Within weeks, Venezuelan officers were reportedly training for guerrilla-style defense against a possible U.S. strike — an acknowledgment, according to Reuters, of "rising anxiety inside Caracas."
Into this standoff, Beijing unveiled a "zero-tariff" trade agreement with Caracas at the Shanghai Expo 2025, announced by Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade Coromoto Godoy. Venezuelan officials said the accord covers roughly 400 tariff categories, removing duties on Chinese and Venezuelan goods.
While final implementation details remain pending verification, the goal is clear: Beijing is moving fast into a sanctioned economy that Washington has sought to isolate.
"This really looks like China is going to completely take over the Venezuelan economy," said Gordon Chang, an expert on China’s global trade strategy. "It’s going to decimate Venezuela’s local industry."
"Venezuela basically sells petroleum to China and very little else," he said. "China, of course, is a manufacturer of many, many items. Venezuelan manufacturing is not going to experience a renaissance anytime soon — it’s going the opposite direction."
Chang added that Maduro’s sudden embrace of Beijing stems from fear of Trump’s next move.
"Maduro probably doesn’t have a choice," he said. "He realizes he’s got a problem in the form of Donald J. Trump. There’s a U.S. aircraft carrier not far from his shores, and a lot of military assets bearing down on him. He needs a friend, and he’s desperate."
"For Maduro, the zero-tariff pact may offer temporary relief — but it only deepens dependence," Chang added. "I don’t see this trade deal as strengthening Venezuela. I see it strengthening China’s stranglehold over Venezuela."
From Beijing’s perspective, the tariff-free pact opens a commercial and strategic doorway into the Western Hemisphere just as Washington doubles down on sanctions.
The Council on Foreign Relations estimates that China has extended around $60 billion in loans to Venezuela over the past two decades, much of it repaid through oil shipments — a figure still cited by both Chinese and Venezuelan officials in 2025.
Medina was referring to the El Sombrero satellite ground station in Venezuela’s Guárico province — a joint China-Venezuela project that Western analysts, including a recent Associated Press report, describe as part of a wider space cooperation network giving Beijing an intelligence foothold in Latin America.
"Iran, Russia, China, and Cuba have entrenched themselves across Venezuelan territory, using the country as a platform for asymmetric warfare, intelligence operations, and ideological expansion throughout Latin America."
He noted that "Russia’s military footprint includes more than $12 billion in arms sales and ongoing defense cooperation and Wagner Group presence in military exercises," while Cuban military advisers remain embedded inside Venezuelan security institutions.
"Iran has exploited this environment to embed terrorist proxies such as Hezbollah and Hamas, using Venezuela as both a financial hub and a logistical corridor. These activities extend to former training camps in Syria, where Venezuelan operatives and mercenaries have been indoctrinated in hybrid warfare tactics," he added. "Iranian interest includes potential drone manufacturing and uranium mining."
"The Maduro government, shielded by the absence of the rule of law or legitimate governance, has replaced statecraft with criminal enterprise," Medina said. "Grand corruption is not the exception; it is the system."
Pentagon’s largest warship enters Latin American waters as US tensions with Venezuela rise
No comments:
Post a Comment