China moves into Venezuela as Maduro regime gets Beijing lifeline amid US tensions

As President Donald Trump warns of zero tolerance for narco-states in America s backyard China is tightening its grip on Venezuela a high-risk economic and political bet that could soon collide with U S power U S defense executives endorsed to Reuters last month that a U S aircraft carrier strike group had entered the Southern Command region which covers the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America to monitor narcotrafficking routes linked to Venezuela s military leadership The Pentagon declared the arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford carrying more than sailors and dozens of tactical aircraft would bolster US maximum to detect monitor and disrupt illicit actors and events It added that the mission aims to degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organizations CHINA CONDEMNS US MILITARY BUILDUP OFF VENEZUELA COAST AS FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN REGIONAL AFFAIRSWithin weeks Venezuelan officers were reportedly training for guerrilla-style defense against a practicable U S strike an acknowledgment according to Reuters of rising anxiety inside Caracas Into this standoff Beijing unveiled a zero-tariff bargain agreement with Caracas at the Shanghai Expo publicized by Deputy Minister for Foreign Bargain Coromoto Godoy Venezuelan personnel explained the accord covers roughly 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 economic activity that Washington has sought to isolate This really looks like China is going to altogether take over the Venezuelan financial market commented Gordon Chang an expert on China s global bargain strategy It s going to decimate Venezuela s local industry Venezuela basically sells petroleum to China and very little else he announced China of syllabus is a manufacturer of plenty of various items Venezuelan manufacturing is not going to experience a renaissance anytime soon it s going the opposite direction VENEZUELA MOBILIZES TROOPS WEAPONS IN RESPONSE TO US WARSHIP BUILDUP IN CARIBBEANChang added that Maduro s sudden embrace of Beijing stems from fear of Trump s next move Maduro maybe doesn t have a choice he revealed He realizes he s got a matter 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 requirements 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 deal deal as strengthening Venezuela I see it strengthening China s stranglehold over Venezuela US MILITARY BUILDUP IN CARIBBEAN SEES BOMBERS MARINES AND WARSHIPS CONVERGE NEAR VENEZUELAFrom 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 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 administrators in China has leveraged multibillion-dollar loans and the establishment of satellite positioning and surveillance facilities to secure strategic control over Venezuela s natural information and critical infrastructure revealed Isaias Medina III an Edward Mason Fellow at Harvard University and a former Venezuelan diplomat to the U N Safety Council Medina was referring to the El Sombrero satellite ground station in Venezuela s Gu rico province a joint China-Venezuela project that Western analysts including a newest Associated Press overview describe as part of a wider space cooperation setup giving Beijing an intelligence foothold in Latin America US BOLSTERS MILITARY PRESENCE IN CARIBBEAN NEAR VENEZUELA AMID TRUMP'S EFFORTS TO HALT DRUG TRAFFICKINGMedina announced the new pact must be understood as one layer in a wider anti-Western alignment Under the banner of so-called st Century Socialism initiated by Hugo Ch vez and expanded by Nicol s Maduro the nation has evolved into a forward operating base for regimes openly hostile to the United States and its allies he revealed 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 billion in arms sales and ongoing defense cooperation and Wagner Group presence in military exercises while Cuban military advisers remain embedded inside Venezuelan protection institutions Iran has exploited this atmosphere to embed terrorist proxies such as Hezbollah and Hamas using Venezuela as both a financial hub and a logistical corridor These events extend to former training camps in Syria where Venezuelan operatives and mercenaries have been indoctrinated in hybrid warfare tactics he added Iranian interest includes feasible drone manufacturing and uranium mining The Maduro regime shielded by the absence of the rule of law or legitimate governance has replaced statecraft with criminal enterprise Medina commented Grand corruption is not the exception it is the system The humanitarian toll is catastrophic he added Over of Venezuela s population has been forcibly displaced Starvation has been weaponized as a tool of social control amounting to a war crime under international law Despite the enormity of these crimes various United Nations member states continue to recognize and engage with this illegitimate regime thereby perpetuating its impunity The failure to confront this dilemma decisively enables a coalition of adversaries state and non-state actors alike to project power dangerously close to U S territory For now Washington s sanctions campaign still constrains Venezuela s oil lifelines In March Reuters communicated that U S threats to impose tariffs on nations buying Venezuelan crude caused a temporary disruption in shipments to China Beijing dismissed the measures as illegal extraterritorial actions and vowed to continue cooperation but has not disclosed how it will enforce the new tariff-free pact Chang commented the underlying reality hasn t changed China can t protect Caracas from U S hard power It can certainly launch a propaganda blitz he reported but it can t project military force in the region It s really up to what President Trump does China does not have the military strength to oppose American intervention if that s what Trump decides Medina agreed that the stakes reach beyond economics Just three hours from U S shores this narco-terrorist regime has become the operational convergence of organized crime drug trafficking money laundering and human rights atrocities he disclosed urging a Western response combining diplomatic isolation targeted sanctions and when necessary defensive deployments