys from US corporations.
As the US celebrates its 250th, it has begun to resemble the decadent Spanish Empire it replaced: producing nothing while collecting rents, sacrificing its interior to enrich a bloated elite, and embracing exclusionary nationalism to exploit its underclass.
The Trump administration distressed one of Canada’s oldest mining firms, which operates a joint venture in Cuba, through blatant lawfare, apparently so a Trump-aligned oligarch could snatch up a majority stake for pennies on the dollar.
The Trump administration is forcing Latin American governments into arbitration courts that grant multinationals the extraordinary power to sue states that nationalize resources or even just raise the minimum wage, if perceived to threaten investor profits.