Transcript
Host/Anchor (0:01)
This week on the take, we're marking one year since a pair of devastating earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria with a new digital interactive. Listen and watch stories of survival, recovery and coping with the grief@al jazeera.com earthquakes Again, that's al jazeera.com earthquakes.
Narrator/Reporter (0:28)
The Trump administration is using the narco state narrative to justify its attacks on Venezuela. The end game to hook Americans on the idea of regime change. In Caracas, a week of leaks around the Ukraine. Russia talks a possible deal hangs in the balance again. And why settle for the west bank, the Israeli movement to take over Gaza and the settlers who cannot wait to get there. For weeks now, the United States has been on what it calls a counter narcotics mission against Venezuela lethal force policies, including drone strikes against alleged drug smugglers off the country's coast. If only that narrative was accurate. There is no evidence that the boats targeted had any drugs on board. What is well documented is Washington's determination to provoke a regime change in Venezuela, which just happens to sit on the world's biggest oil reserves. The Trump administration's push to frame it as a narco terrorist state, language that many mainstream outlets habitually adopt echoes what we have heard before. And it's reminiscent of the run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when flimsy intelligence and official talking points helped manufacture public consent long before the first bombs were dropped. Meanwhile, in Venezuela, or ordinary people, including journalists, are paying the price. Starting with the historical precedents. The last time America sent this many warships into the Caribbean Sea was 63 years ago, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. It's one of the last chapters in the offensive threat from Cuba. Back then, the US was guarding against a nuclear threat and the Soviet Union. This time the threat is from drug traffickers coming out of Venezuela, or so Americans have been told. It's why the US has bombed Venezuelan boats, killed dozens of people, while providing zero evidence against those targeted. And if that fails to add up for you, a far more plausible explanation was offered by this U.S. congresswoman.
Political Analyst/Critic (2:43)
Venezuela, for the American oil companies will.
Narrator/Reporter (2:47)
Be a field day because it will.
Political Analyst/Critic (2:49)
Be more than a trillion dollars in, in economic activity. She's openly stating, come take the oil. This is a bonanza for US Oil corporations. Usually you had these kind of coup, regime change, fomenting attempts behind the scenes, but now the empire has never been more naked about its intention here, about just stealing the vast oil reserves and they don't care if thousands of Venezuelans die as a result.