The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis’ pleas to Washington, DC, to lift sanctions on the Nicolás Maduro administration in Venezuela seems to have fallen on deaf ears, judging from a recent press release by the US State Department. Maduro has been president of that South American country since 2013. His government can now be classified as a dictatorship. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world.

Had US sanctions not been implemented, the international community wouldn’t be feeling the effects of the embargo placed on Russian oil. The climate change cliches of “energy security” and “climate adaption” have served to confirm what I have been stating in this space about the Joe Biden administration and its war on the domestic oil industry in the US. I stand to be corrected, but I understand that all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and either 33 or 34 seats in the Senate will be contested in the November 8 midterm elections.

With the average gas price in the US pegged at about $5 and about $113 per barrel of oil on the international market, the Democratic Party is expected to lose control of the Senate. In 2019 when Donald Trump was president, a barrel of oil was $64.

The Progressive Liberal Party is fortunate to be early in its current term, otherwise Biden’s head-scratching policies would’ve dragged down the party at the polls as well. Davis rightly classified The Bahamas as a developing island state that is hardly in a position to combat the rising cost of fuel, grocery, medicine, building supplies and other imports.

While The Bahamas’ GDP for 2022 is about $12.80 billion, the US’s GDP was a staggering $23 trillion in 2021. If the average American household cannot afford Biden’s climate change policies, what do you think about a Third World jurisdiction such as The Bahamas and the entire CARICOM region?

In addition to Venezuela and Russia, I have counted 18 states which are currently sanctioned by the US. Of the 20 countries, five are oil-producing states: Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Iraq and Libya.

In addition to Venezuela being in the top 10 of largest oil reserves are Iran, Iraq, Russia and Libya. Sanctions on these oil-producing states have contributed to the supply-and-demand crisis on the global market, while the dictators of these “pariah” states are filthy rich, immuned from whatever financial embargo the US and the EU have hit their respective nations with.

For instance, Maduro has a net worth of $275 million. Putin is worth $200 billion; Ali Khamenei of Iran $200 billion. At the time of their demise, Hugo Chavez was worth $1 billion and Libyan dictator Muammar Ghaddafi $200 billion. Even in the African country of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is not an oil producer, former President Joseph Kabila is rumoured to be worth $2 billion, while North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has an impressive net worth of $5 billion. Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko is worth $10 billion, while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is worth over $1 billion.

I have stated in a previous submission that Biden is scheduled to meet with OPEC head Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this month, with the aim of asking him to ramp up oil production. But with Russia’s continued presence in the OPEC+ alliance coupled with the Crown Prince’s cozy relationship with Putin, Biden’s perceived pleas of desperation might fall flat on its face.

Whatever happens, the point I am attempting to make is that these US sanctions are causing unnecessary hardships on Bahamians -- and hundreds of millions of people around the world - while the targeted despots continue to live high on the hog with their vast wealth.

The US needs to find another strategy that narrowly focuses on the despots and cronies instead. The current approach has had a devastating domino effect on innocent civilians who are attempting to make ends meet, while the dictators remain in power. The US sanctions on Russia and Venezuela coupled with Biden’s climate change policies are why Bahamians are being reduced to poverty.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport,

Grand Bahama

July 4, 2022.