"The word loot entered the English language from Hindi in the late eighteenth century, as the rapacious East India Company plundered its way across the subcontinent. It was a trading company, not a state but it had the imprimatur of the English crown and its own large private army, mingling commerce and military force and opening the way for British imperial dominance of India."
"But it harked back to a more brazen age, when looting a continent for its resources at the point of a cannon was regarded as a legitimate activity for an English gentleman. The US president made no effort to disguise the fact that the main motivation for the snatching of Nicolas Maduro was taking control of Venezuelan oil reserves on behalf of the fossil fuel companies that helped bankroll his re-election."
The term loot originated from colonial plunder by the East India Company, which combined commerce and military force to secure resources. A recent US raid on Venezuela replicated that model at state level, aiming to seize control of Venezuelan oil reserves for fossil fuel backers. The operation cited Maduro's electoral loss but installed his deputy without a democratic timeline, undermining claims of serving the Venezuelan populace. The United States has also used economic coercion via tariff threats in trade negotiations. The move raises alarming precedents for future resource seizures and may encourage rival powers to pursue similar violations of international law.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]